Will eggs soiled with a broken egg hatch?

[inky123]

Hello! We recently acquired 4 beautiful Lavender Orpington hens. The hens were with two Lavender Orpington roosters, and began laying eggs as soon as we brought them home. We gave the first 8 eggs, which the hens provided during the first 4 days they were here to our ever-broody little bantam, who is 9 years old and hasn't produced her own eggs in quite some time.

Today, 1 week into incubation, one of the Lavender hens got into the bantams nestbox (we assume she was off the eggs getting a drink) and pecked/destroyed 2 of the eggs. The remaining eggs are covered with the sticky remains of the 2 destroyed eggs. We have not yet candled these eggs to make sure they are fertile (was planning to do that tonight), but assuming they are, will they still continue to incubate and hatch with all the sticky residue on them?

We have secured Momma Bantam's nesting area so that the other chickens can no longer get to her, and will be employing the "mustard filled egg" method of trying to break the bad habit of whichever chicken has decided to be an egg eater, but in the meantime don't know whether to remove the eggs or let them set. Thanks so much for any help you can offer!

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

They might. They may be a little shook up, but they should be fine.

 

[inky123]

They might. They may be a little shook up, but they should be fine.

Thank you so much! Momma Bantam is still happily sitting on the remaining eggs, so we will keep our fingers crossed.

 

[hughes homested]

Can you please tell me your outcome? I am dealing with a similar situation.

 

[inky123]

Can you please tell me your outcome? I am dealing with a similar situation.

A few days after posting we candled the eggs and found that only one of them had a chick developing. Unfortunately, that egg did not hatch and we wound up buying Momma Hen a brood from the hatchery.
I hope you have better results and that your eggs hatch successfully.

 

[hughes homested]

Thank u for replying! sorry to hear thats how yours turned out. I'm just hoping this girl has atleast 1 little chick to hatch/survive because my husband won't let me buy her a chick i really appreciate you telling me because atleast it is helping me to face the reality of what is probably gonna happen.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I've washed shipped eggs that had yolk stuck on them. They hatched fine. As long as your eggs are fertile and growing they should be fine.

 

[hughes homested]

We are on day 24 with her only egg that was her own and day 22 with the shipped eggs that I added after she had been sitting on that one for 2 days. I'm concerned that she isn't covering the eggs well because I see her (silkie) with them peeking out from under her pretty often (she has 5 standard eggs & the 1 her own bantams eggs so 6 eggs total). I have read that this could cause a delayed hatch but with the 2 eggs being broken early on I don't know if bacteria killed the others. I tried the water test today but it's all so confusing. The silkie egg is all I floated since it is SO overdue. It floated at an angle about 10% of the fat end coming out of the water but the rest hung underneath the water.

 

[Bryam]

Yup, sounds like you should toss that egg.

 

[hughes homested]

Ok so we have a new baby silkie!! The egg hatched today...day 26!!!!!

Annnnnnd......my son said he saw a crested cream legbar egg (those r the kind we bought her and had shipped) that was pipping and he could see a chick thru the hole!!! Maybe all isn't lost for this little girls clutch after all! She just must be taking way longer since she takes more breaks during the day and she doesn't do a terrific job keeping them all in a neat pile so one is always peeking out the side. So excited and happy for our little zoey. Guess I can stop looking for a chick to buy for her