60 Hours into Incubation, and eggs stink. *Offending Egg found*

[Xanthro]

I put 36 eggs in the incubator late on Sunday night, and I think I have a problem. There's certainly an odd smell coming off some of the eggs. Unfortunately, with 36 eggs it's hard to tell which ones have gone bad to remove.

To complicate matters, they are BCM and Penedesenca eggs so their shells are so dark it's hard to candle.

The were shipped and it was hot, they could have easily started in truck.

Anyway to tell which individual egg might be smelling bad, outside of candling?
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Thanks everyone, I found the offending egg tonight. Still no cracks when candled, but could certainly smell it once I took the eggs to another room.

 

[mrslb333]

Candling could show up any fine cracks which could be responsible for bacteria entering the egg. Failing that I suppose you'd have to sniff each one individually to see which one is the culprit. Don't leave it too long though or it could explode

 

[Xanthro]

Quote:
I tried candling and couldn't see any cracks. Smelling is hard, once the lid is off, the order dissipates, and really quickly sniffing each egg none stood out, but then again I'm right in the room. How much time would I have to take an egg out of the incubator, move it to another room, to try smelling it there? I'm afraid of causing more damage by opening the incubator 36 times and it getting too cold, but I don't need an exploded egg ruining others.

 

[Delta3013]

Ya, an exploded egg can reak havoic on the others chance of survival. I think if you start to see an odd discoloring on some of the eggs that might help you find the caulpret, also the odor will intensify, helping you find it. srry my spelling is bad...

 

[slackwater]

It will be okay if you leave the incubator open long enough to sniff all of the eggs. This past week I had the first one rot in the incubator on me (had never had this happen), and I could TELL which one it was with my nose. Candling confirmed it, but...it was obvious by it's smell. This early into the incubation, you're fine to leave the 'bator open while you weed out the stinker...

 

[mrslb333]

Could it be the incubator itself may be some sort of residue on one of the heating parts. If you have enough egg boxes you could take a dozen out at a time it won't do much harm as long as you don't let them cool down too much. Remember broodies get off the nests for short periods of time and it does no harm

 

[pfmoore17]

Quote:
Yow! That stink of a rotten egg! Makes you think it the whole darn lot of them!

Don't panic, nothing is going to explode right now. I had a similar situation and let it go for a week . I pretended it wasn't so bad until my wife said "Do something!"

I open the bator and sniffed each and every egg. 18 eggs, took about 5 mins (double checking )

Don't think you'll be able to tell which is the culprit? Don't worry my friend, you'll know!
Turned out in my case, only one was rotten. Sniffing them is much quicker indicator than candling them.

Good Luck!

 

[Xanthro]

Thanks for the advice.

I guess I could put a dozen in a cartoon, move them to another room under a heat lamp, then smell each each one. Oddly, a quick sniff of each hasn't pointed to a particular egg, and none are showing cracks when candled. It could be I have a very sensitive sense of smell, and there's bacteria on the outside of the egg that I'm smelling, but I want to be careful. DW is out of town, so I don't have an additional nose for testing.

I'll try the dozen eggs at a time in another room this evening, and see if I can find the offender.

 

[mrslb333]

Good luck hope you find it

 

[oesdog]

Well sometimes even a hen has trouble finding the offending egg! My Broody Bertha was very very protective of her eggs well actually 8 eggs and one potato! Yeah she was convinced it was an egg and it took me ages to convince her it was a pototo! One morning I opened the coop to find it utterly stank of rotten egg!!!!! Poor Bertha - she was sat on the nest and one of the eggs had obviously been off - but she had still sat on it and it got so warm well - it exploded all over her bottom! -

She got up and was covered in exploded egg and also had another stuck to her feathers with the goo! I rescued it but sadly it had cracked so we dumped it. - I had to litterally lift her off the nest and get a new nest box and lift all the 6 eggs that were left one by one while she watched into the new clean nest. Then when she was satisfied I wasn;t going to hurt them she let me take her outside and wash her bottom! After that she went on sitting the 6 eggs and she hatched 5 out of the 6. One egg was another dud, one chick hatched with guts on the outside and was a cull

and the other 4 are still with her . They are 9 weeks old, over half her size and she wont leave them at all. When I parted her from them she sat and cried for three days so now she has them back again. They sit on her and squash her and she tries to put them under her at night but actually she ends up in the air sitting ontop of them! - But the look on her face was a picture when I found her with an exploded egg on her bottom!!-

So if you can;t find the offending egg - well sometimes Hens can;t either! Once it explodes you will know which one it was? -

Oesdog -