Exploding egg...more to come?

[wolfsnaps]

So while I am very excited to be experiencing my first broody hen situation, I have no idea what I am looking for when it comes to bad eggs. I did not even realize my hen was sitting on eggs for a few days so I do not know how far along they are. There are about 10 eggs at various stages of incubation. My other hens keep laying there too so I candle them almost daily and remove the freshly laid eggs. I think tomorrow I will mark the eggs that are incubating. Despite my best efforts, I experienced the dreaded exploded egg today.


The smell.


Oh God.


The smell.



I removed most of that mess and replaced with fresh bedding. Now as I candled the eggs tonight, I see about 3 of them are completely dark inside. No air sac/space, no nothing. Are these chicks about to hatch or stench bombs about to go off? How do I know an egg is rotten? I am afraid to remove these 100% DARK eggs because, what if there is a chick in there about to hatch? Will there always be an air sac visible? I do not want to commit chickacide!


I do worry about the eggs that got some of the rotten egg mess on them, I wiped them off but what else can you do? You can't get them wet to wash them off.


Sigh.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

When you candle them, look for veins near the air cell. If there is a chick inside, there will always be an air cell. If you can't find an air cell in those dark eggs I would guess they are rotten. You could put them in a Ziplock bag and check them. Also remove eggs that have blood rings or no signs of veins. Usually I would recommend sniff testing suspected rotten eggs, but I'm pretty sure that since you had one explode, that's not an option for you!

Good luck for your chicks!

Oh, and marking your eggs with a Sharpie makes it much easier to tell which ones are supposed to be there and which are not. It also cuts down on candling and handling the eggs as well. You can Google egg development and look at pictures of eggs at different stages to help you learn what's normal and what's not

 

[wolfsnaps]

Thank you. I ended up smashing 4 eggs and they were all rotten. I have a 5th I suspect might also be. I did not know my chicken was sitting on these eggs for the first week or so. There are other eggs in there with blood vessels formed. I even saw something move around! How cool.

I can not believe how hard it was to find the answer to the question about how to tell if an egg is rotten. Every where states to smell them. Well, that didn't work for me. LOL.


I am glad I now know that there should be an air cell present ALWAYS. I assumed when the chick was fully formed you would not be able to see anything in there but I was wrong. There has to be an air cell.


This is how we learn I guess.

 

[LoveDaBirds]

Oh, and marking your eggs with a Sharpie makes it much easier to tell which ones are supposed to be there and which are not

You should never use a sharpie on your eggs. It could seep through and kill the embryo. Use a pencil to mark them. Good luck!!!