Question about hatching eggs with broody hen and egg breaks

[byouland]

I've given my barred rock 6 fertilized eggs after I confirmed she was in fact broody. She has been doing great sitting on her eggs for the past 15 days. Today I noticed she was outside the nesting box giving herself a dirt bath so I checked on the eggs. I noticed that one of the eggs was crushed and the rest of the eggs had some blood and liquid on them(sorry to sound gory). I felt I needed to clean the nesting box so I put gloves on and placed each egg on the shavings next to the nesting box so I could remove the wet shavings. After refilling the nesting box with fresh shavings I placed the remaining 5 eggs carefully back into the box. I was told that because I didn't find any body that my hen could have eaten the chick and that she may crush the remaining eggs. After hearing this, I've checked on her numerous times and she seems to be sitting quietly on her eggs. I found her covering herself and the eggs with the new shavings. Should I be worried that she will crush the remaining eggs even if it was an accident, and should I keep checking on her today? I assumed that when she got up in her nesting box that she accidentally broke one of the eggs, and not on purpose.

Another question...should I wipe off the remaining eggs because I noticed they have dried stains on them?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[chicmom]

You did the right thing, in my opinion. I wouldn't wash the eggs off, because there is the "bloom" on the eggs, which is like an invisible barrier that helps keep germs out. You could remove that bloom by trying to clean the eggs, plus it may upset the hen.

Crossing my fingers for you!

 

[byouland]

You did the right thing, in my opinion. I wouldn't wash the eggs off, because there is the "bloom" on the eggs, which is like an invisible barrier that helps keep germs out. You could remove that bloom by trying to clean the eggs, plus it may upset the hen.

Crossing my fingers for you!

Thanks chicmom, I will leave the eggs alone and pray it all works out for her.

 

[donrae]

I had a hen break an egg recently. It was early enough there wasn't really an embryo to notice yet, but there was yolk everywhere. One egg in particular was half coated in sticky yolk

. I wiped it off with a towel and stuck it back under her. That egg hatched, the chick is ~4 weeks old and doing fine

.

I think the hen may be programmed to consume an embryo from a broken egg as a hygiene thing, like cats eating the sac and placenta. Doesn't mean she's going to purposefully break them to eat them, mine didn't break any more.