why is it bad to incubate a porous egg?

[naturesluxuries]

What happens if you eat eggs that are like that? Can you get sick? I am just needing to know

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
No. The only concern is for hatching - if bacteria gets into the egg it can infect others when they hatch. Because we cook eggs, it kills that bacteria.

 

[chkinut]

thanks guys, these were all shipped eggs. i went to the BYC thread about candling eggs....have seen it before, but went to refresh my memory. most of my eggs that ARE porous don't look as bad as the example egg on that thread. i'm just gonna put em' in and hope for the best.

 

[19kayla89]

I keep getting porous, so far I've gotten 18 eggs from a lady that everyone says has great eggs and I've only had 3 that was hatched. They all looked really porous the ones that hatched wasn't like that. All came from the same coop. Why aren't they fertile or why don't they hatch?

 

[BelovedBirds]

I keep getting porous, so far I've gotten 18 eggs from a lady that everyone says has great eggs and I've only had 3 that was hatched. They all looked really porous the ones that hatched wasn't like that. All came from the same coop. Why aren't they fertile or why don't they hatch?

If they're really porous then bacteria could have an easier time getting into the egg, I suppose.

If everyone else has great hatches, I'd check a few things-
Is your thermometer and hygrometer calibrated?
Are the eggs being properly turned?
Are the eggs clean and how old were they?

There's always the chance of bad luck, but I'd check everything is as it should be as well

 

[Finnie]

thanks guys, these were all shipped eggs. i went to the BYC thread about candling eggs....have seen it before, but went to refresh my memory. most of my eggs that ARE porous don't look as bad as the example egg on that thread. i'm just gonna put em' in and hope for the best.

This is what I was going to tell you to do. Shipped eggs already have some strikes against them as far as hatchability. What if the non-porous ones don’t hatch but the porous ones do? If you throw away the porous ones without trying, you could be throwing away perfectly good chicks.

I have incubated lots of porous looking eggs. Depending on the hen, some always hatch and some never hatch. There are some hens that can’t make good eggs. Even if they are fertile, the chicks just don’t develop. Some of those hens make bad shells on their eggs.

But other hens whose egg shells “look” porous produce perfectly healthy chicks. Nothing wrong with their eggs, they just had a porous look to them when candled. I often get this with blue egg layers.

Since you don’t know any history on these specific hens, give them all the benefit of the doubt. Candle each week, and throw away any blood rings or obvious quitters. The rest of the eggs shouldn’t be at any risk unless you detect one that stinks. And then only if you leave the stinky one in.

Remove it and it should be fine. But honestly, removing dead ones once a week should keep you far from getting any stinky ones. In all my hatching, I can only remember one time that I opened the incubator and smelled something bad. Easy to find that egg by candling them all. I did also give all the remaining ones the sniff test just to be sure.

 

[Ridgerunner]

removing dead ones once a week should keep you far from getting any stinky ones.

Sorry, but that is not quite correct. What causes a stinky one is bacteria getting inside the egg. That has nothing to do with whether an embryo ever started to develop, started to develop and quit, or is still developing. If bacteria gets inside the porous egg shell it will kill any developing chick as it multiplies. A dead embryo does not attract bacteria.

Not that this proves anything but I never remove an egg before lockdown, whether it is developing or not. At lockdown I remove the obvious clears. Not because I am worried about them stinking but to reduce the number of eggs as they hatch. It's easier to keep track of what's happening. At lockdown, if there is any question at all I leave them in.

I've never had a stinky egg in the incubator. I only set pretty clean eggs and do not compromise the bloom before I set them. I wash my hands before I handle eggs and sterilize the incubator with a bleach solution before I start incubation. I think cleanliness and maintaining the bloom has a lot more to do with avoiding bacteria than anything else.

I have had stinky eggs under a broody hen when a thin-shelled egg broke and messed up some other eggs. None hatched. You really do want to avoid a stinky egg.

Easy to find that egg by candling them all. I did also give all the remaining ones the sniff test just to be sure.

I see this a lot on here. What do you look for when candling to see that it has bacteria growing inside? Is it a blood ring? I don't know what I'd look for. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything I really don't know what to look for. I sniff them to check when I candle and sniff the incubator when I add water.

 

[Finnie]

Sorry, but that is not quite correct. What causes a stinky one is bacteria getting inside the egg. That has nothing to do with whether an embryo ever started to develop, started to develop and quit, or is still developing. If bacteria gets inside the porous egg shell it will kill any developing chick as it multiplies. A dead embryo does not attract bacteria.

I guess I meant that if the shell was bad and the embryo died because of that (I.e. because bacteria got in and killed it) I would remove it once I saw it was dead and no further bacteria would grow. (Not that I would know why the embryo died. I just don’t leave them in once I’m sure they are dead.)

I see this a lot on here. What do you look for when candling to see that it has bacteria growing inside? Is it a blood ring? I don't know what I'd look for. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything I really don't know what to look for. I sniff them to check when I candle and sniff the incubator when I add water.

No worries. I don’t have a lot of experience with stinky eggs either. I think I have had a few times where an obviously dead egg had green stuff inside it. They weren’t stinky or anything, but if I see one that seems obviously dead, and it has green or black matter inside when I candle it, those would be ones I take out.

A lot of times if I think one is dead, I will leave it in anyway just in case. And I mark it as “dead?”

I have had a few of those “dead” ones hatch, so I know that looking dead is no guarantee of being dead.

The ones I would remove would be clear ones after a week, blood rings, and quitters that were obviously not as developed as the other ones of the same age group. You can usually tell those because they no longer have any veins or the veins look fuzzy, as though they are dissolving. And then also the ones that look like they have green or black crud in them in addition to a dead looking embryo.

I can’t recall having live looking embryos with black or green crud. I suppose if I did, I would leave it in and hope it didn’t explode. Since I’ve never had any egg burst and contaminate the rest of the batch, I don’t really believe it will happen. I did once have an egg ooze. I can’t remember if that was the same time I had one stink, or if they were two separate incidents.

I guess I figure that if I remove anything that looks bad, nothing I do leave in will have time to get so bad it would explode. So therefore I don’t worry about incubating eggs with porous shells.