what happens to eggs in nature

[aberfitch]

We candle eggs and can tell if they are clear, have blood rings, bacteria, or have a live baby chick inside. We then have the option to remove the eggs from the bator and not risk the eggs exploding. If there were bad eggs under a hen does she get rid of it or just lets it explode?

 

[silkiechicken]

From what I have seen, they will roll the egg out from the nest. I've yet to have an egg explode on me, but rather, have had eggs sitting around for years, so as long as they do not get bacteria inside, should be fine for the hen till all her eggs hatch out and she leaves the nest. Eggs in a nest are also often not bumped, picked up, handled, washed, shipped, or damaged as they sit where they were put besides the hen putting more on it.

 

[jimnjay]

I have had a hen that sat on shipped eggs and one exploded on her poor thing. She stuck to the nest and the rest hatched fine. I was new to hatching then and did not candle the eggs. I always candle at around 12 to 14 days even with broody hens, especially if the eggs are shipped.

 

[KYBOY]

Most of the time the hen will roll bad ones out. Ive never seen one explode on a hen befor.

 

[cgmccary]

I've had a hen sit on bad eggs (the whole bunch- shipped) and not one exploded.

I have never had one explode on me in the incubator either. When I candle, I leave any "questionable" ones in the the incubator and some of them, of course, don't hatch, but they don't explode.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
I would suggest that the risk of a bad egg exploding is very low.

Bad eggs are rare, and good but infertile eggs could sit in an incubator for weeks and not go bad (ya might not wanna eat one tho)

Bad eggs that actually weep, or eggsplode are even rarer.

When it can be a problem is when people are introducing new eggs weekly, and moving them to a hatcher at 18 days. If the incubator is running all season, then bacteria can build up inside to the point where it is infecting eggs.

Also, it can be easy to miss an egg, and leave one in the incubator much longer than you should.

If people want to run incubators all season, and set eggs each week, I would consider sanitising the eggs correctly before setting, and shutting down every few weeks for thorough cleansing.

Just a few thoughts