# Stinky eggs with good eggs



## freedomfrom4 (Jul 27, 2009)

I have a bunch of eggs that may hatch, but the duds of the first eggs are still in there and just started stinking today. The good eggs are due to hatch in the next couple of days. They were set on the 14th. My kid set them (its spossed to be his project) and didn't mark which were the first and which were the later eggs. So do I just leave the stinking ones in there since the others are so close to hatching or will that hurt the new chicks that hopefully will hatch? Oh and my humidity gauge quit. Now what? I wasn't planning on opening again for a while cause it is in the last couple of days. One was rocking earlier :banana02:


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Candle them and throw out any stinkers. There is a good chance of the stinkers exploding and contaminating the hen and the live eggs. You can lose the entire clutch.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Yep, I agree. Get the stinkers out - they are more risk to your hatch than opening the incubator would be!


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Could you give them a quick float test in warm water to sort out the bad ones?


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## freedomfrom4 (Jul 27, 2009)

How does the float test work? I have a hard time candling cause they are dark brown
and I'm not real good at it even with white eggs.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Just give them the sniff test. The good ones smell like fresh rain. The bad smell like a gas leak.


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## freedomfrom4 (Jul 27, 2009)

I feel stupid. It was a contaminated piece of towel. I guess someone had used it to wipe up something before I used it in the incubator. The heat and warmth made it smell real bad. The eggs are chirping in thier shells and smell good. I hope we didn't give them some deadly bacteria. At least 2 are chirping.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

The float test will tell you an egg is old - because the air cell gets bigger the older an egg is. An egg that is being incubated will get a larger air cell as time goes by and would likely float even when it was good. The down side to the float test is that you could drown your ducklings - they breathe through the shell, its almost like a placenta on a mammal. I lost a couple of ducklings on my last hatch because I didn't realize part of the shell was sitting in water in the back of the incubator (overfilled the water trays) and I think they drowned. They were fully developed and I took the turner out for hatching. This time I will know to be extra careful and not drown my babies! 

I find fascinating, they put blood vessels along the inside of the shell, which allows moisture and air to penetrate and breathe and exhale wastes right through the shell! The air cell gets bigger and when the duckling is getting ready to hatch, its starts to breathe that air and retract its blood vessels into its umbilical. This is why it can take a day or so to hatch, they have to move around in their shell and retract all their blood and close up the umbilical before they finish hatching. After it "peeps" (starts to actually breathe air in the air cell), it will "pip" (make a small hole in the shell to breathe through) and "zip" (cut its way around the shell) before it hatches. What a lot of work!


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## freedomfrom4 (Jul 27, 2009)

Thanks for the explination granny! The chirping is so cool.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I threw 2 dozen goose eggs into the compost because I thought they were infertile. I candled them sort of and they looked solid inside with a well defined air space that didn't move. Was I correct or did I trash 2 dozen goose eggs?


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I couldn't tell you fishhead. Depending on how long they'd been under the goose or in the incubator I would have been inclined to let them be. However, if they were way past the hatching age, then they were goners. I give my ducklings a couple of extra days - if my incubator runs cool they hatch late by a couple of days even.


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## cowboy joe (Sep 14, 2003)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Just give them the sniff test. The good ones smell like fresh rain. The bad smell like a gas leak.


Pulled a bad duck egg from the incubator last night. Wasn't stinky for long as I had added water to the tray yesterday morning and didn't pick up on the smell. These are my DDs eggs but she went running for the door when she opened the incubator so I got to do the honors. The term 'gas leak' doesn't do the smell justice. Still 'tasting' that smell today...yuk!!! 

Glad the smell in your incubator turned out to be something other than a bad egg! Good luck with the hatch!


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## freedomfrom4 (Jul 27, 2009)

So far we have 13 out of 3 dozen hatched. None were candled so I don't know the state of the rest. The kids have been stuck to the incubator every time they get a chance today. The two that hatched overnight are strong and fluffy. The others are tired and still look a little sticky. I'm debating on wether to move them tonight or leave them till morning. They are so cute. Some are black austrolops and some are easter eggers. The 3 roos were a silky, black austrolop, and an EE. The lady said the Black got the most action. My son love chickens, but it has been a neat experiance for all the kids. We even opened a couple at diferent times to see thier development.


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