I have a couple eggs in the 'bator that I *know* have nothing growing inside. Can I simply put them in my compost pile? I thought I would want to crack them open and look inside but I don't want to let my kids think we are going to do that for all of the non-viable ones...unless hubby wants to lead that homeschool experiment. My heart can't take it... So, whole eggs into the compost pile...yay or nay?
I cracked mine open, just for my own personal knowledge. I'm not sure how old your kid(s) are, but I didn't think my 7yo son was going to learn anything from it. We hatched silkies for a homeschool project over the summer. He got so attached to the eggs, I didn't think it would be appropriate for him to see an expired embryo. We just had started 2nd grade & the idea was more about the care of the eggs and the method of hatching, not the development. I guess it depends on the lesson. ETA: I had to correct a grammatical error.
If you put them in the compost pile, you could attract critters you don't want digging in there. They can also smell. I don't do it. That said, if I did put them in the compost pile, I'd break them so they would decompose faster and nothing could dig them up and carry them to another place before breaking them. I'd also bury them deep in the compost to try to keep the smell down. I have the feeling you might try it once then decide to go another route. Good luck!
do you mean egg that can't hatch (infertile) at all? if you candle and see that it still good then cook and make it no egg flavor then feed them to your hen, they will be stronger and lay better eggs. (credit:wegotchickens). but if you smell bad odor, just bury them or burn them at high flame.
we homeschool-Pre K and first now my oldest has finished(18 at last) and the kids do look at the expired chicks. But ours is a science project on the development and growth of chicks. Whenever I take one out of the bator clear my little 4 year old says "Poor chickie" but we remind him it never formed into a baby chick to start with...all clears. Now back to the compost pile we toss ours into the garden compost area now the garden is done..they will get tilled up when we do a cover crop later this fall.My dog will get some and eat them but she eats far worse than that they don't stink by leaving them whole any more than a rotting vegie in there. I don't worry about critters bothering ours...JRT's on the job and if they come around she would just eat them as well
I think Im going to do that tonight with hubby and the kids. Go ahead and crack open the discarded eggs.
The clears, we explained, are just like the eggs we eat. But I didn't let my son in on the (developed) expired chicks. I also accidentally cracked one while candling and I watched its heart stop. Glad no children were watching that one. I would like to do a more science-oriented hatch, but not just yet. We focused more on the time it took, percentage of shipped chicks to hatch vs. local chicks, I guess we made it more of a math project!! LOL! My son isn't too fond of math. When I ordered the eggs, I was telling my DH that shipped eggs only have a 50% hatch rate. He asked how many I ordered. I told him 12. My son exclaimed, "6 chicks should hatch, then!" So I just involved him with the hatching because he was so excited. We did do a lot of incubation related math work. We also had incubation spelling & vocab for 3 weeks! When I do the science based hatch, I'd like to be better prepared... buy some charts & worksheets. Good Luck with your hatch!
