No Chicks?

Well, maybe my egg incubation efforts are not meant to be.  It is day 24, three days after pipping day, and none of my eggs in the incubator have hatched.  They are heavy as if a chick has developed and I think I've seen a couple of them moving, but no pips.

Sitting hen is down to two eggs.  I think she started with nine.  She threw two rotten ones out of the nest.  Some burst in the nest, so I had to clean it out, and wash the remaining four eggs this morning.  Two of them floated in the bucket of water and stank like they were rotten; two of them still seemed OK and were heavy.  I put those two back in the nest and took the other two far out into the field.  One popped open when I dumped it out with the cleaning water.

I'm tempted to take some fresh eggs and slip them into sitting hen's nest, but then she'd be sitting for 21+ more days and that's probably not good for her.  If my incubator chicks were pipping, I could give her those, but it looks like I'm not going to get any either.

This will turn your stomach.  Harry came out to see what I was doing while throwing the eggs out and he started eating the rotten egg.  I couldn't get him to leave it alone, so I left him to learn whatever lesson that needs to be learned from eating a rotten egg.  He was still out there when I came in, so I assume he ate the other one that hadn't popped yet.