Why did my broody hen's eggs go bad?

[luvmychicknkids]

Alright, I have my first ever broody. Well, I actually have co-broodies. They had a total of 11 eggs under them, swapping back and forth. I have been pretty much leaving them alone.....kinda figured they know more than I do about it. I candled them tonight and was very, VERY surprised. I am not sure ANY are alive. I left them like 4 that weren't stinky and brought the others in to check (BIG mistake). Now my house has the lovely aroma of rotten eggs and apple cinnamon. They were black inside!

Anyway, I have never had any trouble hatching my girls eggs in my incubator. I am getting fertile eggs all the time. Is there any way the heat killed them? But then don't most people have eggs hatch when it is this hot? We have had several days right at 100 with the heat index well into the triple digits. I can't imagine that is what did it, but I don't know what else could have.

 

[Dirt Road]

Letting hens swap eggs back and forth will sometimes prove to be a recipe for disaster. Not always of course, but too often to be worth letting it happen if you can avoid it.

Jim

 

[swedishfish]

I had two hens sit together, but they didn't really swap eggs that I noticed, and I got for chickies. So I'm not sure what happened.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Yeah, I kinda wondered about the "swapping" being a bad idea. These girls really seemed to argue over them at first but have now settled into a routine. Now, that said, (and I REALLY hope this doesn't seem offensive) but this was a VERY unplanned "pregnancy (LOL sorry, lack of anything cuter to call it). While I was really excited to see my first live and in person broody, I did NOT want these chicks and would have been giving them all away anyway. *sigh* perhaps I won't have to worry about it after all.....