It stinks! What do I do??

[Twoandhelp]

I have 400quail eggs in a styrofoam incubator. It's day. 5 ish and it STINKS. Now- I'm not entirely sure the bottom where the water normally goes was completely sanitized- so could be some goo, BUT if it's eggs- how on earth do I tell? They're dark speckled quail eggs, can't candle them really. They it only incubate 16 days or so- think j can make it with no explosion til then? If I smell test each one, would the temp for them get to low?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Sounds like you have a rotten egg somewhere. I'd try to find out which one it is before it explodes.

 

[Twoandhelp]

Dang it! Ok- how long can they stay out of the incubator would you say? 400 eggs is a lot of sniffin, might take a while

 

[JadedPhoenix]

I'd take out a dozen or so at a time. Then each are only out for a few moments at a time.

 

[Twoandhelp]

Ok - and I could mark them and actually count them. I kinda have a crazy double layer thing going on so it will be tricky but I can make it work. I'll have my other incubator free in 3 days that I could separate them out but I prolly shouldn't wait huh? I wonder what makes the egg rotten. My first batch I hatched only 35/48 and it never got stinky the whole time.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

You could have had an early quitter. Then the constant heat in the incubator would encourage it to become rotten. For your last hatch, it could be that your others that didn't hatch weren't fertile so they never started to develop or they died later in the incubation process so they didn't become rotten.