Rotten egg on day 21 - Help!

[Tweetys]

Hi first time posting here but here it goes. This is my 2nd batch of chickens im hatching. Yesterday I noticed a smell (very strong death smell) and thought it may be coming from the incubator which it was - there was a egg open stinking out the incubator - so I didn't know what to do but know I needed to get rid of the contaminated egg . At this point they were on lockdown day 21 - so quickly gave it a clean with warm water whilst the eggs sat to one side (changed the non slip map and papertowels) and wiped down the eggs . Today day 22 this morning saw a pip in one of the eggs and a hr later hatched out. My question is do I take the chick out or wait to see if any more hatch? (as im worried there is residue somewhere??) There is no pips currently, I guess what im worried about is the egg that I guess (exploded?) will contaminate the chicks? . I might add that I was struggling to get the humidity up on the incubator come lockdown day so had to open it to spray it to bring it up- also added a wet papertowel in their to raise it (was this the right thing to do?) . The humidity is set at 65% at currently at 62% , the sponge is moist and papertowels look moist too - will the hatched chick get a chill? . I stored the eggs in the fridge prior to hatching (left out for a day to bring to room temperature) .Sorry my post is a little bit every where, any help will be appreciated , thankyou.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

I might be wrong but I dont think you can hatch eggs that have been refrigerated. I mean if one hatched I guess you can but probably shouldn't. I'm pretty sure there supposed to stay at room temperature before incubation. Again I'm might be wrong.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

And yes I believe if the exploded egg got on the other eggs it could be problematic clogging the air flow to the egg. Also jostling them around cleaning them may have changed the chicks position thus making hatching more difficult or impossible. But I'm not much for incubator. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable them me will come along soon.

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC!

There is no reason a hatched chick needs to stay in the bator. You can move it to a warm brooder as soon as it hatches.

 

[ChickenLeg]

I usually leave my chicks in the incubator up to 6hours after they hatch, they dry off in there, keeps them warm, and I think their chirping helps motivate the others to come out of their shells.

I think refrigerating the eggs were your biggest down fall, I keep mine in the basement (constant 65 degrees) until Im ready to put them in the incubator.

I also mark the eggs to keep track of what side is pointed up during lock down, incase I open and jostle the eggs I can fix them without having to worry if the eggs were turned over or not.

 

[ChickenLeg]

And exploding eggs are always bad, I sniff mine everytime I candle them (Ive had a few explosions in my time as well next hatch will be even better for you!)

 

[Tweetys]

I usually leave my chicks in the incubator up to 6hours after they hatch, they dry off in there, keeps them warm, and I think their chirping helps motivate the others to come out of their shells.

I think refrigerating the eggs were your biggest down fall, I keep mine in the basement (constant 65 degrees) until Im ready to put them in the incubator.

I also mark the eggs to keep track of what side is pointed up during lock down, incase I open and jostle the eggs I can fix them without having to worry if the eggs were turned over or not.

Thankyou I've had 3 hatch (1 in the night) and 4 pipped so still waiting for an appearance from them - how long from external pip can they take to come?. Once 6 hrs was up I quickly opened the incubator to transfer the chick to the brooder. I think next lot i'll keep at room temp next time I think see if I get a better success rate. I'm not very good at the candling side of it its hard to see whats going on in the egg arghh, there was some I questioned but it hatched. I only candled once as I was scared ill be doing more harm than good . Are the candling lamps you buy any good for candling? ive made a box with a hole and poke the torch up there .

 

[jksranch]

depending on how cold you frig is it may not have hurt the eggs. My dad raised pheasents when I was little and wrapped the eggs in newspaper then put in the frig. He took them to a hatchery in OakCliff to be hatched and always came back with lots of babies.
exploding eggs do cause problems but if it was late in the incubaton period it shouldn't of caused a problem unless like someone said it covered an egg and closed the pores so the chick couldn't get enough air.
good luck with your hatch

 

[Tweetys]

oh that's good to hear , yes the egg that stunk out the incubator - it didn't really explode much? it just got a bit on the side and around it and a few drops on a couple of eggs - thankyou hopefully more hatch today

 

[Kiki]

Thankyou I've had 3 hatch (1 in the night) and 4 pipped so still waiting for an appearance from them - how long from external pip can they take to come?. Once 6 hrs was up I quickly opened the incubator to transfer the chick to the brooder. I think next lot i'll keep at room temp next time I think see if I get a better success rate. I'm not very good at the candling side of it its hard to see whats going on in the egg arghh, there was some I questioned but it hatched. I only candled once as I was scared ill be doing more harm than good . Are the candling lamps you buy any good for candling? ive made a box with a hole and poke the torch up there .

This flashlight is perfect for candling.

Any small flashlight with at least 500 lumens should work.