Should I throw it out?

[rungirl]

I set 3 eggs under a broody hen on May 8th and they were due last Sunday, the 29th. I candled them the week before and had one definately good, one questionable (there was veining but didn't seem very far along) and one definitely unfertile. The unfertile one is gone, the good one hatched on the 28th and the questionable one is still in there. She's still sitting on it, but she's got off the other day for a while when her chick jumped out of the nest and she followed the chick. That questionable egg is 4 days overdue today. I'm thinking I should pitch it, right? Almost did it this morning, but I thought I'd wait until tonight. This is my first time hatching. What do you think? If I float it and it's bad, it will float high, right?

Lisa

 

[Gypsy07]

Not necessarily. All that floating an egg really tells you (unless you see it rocking around in the water!) is how much of an air cell is in the egg. If it barely floats, or doesn't float at all, there's a tiny air cell, which means it never developed or it quit early or it's drowned cause the humidity was way too high. If it floats really high, there's a very big air cell, which means the humidity was way too low or it could be a bad egg. But if it was a bad egg, chances are you'd have gagged from the smell as soon as you picked it up!

With a 4-days-overdue egg, if I floated it I'd be wanting to see it rocking around. Even if it was floating at the right height in the water to suggest a viable chick, at four days overdue if it isn't wriggling around in there and getting ready to hatch now, then it's probably not going to...

 

[rungirl]

Thanks,

I picked it up this morning and it's kind of smelly. I better go dig a hole.

Lisa