Hatching chick is stinky. Is it okay?

[RedIII]

Hi all. Got a few questions. I have my first chick ever to hatch in the incubator, and I'm quite new to doing incubation.

In a nutshell, my main question is this: Are hatching chicks supposed to be stinky? And, is there usually waste matter in the shell with them?

Here's the situation:

I have been watching this egg since it was on about day 5 or 6. It has developed well, from what I could see, but I am a total newbie to hatching. It was always very active in the shell when I would candle, I never saw any bacteria or worrisome signs during incubation. While I was helping it to get an air hole in the membrane this morning, it started to bleed a little and I stopped, afraid of hurting the chick. I tried to keep the humidity up in the bator while I was at work, and when I got home, most of the blood had absorbed or dried, leaving some of the membrane stuck on the little one. I wet it down a tad and got the membrane off. I noticed, though, that there was some green gunk inside the egg, near the air cell (I took that out with the drying membrane up there) When the chick finally got out of the rest of the shell tonight, it had a couple of lumps of what I could only assume were poo on its bum, along with a little bit of umbilical/membrane stuff. I gently pulled off the very loose, er, specimen, but the other lump is still on and I am going to go wipe it off with a wet rag.

So.........Is it normal for chicks to hatch with this kind of garbage in the egg?? Did my chick have some kind of infection going on in the egg right at the end there? I noticed two and a half days ago that it had stopped moving, and after at least 24 hours, I lanced the air hole in the membrane to help it (part of the shell had been pipped, but not the membrane, at that point)

The chick seems normal otherwise, from what I can tell. I was doing a staggered hatch, and I have more eggs in there that are on day 9 or so. Should I just leave them until they hatch and suffer through this odor? Or would it be okay to take them out, clean the bator and let it dry quickly, then put the remaining eggs back in?

 

[ang3lb0y]

To answer your first question, yes, there is normally waste matter at the bottom of every egg After hatch (at least my eggs). The chick is stinky because it had to be in with the poop in it's shell.
The next question is herder to answer because I don't know your situation. I would leave the eggs in the incubator until they hatch. A tip to clean the incubator with the eggs still in it would be to use a warm, damp wash rag with very little (non-toxic) soap and wipe inside the incubator where the egg and chick was. Then use a dry paper towel to get the excess water (or whatever comes up) out of there. You should do this within 15 minutes, as when the eggs get too cold, the embryos die.
Have a great rest of your hatch.

 

[melina90]

I didn't know about the smell either - one less thing I'll be wondering about when my chicks hatch.

It shouldnt be too dangerous to take the eggs out of the bator, wash it quickly, and put the eggs back in. I mean, the mother hen steps off her eggs a couple of times a day too right? As long as you finish up really quick and handle the eggs carefully I think they should be allright.

 

[RedIII]

Thank you, both! I think I will do a quick wipe-down of some of the bator, since I don't want to inadvertently kill these embryos.