Exploding egg on mama and chick

[Poulettedamour]

Hello
This is my first time having a hen wanting to be a mama. 1 hatched on Friday and 3 more eggs were not hatched 4-5 days later and 1 exploded and caused a big stress for mama and her chick.
I cleaned up the box ( which is where she laid eggs) and I am concerned the others will explode also. I would like to buy chicks and replace them for the probably spoiled eggs but can’t find any near me, maybe today or tomorrow tsc will receive some
Meanwhile should I replace the eggs and move them to a big cage together?

 

[DobieLover]

Welcome to BYC!

You have a staggered hatch if one hatched and nothing else did after 4-5 days. That's never a good situation.

Did you ever candle the eggs to determine if they were viable and still alive?

You absolutely should NOT replace the eggs. The hen has a chick and she will leave the nest to raise it.

You will be hard pressed to find chicks for sale in the farm stores. Early spring and fall are the chick selling times. They may have a few older chicks now but it will be harder to graft an older chick to your hen although you could try to give her 2 or 3 sexed pullet chicks if they aren't too old, if you can find them. Less than 2 weeks.

 

[Poulettedamour]

Welcome to BYC!

You have a staggered hatch if one hatched and nothing else did after 4-5 days. That's never a good situation.

Did you ever candle the eggs to determine if they were viable and still alive?

You absolutely should NOT replace the eggs. The hen has a chick and she will leave the nest to raise it.

You will be hard pressed to find chicks for sale in the farm stores. Early spring and fall are the chick selling times. They may have a few older chicks now but it will be harder to graft an older chick to your hen although you could try to give her 2 or 3 sexed pullet chicks if they aren't too old, if you can find them. Less than 2 weeks.

Thank you so much for your help
I did buy 3 yesterday but the hen didn’t welcome the 2 that I put in the cage she pecked at them and they were scared and hid in the corner so she left them alone but I didn’t want them to get mistreated so I took them in the house with the 3rd who couldn’t walk he has either a broken leg or deformed

 

[arazla]

Oh gosh, that is so sad. Looks like a pretty extreme deformity, but there are videos on youtube with ways to correct it by making little footwear out of stiff paper, etc. Seems like in that case, it would have to be gradual and not forced since it's pretty crooked. I was able to fix a baby's spraddle leg though from watching several youtube variations and finally figuring out what worked for my chick.

I have had two broodie hens this season as well. One hatched 3 out of 4 eggs I allowed her over the course of 3 days. She accepted them all fortunately. But the 4th egg was taking so long I went ahead and put it under my other broodie. I can't recall when I finally gave in and let that one sit so not sure what to do. It's possible I accidentally confused and removed what I thought was a fresh egg. I now know to number them in the future. @DobieLover how do you tell if a chick is viable? I can see that is something in them with a tiny flashlight. The eggs are fairly opaque and there's a shape as opposed to translucent like just laid eggs. But how do you know if it's actually alive?

 

[Poulettedamour]

Welcome to BYC!

You have a staggered hatch if one hatched and nothing else did after 4-5 days. That's never a good situation.

Did you ever candle the eggs to determine if they were viable and still alive?

You absolutely should NOT replace the eggs. The hen has a chick and she will leave the nest to raise it.

You will be hard pressed to find chicks for sale in the farm stores. Early spring and fall are the chick selling times. They may have a few older chicks now but it will be harder to graft an older chick to your hen although you could try to give her 2 or 3 sexed pullet chicks if they aren't too old, if you can find them. Less than 2 weeks.

Thank you so much
No I never candled
Now I know how important it is for me to check under the hen and mark the eggs

 

[DobieLover]

how do you tell if a chick is viable?

A viable egg at 7 days shows movement and lots of veins.
At 14 days, you'll still see movement but the chick will be getting larger at that time and start filling the egg making it dark.
If it's easy to light up the egg, there's no movement and no veins, it's a dud.

 

[arazla]

A viable egg at 7 days shows movement and lots of veins.
At 14 weeks, you'll still see movement but the chick will be getting larger at that time and start filling the egg making it dark.
If it's easy to light up the egg, there's no movement and no veins, it's a dud.

Yikes, I assume you meant at 14 days Hmm...we're at the stage where the egg is dark and there's clearly a body in there. But I don't see any movement or veins.

 

[DobieLover]

Yikes, I assume you meant at 14 days Hmm...we're at the stage where the egg is dark and there's clearly a body in there. But I don't see any movement or veins.

Yes, as I assumed you meant viable eggs, not viable chicks. Post corrected. Thanks.