We have a hen that goes broody every few months. So we mail ordered a dozen eggs off of ebay to break her in a fun and entertaining way. Our hen had kicked out two or three eggs and my husband thought she had just lost track of them so he put them back under her.
A few days ago (Today is hatch day) I began to notice a bad smell in the garage, I assumed it was the garbage. I realized yesterday afternoon one of the bad eggs had broken and because a lot of the straw had been moved out, the eggs became semi-coated with rotten egg goo. I picked them up and one of them was still moving. On realizing this, I sent my husband down who pulled our broody off the nest. In the process she broke ANOTHER rotten egg. I came down and rinsed off and dried the eggs which were all VERY coated with goo at this point. The one egg that was moving didn't move anymore. I checked them again last night for movement (just picked them up for a moment and turned them over gently) and again this morning, still no movement or sound from any of them. My husband said he thought he felt a heartbeat and I thought I might have heard a peep (but there are a lot of birds outside).
I went ahead and float tested all of them and the remaining ones all floated low. I am concerned that they have all died at full term because of the egg goo blocking air exchange. I am tempted to give up on them if nothing happens by the end of today. Our broody is also in bad shape, she hasn't been taking good care of herself and now needs a bath from having egg all over her. And of course no hatched eggs means no broken broody! So depressed at this point. I'm about ready to call around and see if anyone has any chicks that we can shove under her. Any thoughts?
A few days ago (Today is hatch day) I began to notice a bad smell in the garage, I assumed it was the garbage. I realized yesterday afternoon one of the bad eggs had broken and because a lot of the straw had been moved out, the eggs became semi-coated with rotten egg goo. I picked them up and one of them was still moving. On realizing this, I sent my husband down who pulled our broody off the nest. In the process she broke ANOTHER rotten egg. I came down and rinsed off and dried the eggs which were all VERY coated with goo at this point. The one egg that was moving didn't move anymore. I checked them again last night for movement (just picked them up for a moment and turned them over gently) and again this morning, still no movement or sound from any of them. My husband said he thought he felt a heartbeat and I thought I might have heard a peep (but there are a lot of birds outside).
I went ahead and float tested all of them and the remaining ones all floated low. I am concerned that they have all died at full term because of the egg goo blocking air exchange. I am tempted to give up on them if nothing happens by the end of today. Our broody is also in bad shape, she hasn't been taking good care of herself and now needs a bath from having egg all over her. And of course no hatched eggs means no broken broody! So depressed at this point. I'm about ready to call around and see if anyone has any chicks that we can shove under her. Any thoughts?
