Compromised eggs?

[Chantelletaylor]

Hi! I’m on day 18.5 of incubation with 11 chicken eggs. 4 of which have dark colored shells that I could not see through the entire incubation process we started lockdown last night-a night early because I had to switch incubators a few days in and the settings for the days on the new one were off by 17 or so hours and I didn’t realize until the automatic egg turner turned off last night. I figured a few extra hours of lockdown would not harm them, especially since a few are silkie and silkie mixes which may hatch a little early. So, tonight as I was checking temp and humidity before heading to bed I smelt something odd. My first thought was maybe one of the dark colored eggs was a dud and had gone rotten. I sniffed around the incubator, and sure enough the smell seemed to be coming from where two of the dark shelled eggs were. I quickly took them out and sniffed them. Fortunately, but also unfortunately, the smell was not coming from either egg. The incubator is set up in our kitchen and upon further investigation, there was a loaf of banana bread in close proximity and that was the culprit of the smell. Now I say fortunately, but unfortunately, because maybe those eggs have chicks in them, but did I just compromise all of the eggs by taking them out to smell them? I’ve been watching a few of the eggs wiggle today, and I’m just hoping that quick smell test didn’t ruin any or all the eggs! I didn’t want to risk leaving a potentially rotten one in there though. Edit to add I have not heard any chirping so I assume none have internally pipped yet, so hopefully that also helps my odds of them still hatching

 

[kattabelly]

You're unlikely to have done any damage unless you were very rough with them when you took them out, or they were exposed to the kind of extreme temperatures that I wouldn't expect someone's kitchen to be at. Hopefully your hands were clean when you handled the eggs.

All you can do now is wait and hope for a good hatch

 

[Chantelletaylor]

You're unlikely to have done any damage unless you were very rough with them when you took them out, or they were exposed to the kind of extreme temperatures that I wouldn't expect someone's kitchen to be at. Hopefully your hands were clean when you handled the eggs.

All you can do now is wait and hope for a good hatch

Even a humidity drop at this point shouldn’t have damaged them? Since no pipping I was hoping the humidity drop for a few seconds wouldn’t change anything. I had clean hands and gloves on while handling! I do feel a little reassured that I just saw one of the other eggs rocking again, so I’m hoping all is still well with them! Thank you for your reply!

 

[kattabelly]

Even a humidity drop at this point shouldn’t have damaged them? Since no pipping I was hoping the humidity drop for a few seconds wouldn’t change anything. I had clean hands and gloves on while handling! I do feel a little reassured that I just saw one of the other eggs rocking again, so I’m hoping all is still well with them! Thank you for your reply!

Not unless they'd already pipped externally, and even then it would be unlikely to be a problem unless your house is very dry or you had them out of the incubator for a while.

 

[nuthatched]

No problem to take them out at all, as long as they went back in within 5 minutes

 

[Ridgerunner]

Usually on here you get one of two reactions. Either a panicked "you're going to shrink wrap them, your hatch is ruined" or "no matter what you do you can't shrink wrap them". As usual in life the truth is somewhere in the middle. It is possible to shrink wrap a chick, especially if it has external pipped, but unless you are ridiculous about how long the incubator is opened or with some unique circumstances you usually will not cause a problem even when they have pipped. It can happen, I've done it, but it is still unusual.

Since I understand it can happen, I try to avoid opening the incubator during lockdown. Why take unnecessary chances? I understand some people love the drama but I don't. But if I have a real reason to open the incubator for some emergency, I do and take care of the problem. I balance the emergency against the risk but the risk is pretty small.

I would have done exactly what you did.