remove infertile eggs or not ?

[Myst4]

I have a broody hen and I had placed eggs under her.They are on day 6. I candled about 5-6 of the eggs the night before last to see if there was any development. out of 5-6 eggs there was only developing great. The others are infertile. I was about to go out and candle again. So before i do, should I remove the infertile eggs? They are definitely clear eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

If you know for sure they are clears, I'd remove them. No need for them to stay there. However, it can't hurt to let them stay a few more days if you are unsure, unless they have definite blood rings.

 

[Myst4]

Quote:
I am pretty sure they are clear. The developing one has veins and an embryo...there is nothing in the others I looked at. She got quite a few eggs under her,and I can only reach about half of them to candle. I was thinking that if I remove the infertile ones that I can, it would make more room for the one that I can't reach to move closer to where I can get them. LOL..Hope this makes sense.

 

[Myst4]

I was just out there and was trying to candle some eggs. Looks to be dark on one side of some of them and very clear on the other side. When I was taking eggs out from under her,I noticed that some had sticky stuff on the outter shell,then I found out why.One egg was broken. The eggs are pretty dirty too. The eggs I candled ,I couldn't get back under her(she was pecking a lot,so I got them as close to her as possible.I hope she will put them back under her. if i just leave her and the eggs alone, will she removed any rotten eggs from the nest herself? Would it be safe to just let her deal with any infertile eggs? Or is it a must for me to remove them?

 

[speckledhen]

I'd say that infertile eggs, as long as there is no bacteria on them, will be okay in the nest. It's the bacteria, in a warm, moist environment, you need to worry about. Most hens will probably remove rotten eggs, but I've heard of eggs exploding under her weight.

 

[Myst4]

Quote:
Well I had got some of that sticky stuff on my fingers and it didn't smell rotten. So maybe they'll be ok. She's got EE eggs under her and she is a Black Giant .

 

[Vamp-A-Billy Princess]

If she is sitting on a ton of eggs you might want to remove some so she can sit more on the good ones. I dont know I havent got anyone old enough to sit on eggs yet. I think she will know what to do. You shouldnt have to worry as much about her as you had to with the incubator. Good luck with these. I'm now on day 16 with my eggs. I can't wait! The excitement is killin me.

 

[Myst4]

Quote:
She had 14 eggs under her to start with, didn't know if all of them were fertile or not. I'm going to leave her alone noe and let her get on with it. I just hope everything goes ok with her. If there is something wrong with all of the eggs,she'll know right? Would she still sit on them?

Good luck with your hatch...day 16...wow..only a few more days to go!!!! I'm really excited for you!!!!