My first exploding egg

[LTygress]

I had my first "exploding" egg today, and wow... now I understand why people hate them so much! I did notice the incubator started to smell bad a few days ago, but thought one of my cats (who like to sleep on it) just got something on it.

THANK GOODNESS the egg simply cracked, and didn't actually spill all in the incubator. It did leak onto the turner just a bit, and I was able to clean that up with a wet wash cloth.

My question is, aside from smell, is there any way to tell an egg is going bad? When you candle it, is anything significantly different? This was most likely that particular hen's very first egg ever laid (we found several of them at once) which could explain why it was bad. It was even an odd shape - both ends were the same size, instead of one being larger than the other.

I'm just wondering if there is a way to spot it BEFORE everything starts to reek - especially the air in the ENTIRE house, from simply moving it across the room to the trash!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've only ever had one exploding egg. That was under a broody hen 50 years ago that had hidden her nest in a brush pile. I hate to think about having a smell like that in the house. I sure feel for you on that one.

I've never had one go bad in the incubator but I take care to only set clean eggs. I take a lot of care to make sure those eggs are clean. I rely on smell and hope that will work. I also usually candle at Day 14 and take out any that are clearly not developing at that time, just to be a bit safer.

Not much help I know but your sure have my sympathy.

 

[ronott1]

I had my first "exploding" egg today, and wow... now I understand why people hate them so much! I did notice the incubator started to smell bad a few days ago, but thought one of my cats (who like to sleep on it) just got something on it.

THANK GOODNESS the egg simply cracked, and didn't actually spill all in the incubator. It did leak onto the turner just a bit, and I was able to clean that up with a wet wash cloth.

My question is, aside from smell, is there any way to tell an egg is going bad? When you candle it, is anything significantly different? This was most likely that particular hen's very first egg ever laid (we found several of them at once) which could explain why it was bad. It was even an odd shape - both ends were the same size, instead of one being larger than the other.

I'm just wondering if there is a way to spot it BEFORE everything starts to reek - especially the air in the ENTIRE house, from simply moving it across the room to the trash!

How old were the eggs? I candle them at 10 days and remove any clears or blood rings.

I also smell the eggs. If one smells off, I put it into a plastic zip lock bag and get it out of the house carefully and quickly. If you have trouble smelling the bad eggs, find someone with a good nose.

It is a very bad smell.

 

[3forfree]

I do the same as ronotti1 I candle and smell each egg. I candle at 7 days, mark the eggs that aren't doing anything, then candle and smell again on day 14 and remove eggs that have been marked as duds, candle again on day 18 then lockdown.

 

[MuranoFarms]

You can smell it when you open the incubator if there's a stink bomb in there. I usually candle each one and smell them. It usually smells pretty strong. Chuck it into the compost pile, but watch out.....they really do explode!

 

[LTygress]

The actual age of the egg itself, I'm not sure. They had been in the incubator for exactly 7 days when it exploded. My chickens are free-range so I don't know exactly when she started to lay, I only know that I found several eggs at once and put them all in the incubator. It could have been her very first egg, given the odd shape as well. Or it could have been her 4th or 5th. It's hard to tell.

That particular egg was also very clean. She did have some dirty ones - which I purposely left out there because we needed to "move" the nest to a different area. So we slowly showed her where else to lay them using the dirty eggs (started by getting her to lay them in a box, then moving the box towards the target location).

After tossing the exploding egg, I did candle them all and only tossed one more. It didn't smell bad, but instead of being fairly clear all the way through with a patch or two of darkness for the developing embryo, it was solid black except the air pocket on the large end. I tried candling it from every angle possible, but couldn't get ANY light to pass through at all. At only 7 days in the incubator, I found it very odd, and tossed it. Although in hind-sight, I probably should have opened it to see if it actually had a developing embryo or if it really was an indicator of another possible exploder. Missed educational opportunity on my part!