Spilled Polyurethane on eggs

[culebrachickens]

Yep, I can't make this stuff up.

We are in Puerto Rico and there are hundreds of feral chickens and roosters all over the island and my yard so we built a small coop. Anyway, one of our rental units has a lap pool. The pump and some of the plumbing is enclosed in a very large box made from 2x4/s with a hinged lid. When we bought the place the box was unfinished wood so we stained it.

Yesterday, it was my job to apply polyurethane to all sides and the lid. I had the can resting on the closed lid and I went to lift the can to move it and the wire handle came out of the holes in the side of the can and dropped to the lid spilling a few cups of polyurethane onto the lid. I quickly used it to get a coat on all surfaces of the box, but in the meantime a hen came squawking out of the side of the box where the plumbing exits the box (after being splashed with the poly). Later, our brains woke up and we realized she must have had a nest in the box. After she went back to the box, we pulled her and her 11 eggs out of the box and moved them to our coop. However, we noticed that all of the eggs have a little bit of polyurethane on them.

Do you think they'll still hatch? Since eggs are porous, will the poly poison them? We aren't trying to clean the hen because she still has full movement of her wings and we assume any sticky feathers (maybe 2) will be replaced. Also, using harsh chemicals on her or the eggs didn't seem wise.

Thanks,

Pedro y Maria
Culebra Casita Rentals
Culebra, Puerto Rico

 

[azygous]

What a dilemma! The hen will likely be fine unless she preens some of the polyurethane thinner base and ingests it. The thinner base will much more likely poison the embryos, though, since eggs are porous and only a very slight amount of thinner will kill a small life form or seriously cripple it with its petroleum distillate neurotoxin.

 

[culebrachickens]

What a dilemma! The hen will likely be fine unless she preens some of the polyurethane thinner base and ingests it. The thinner base will much more likely poison the embryos, though, since eggs are porous and only a very slight amount of thinner will kill a small life form or seriously cripple it with its petroleum distillate neurotoxin.

Thank you for the reply. I assumed the embryos would be poisoned, but I was hoping not. If we had known she and her eggs were inside the box, we would not have been applying the poly. We kicked ourselves for not looking inside first, but we are new here and not used to having hens and nests in random places. Lesson learned.

 

[azygous]

Please don't kick yourself too hard over this. It's not easy to consider all these possible hazards until you've experienced these tragic mistakes. Our learning curves often come at the expense of other life forms. I doubt you'll make this mistake again.

Go now, Grasshopper, you are forgiven.

 

[culebrachickens]

Please don't kick yourself too hard over this. It's not easy to consider all these possible hazards until you've experienced these tragic mistakes. Our learning curves often come at the expense of other life forms. I doubt you'll make this mistake again.

Go now, Grasshopper, you are forgiven.

But Master, it is still sad. You are right, we aren't likely to make this mistake again. Always check for nests before painting, sealing, cutting, weedeating, etc. Thanks for the encouragement.