Two air cells in one egg and no air cell in the other...

[teravolt217]

I had been letting a broody hen sit on seven eggs for the last few weeks. I made the mistake of just letting her do her own thing rather than marking a select few eggs from the start, so I'm not exactly sure when they were supposed to be due. I thought they were due to hatch last weekend, and when I went to check on them, I found a dead chick in the corner of the nesting box with what looked like a still unabsorbed yolk sac attached to it. I'm still not entirely sure what happened to it, whether it tried hatching too early and died, or if maybe another hen broke the egg. I was pretty disheartened by this, so I decided to check on the other eggs to see if there was any sign of hatching from them.

The very first one I picked up, I felt a tap from inside, so I brought it inside to candle it and I saw movement! I had lost all hope at that point (I had also just tried to hatch a nest of 6 which all died before hatching), so I was very excited to put this egg back under the mother hen. I candled the rest of the eggs too, two of them looked to be full of liquid, so I immediately removed them, and I could see movement in another egg!

Unfortunately none of the eggs hatched, and when I candled the first one that had movement tonight there was no more movement inside, and the chick was just kind of floating. I decided to candle it again just to double check, and now the air cell had disappeared too, it had definitely been there a few minutes ago. I also noticed there were little yellow crystal things on the outside of the egg, so I think it might've been weeping too.

I checked the other three, and two of them still looked somewhat normal, so I put them back, but the last one I couldn't see any chick inside, just a shapeless dark blob. When I checked the air cell I noticed there was a second air bubble right next to it.

I've assumed these two eggs are dead so I removed them, but I'm still kind of doubting myself. Did I make the right decision to remove them? And is there any hope for my last two eggs? I'm honestly really heartbroken, this is looking to be the second nest in a row to make it this far and then die

 

[Flat Earth]

I don't know what to say to this, i am sorry you are having this happen to you.

 

[teravolt217]

I'm now realising that I probably should've kept the other hens separate from the broody from the start, the eggs were a little dirty and had probably been kicked around a bit from other hens trying to get on the nest. I also probably waited too long to remove the rotten eggs, they might've contaminated the others.

I'm going to give the remaining two eggs some more time just in case, but I think it's too late now. Either way this is a good learning experience, I will definitely make sure to keep broody separate and candle eggs more frequently though incubation next time.

 

[Flat Earth]

Next time soon as you know the hen is broody, mark the eggs and date the egg, so you can remove the new ones if another hen puts another egg there, i had 2 broody hens nesting in the same box.. They took turns on watching the eggs. You get the hang of it! been doing this for while and made many mistakes in the past.

 

[teravolt217]

Next time soon as you know the hen is broody, mark the eggs and date the egg, so you can remove the new ones if another hen puts another egg there, i had 2 broody hens nesting in the same box.. They took turns on watching the eggs. You get the hang of it! been doing this for while and made many mistakes in the past.

Yeah, I had been doing that with previous nests, but for some reason I didn't this time. Don't know what I was thinking. Hopefully I'll have another broody soon and I can try again!