Egg just exploded in the incubator

[OzarkCountryGirl]

I just had my very first egg explode in the incubator (it's an old still-air Hova-Bator). I've hatched out literally hundreds of eggs, and this has never happened to me before. I was sitting here reading through some old BYC posts when I caught a whiff of a bit of an odor coming from the incubator (the 'bator is literally just a foot away from my elbow). So I opened it up, only to find that one of the eggs had developed a crack (or maybe had one all along and I just missed it), and had leaked onto to the egg turner. I tried to remove the egg and found that it was stuck fast to the egg cup in the turner, so I thought I'd take some warm water on a soft cloth and soften the sticky enough to free the egg. But as soon as the water touched the egg, it literally exploded. The "Pop!" was so loud that DH, who was sitting in the other room watching TV, exclaimed, "What was that?!"

Within seconds he was gagging and rushing to open up some windows, while I ran to get paper towels, a plastic tub (to catch the dripping green liquid that was now running out of one of the bottom holes of the incubator and onto the floor), a small tub of clean water, and a spray bottle of vinegar. I carefully lifted the egg filled turner out of the incubator and removed the good eggs that had been splattered by the explosion and carefully wiped them off. Then I wiped the turner trays off and replaced the eggs. After a quick rinse of the base of the incubator, I then washed it out thoroughly in the shower using very hot water and vinegar, then rinsed it well. Then I replaced the egg filled turner and am now waiting for the temp to get back up. I'm not worried about the eggs being out of the incubator, as even the hen will leave the nest every so often to eat and drink. I just hope I got all of the rotted egg contents out of there so that it doesn't cause problems with the hatch.

The thing is, let someone walk in with even the slightest bit of perfume or scented deodorant on, and I'm coughing and literally struggling for a breath. But here I am, back to sitting next to the incubator (no windows in this room), and the rest of the family is still holding their noses over the rotted egg smell, and refusing to even walk past the doorway. And they're throwing a fit because even if we had any (which we don't) they can't even light a scented candle or spray air freshener or anything because I'm so chem sensitive. Which is funny, because to me it only smells like boiled eggs, except maybe just a little bit stronger.

Have any of you ever had a rotten egg explode in the incubator before, and if so, how did you clean the rest of your eggs and/or incubator, and did it affect your hatch?

 

[nicole camp]

I've never had it before. That sounds naaaassstttty!! I have chicks hatching right now I hope it doesn't happen.

 

[CrappieSlayer34]

I candle eggs a little more than I should , and am kinda a newbie....well not beating around the bush... a really newbie... first hatch coming off today from my home made whineobator.

I candle every week and throw out any bad eggs. In hopes of avoiding just that situation.



Hope you get it cleaned. That would be nasty...

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

I candled them earlier this week, but some of the eggs (Welsummers) have really dark shells, and as I only use a flashlight to candle it's kind of hard to tell on some of them. I should have caught this one though, and I'm trying to figure out how in the world I missed it. One thing I have noticed though, is that the egg turner rattles the eggs and seems just a bit too rough with them IMHO. I've always hand turned before and have only recently put in the automatic turner so I have no prior experience on how auto turners are supposed to be with eggs. But after this experience, I may just go back to hand turning.

 

[MountainSeramas]

Don't worry - you're definitely not the only one to have been hit by the stinky egg bomb! And what a mess! I cleaned my cabinet incubator out with vinegar too. I'll tell you that in my experience, the first two times I tried to get lazy and use my auto turner were the first two times that I didn't get one single egg to hatch. Mine really did just jar mine around far too much. It was not a smooth transition. Then again I hatch really tiny eggs, not sure if that makes too much of a difference with the larger eggs. I haven't hatched large eggs in many years. But trust me, those tiny eggs are just as smelly!

 

[Yiannisk]

turner has nothing to do with the (explosion) it just happens usually on crack eggs in my more than 30 years use of incubators
it happen to me also many times and i know the smell is .......... also cleaning up the mess i am lucky that my incubators are in separate room down stairs or my wife would show me and the incubators the front door lol !!

 

[chickenshiha]

hi I am a new member to BYC but I know a lot about chickens and eggs and I was surprised that a egg burst in the incubator please answer my questions:

step 1: how much was the temperature? if it was more than 105 F that is bad

2: what was the humidity%? if it was under 60 that might happened rarely
this is not a question you should not touch the egg with water when the incubator is on because it was warm and the humidity should have been 65 to 70 for the atmosphere and I hope this experience helps

 

[subhanalah]

Your water was too cool, I would guess? I had a hard boiled egg explode on me once, when I dropped it in a cup of too cool water.

 

[Yiannisk]

hi I am a new member to BYC but I know a lot about chickens and eggs and I was surprised that a egg burst in the incubator please answer my questions:

step 1: how much was the temperature? if it was more than 105 F that is bad

2: what was the humidity%? if it was under 60 that might happened rarely
this is not a question you should not touch the egg with water when the incubator is on because it was warm and the humidity should have been 65 to 70 for the atmosphere and I hope this experience helps

Your water was too cool, I would guess? I had a hard boiled egg explode on me once, when I dropped it in a cup of too cool water.

Yes to both but this case is deferent of what you describe
our friend said that the egg stuck on the turner and also was smelling rotten egg
this does not happen when an egg explodes due to other reasons except crack or any other bacteria infection

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

The temp has maintained 100ºF - 101ºF since the very first day. Right now the temperature is 101º F and the humidity is 46% with zero water in the incubator. Thankfully tomorrow begins lock down so I no longer have to worry about them drowning. I've been fighting to keep the humidity below 55% as we've been experiencing a lot of rain, and that's with absolutely no water in the incubator.

I've concluded that the egg must have had a crack for a while (if not from the very first day) and simply just went unnoticed until it started leaking and smelling. Then as it leaked, the seeping liquid dried and made the shell stick to the turner. So it was really just a time bomb waiting to happen.

I'm chalking this egg ordeal up to operator error. But I'm probably going to go back to hand turning (been doing that since my first hatch back in the early 1970's), as had I been doing the daily hands-on, I would have noticed the crack long before now. Oh well, you live and learn...even at this age.