I have three hens who have decided that they just HAVE to hatch out some babies. Unfortunately, while I am more than willing to let them do this, they seem to have four-legged snout-nosed invaders breaking a few eggs under them. This doesn't bode well for any of the eggs as most are now covered with yolk.
As anyone who has ever tried to clean dried egg yolk off of a plate can attest, yolk is a very successful binder. It's what makes cookies stick together so nicely. But it also covers the outer shell of another egg nicely. And it very successfully blocks any oxygen transfer from inside the egg to the outside world.
While I don't understand all of the biology behind it, I do know that an egg will not grow into a chick if the shell is impermeable due to yolk or dirt. So at this point, I think I have three hens who will be sorely disappointed when their babies do not arrive and I have to convince them to move on with a few days in solitary.
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