"Egg Bomb" prevention

[MA Mama]

Hello, I keep hearing about the horrors of an egg bomb - an egg that goes bad in an incubator and explodes. I am only on day 5, but I only see growth in 6 of 22 eggs. I have NEVER candled before, so I have no idea how accurate this count is. (That being said, I have made a lot of mistakes so it may very well be accurate.) Because I don't trust my candling eye, I am reluctant to take out any "clear" eggs. How long can infertile/clear/dead eggs stay in the incubator before nastyness occurs? I want to wait so I can be sure I haven't missed something with the candling, but then again I want to preserve my good ones at any cost.

 

[Pele]

I can sympathize with your candling woes, as I am having no end of trouble with doing the same with my first hatch.

That being said, from all my obsessive reading on the subject, I've found a general concensus that waiting to candle until day 7 is a good idea. By that time the fetus will have enough growth that even amateurs such as myself can see what's going on.

Also, keep in mind that you're more likely to have oozers that ticking bombs, and that the eggs will smell bad before they pull any crazy tricks on you. You might get some looks from your family, but giving the incubator a good sniff when you turn the eggs or candle is a good idea.

If your eggs are just sitting and minding their own business without the above signs, then let them keep doing their own business. I'm glad that I didn't give in to the temptation to crack an egg open when I was convinced my entire batch was bad at day 5. On day 10 I had a couple little babies wiggle a hello to me! I would have been devistated.

Good luck with your hatch!

 

[MA Mama]

Thank you! Good info and you are right... A little patience is exactly what I need, but don't have, for my first hatch!

 

[debs_flock]

From what I've read, an exploding egg is actually far less common than you would be led to believe by reading some of the posts here.

On my first hatch of 14 eggs, I candled them the first time at 5 days. About half of them I recorded a question mark. At 10 day, 13 of 14 I could clearly see the developing chick. At 18 days, 12 of them were waving at me (that's the way I saw it).

Anyway, 12 of 14 hatched. If I had gone with my 5 day candling, I would have called most of the brown ones bad.

Deb

 

[Stacykins]

Your nose is the most critical tool in detecting an egg gone bad. As I candle, I actually give each egg a quick sniff. Your nose can pick up the faint smell of bad egg long before it gets to the point of asplosion! So if you aren't certain of an egg, smell it

 

[MA Mama]

Thanks Deb - this is such a great community of helpers!

 

[debs_flock]

And yes, I did pull out the vent plug every day and took a good sniff of my incubator. On the final candling before lockdown at 18 days, I sniffed each egg individually when I candled it and moved it out of the turner.

Good luck with your hatch.

Deb

 

[Arielle]

I have run a few batches of eggs thru the incubator in this last year and only one was of concern. THat one was oozing, so I removed it. I have left eggs in for well past the due date and not have an explosion.

I'm betting Mother Nature has selected for non-exploding eggs; it would benefit the remaining eggs and the hen to have non-exploding eggs.

Welcome to BYC !

 

[mohillbilly]

I have hatched 1000's over the years and never had one explode ...but be warned when you remove any at the end that don't hatch , handle with care as they can explode and you would not want rotten egg all over you.

 

[Fly Fisher]

I usually wait until day 10 before candeling. I have never had a problem with an egg breaking. You should have no mistakes at that point recognizing viable eggs. I remove the clears if any and don't candle again until lockdown. This has worked very well for me.