If she only started sitting the eggs in the last couple of days, I'd toss out everything--eggs too--and let her start again with fresh nesting material & new eggs. If the eggs are fairly well along, you can try and save them. First, create a temporary nest in a small cardboard box or a large mixing bowl with a bit of straw or an old towel. Have a damp (not wet) paper towel or two ready to clean the eggs with, plus fresh nesting material. Have all this stuff ready to go before you approach the nest, so that mama hen won't be disturbed for too long. Remove mama hen from the nest and shoo her away for a minute. If she has dried egg on her feathers, leave her be--she can clean herself, and you don't want to wet her feathers down and have her soak & chill the eggs when she returns to the nest. It won't harm the eggs to have her off the nest for a short time (hens naturally take anywhere from 10-20 minute breaks from setting, eggs are designed to handle this). Take one good egg at a time and GENTLY dab at it with a damp paper towel to clean off the worst of the mess. DON'T wash the egg, as eggs are porous and doing so can help introduce bacteria to the interior of the egg and kill the forming chick, or chill the egg too much. Check the eggs quickly but carefully for cracks, and be careful not to jostle them too much, turning them slowly in your hand. You only want to remove the worst of the crud. If the eggs are only a bit messy, leave them be. Mother Nature knows what she is doing, and over the course of setting on them, the body oils from mama hen's skin will polish the eggs to a lovely glow and polish off minor amounts of crud. :) Transfer the eggs one at a time into the temporary nest. Remove the fouled (fowled? hurr...) nesting material and place fresh, make a small well in it and place mama hen at the entrance to the nest & eggs so she sees it. Then back off. Let HER return to her nest herself, as if you place her right on the eggs she might end up stumbling around, stepping on them and you end up with more broken eggs. Let her be, and hopefully all will be well. :) Good luck with the hatch! I have a chicken site with lots of info that might help, the section on hens & chicks is here: http://jackshenhouse.com/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm Velvet ~:>

Susan, Every year when the house wrens strike, and they do, I want to take down all the boxes. But I don't. This year I was able to find 4 of 5 chickadee newborns and put them back into the nest box. Then I put a wren guard on and the 4 will soon fledge. Definitely check out sialis.org/wrens.htm I know it's hard to deal with them but think of all the wonderful things you'll see if you have boxes up. We just have to keep the rotten HOWRs in their place...somewhere else! Linda...

Congrats Suzanne! Just a reminder to check your box camera's...I noticed mine was a little warm and now I just use it sporadically...my babies just fledged Fri./Sat. Hoping to get my second nest soon.

Thanks for response eteinne. This was several dozen eggs so not enough salt to cover this mess LOL! Really was not hard to get the slimy egg cleaned off. I scrubbed with soap and water and then a second time actually using a clothes wash my husband has to remove smells from clothes when hunting. Left the door open and fans running overnight. DH said this afternoon he didn't smell anything. Just to be sure I wiped with with a bleach solution today and will let dry overnight before putting everything back in. Since I needed to clean under the trailer fridge I had to unbolt and move the refrigerator. Was a little tough getting it unbolted and moving the fridge myself especially with so little space. At least now the walls and floor under the refrigerator are sparkling clean again. If all smells good tomorrow I'll move the refrigerator back and bolt it down again.