when to abandon unhatched eggs?

[junglebird]

Our Broody hen has been sitting on 9 eggs. 5 of them hatched on Saturday and Sunday. Now that it's Tuesday, I'm wondering what I should do with the 4 that haven't hatched? There's a bad smell, but I can't tell which egg is the culprit. I'd like to toss, them, if there's no good reason to hold out. Will she just abandon them at some point?

Weirdly, she had been sitting on 10 eggs, but 4 days before hatch, one egg disappeared. Combed through all the bedding in the nests and coop - t'was nowhere to be found!

 

[junglebird]

oops, I should've posted this in the hatching eggs forum!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Candle them and have a look. Chances are if they haven't hatched by now, they aren't going to.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If the first one hatched on Saturday then I'd toss the rest.

 

[junglebird]

Thanks

I went ahead and tossed them.

I tried candling them, but the shells are so thick I couldn't see a thing - I'll have to learn a better technique.