Leave unfertile eggs in incubator?

[[email protected]]

I have 16 eggs in my hovabator only 7 are fertile, how unsafe would it be to leave the others in? I'm almost on day 12. I don't smell any bad smells coming from them. i was thinking the extra eggs might help keep the incubator stable in temperature. I was also going to use the eggs to protect the unhatched fertile eggs from being bumped by the hatching chicks.

thanks

 

[MA Mama]

I asked a similar question just now - so check out my recent post if you don't get any responses.

 

[wordgirl]

Maybe I shouldn't be responding, because I'm not absolutely sure, but I think I remember reading that it's *possible* for the infertile eggs to explode if they're left in the incubator for too long. That said, I had several eggs under a broody and one that didn't develop I let stay for a while - I couldn't tell whether it smelled very bad and it was my first time candling. It didn't ever explode, but I might have taken it away before the full 21 days.

Let me go try to verify the "exploding egg" thing!

Edited To Add: Found it! It's in one of my chicken books. The Raising Chickens for Dummies book talks about rotten eggs exploding, too, from the buildup of sulfur gas. I don't know how long that would take, though, before they would explode. Hopefully some other more experienced hatchers will chime in!

I hope your incubation/hatch goes well! Welcome to BYC!

 

[dbcooper02]

That's an interesting concept, using undeveloped eggs as a heat sink like some folks use small bottles of water. If the eggs are truly infertile they will light up almost like a yellow Christmas light when you candle them. They will probably cause you no trouble in 21 days. However if the eggs have anything going on inside like a blood ring or dark mass of bacterial growth get them out of there!

 

[nurse_turtle]

I remove my non-fertiles and early quitters after day 5-7. Then I cracked open each egg into a coffee mug, stir 'em with a fork and maybe ad bit of shredded chesse, add the crushed up shells and microwave til done. Toss it out the back door and watch them games begin!

 

[cva34]

That's an interesting concept, using undeveloped eggs as a heat sink like some folks use small bottles of water. If the eggs are truly infertile they will light up almost like a yellow Christmas light when you candle them. They will probably cause you no trouble in 21 days. However if the eggs have anything going on inside like a blood ring or dark mass of bacterial growth get them out of there!

If there for sure infertile( get them out )A truly rotten egg smells worse than anything I can think of and a burst one in your Inc.will ruin your Day....cva34

 

[MA Mama]

If there for sure infertile( get them out )A truly rotten egg smells worse than anything I can think of and a burst one in your Inc.will ruin your Day....cva34

cva34: At what point will one burst? How long is it pretty much safe to leave them in?

 

[[email protected]]

the ones i have don't smell and don't have any sines of bacteria. id like to wait just in case I'm candling wrong, and i move them to different spots wile turning so taking a few out might throw me off a little in egg placement. thanks for the responses.

I've read in books that they might burst but it never said at what point, i think it was something to do with the bacteria though.

 

[cva34]

cva34: At what point will one burst? How long is it pretty much safe to leave them in?

Time frame and why I have no way of knowing.Growing up on a farm with 100s of yard Chickens .Most layed in hen house but there were always a few rebels that made a nest out in weeds or under the house.That were not found for weeks/months and when they were found.We had no idea how long they had been there.Mom always warned us not to bring in house or get them mixed in with good eggs,she said just throw them away.Well of course to us that meant throw at each other.Yea some were OK some were Rotten and some were so Rotten they were pressured up and seemed to POP just by handeling and or stress of beeing thrown.All of my experience came from those days.Never had it happen in my Inc.But as said before you do not want it to happen in your Incubator.!!!The SMELL is BEYOND STINK...cva34

 

[[email protected]]

I cleaned out part of my old side of my chicken coop that has been sealed off for over a year and found a few eggs buried so I poked one with a shovel and it made a "pop" noise like a small fire work (smell was really bad), so I'm thinking maybe something has too hit the eggs to cause them to explode, because if it had pressure in it for that amount of time and didn't go off the incubator eggs might stand a good chance of not exploding.

cva34: At what point will one burst? How long is it pretty much safe to leave them in?