Chicken nest destroyed and mom gone. Can I save the eggs?

[bhumbert2189]

Hi everyone!

Early this morning we discovered a nest of eggs in our scrap pile at the back of the property. The nest is from one of our neighbor's abandoned hens that we have slowly been rescuing as we have been finding them and catching them. The nest has been fully destroyed by the neighbors dog and the broody momma is no where to be seen. Last we know, the neighbors dog chased her deep onto the woods. We know all of this because we check our cameras every morning and saw a ton of notifications for this camera. After watching, we saw that this all went down a few hours before we went to investigate this morning. We are not exactly sure how far along the eggs are at this time, but when we candle them they look to be at least in the late teens, like day 16 days old or so. Should be try to rebuild a nest and see if momma returns? Should we put them in our incubator and see if we can carry them the rest of the way until they hatch? We feel awful and want to do everything we can to help these poor chicks. Any tips would be great. Thank you all in advance.

 

[horror_trashcan]

I don't know much but if you have space for them I would take them in if you're interested in keeping them alive. I'm surprised they made it this long without something eating the eggs. Or the hen

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Hi everyone!

Early this morning we discovered a nest of eggs in our scrap pile at the back of the property. The nest is from one of our neighbor's abandoned hens that we have slowly been rescuing as we have been finding them and catching them. The nest has been fully destroyed by the neighbors dog and the broody momma is no where to be seen. Last we know, the neighbors dog chased her deep onto the woods. We know all of this because we check our cameras every morning and saw a ton of notifications for this camera. After watching, we saw that this all went down a few hours before we went to investigate this morning. We are not exactly sure how far along the eggs are at this time, but when we candle them they look to be at least in the late teens, like day 16 days old or so. Should be try to rebuild a nest and see if momma returns? Should we put them in our incubator and see if we can carry them the rest of the way until they hatch? We feel awful and want to do everything we can to help these poor chicks. Any tips would be great. Thank you all in advance.

you need to get those in an incubator!
yes, there is a chance that the eggs are still alive. I had an incubator at a school once, some guy unplugged it to sweep the floor, and then just left. I panicked a bit, but decided to turn it back on and see what happened. after being unplugged for 12+ hours, we only had one death, so about 90% successful hatch rates.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

you need to get those in an incubator!
yes, there is a chance that the eggs are still alive. I had an incubator at a school once, some guy unplugged it to sweep the floor, and then just left. I panicked a bit, but decided to turn it back on and see what happened. after being unplugged for 12+ hours, we only had one death, so about 90% successful hatch rates.

should note that they were unplugged about midway through incubation, had been off heat for at least 12 hours. 12 eggs in total, 3 duds, 1 dead, 7 healthy chicken children! this happened about 3 years ago.