crushed eggs or paranoid

[yzguy]

Out of curiosity, what do you do if an egg is clearly bad, and is attached to the rest of the egg-pile? Can you safely remove it, and if so, how? I've heard they stick together pretty firmly.


Best of luck with your eggs!! I hope they do well for you!

once I am REALLY SURE it is bad, 1 of 2 things. If there is a fairly small amount that is holding them together, then I use the dental floss sawing technique, which works pretty good. The egg shells are pretty tough.
Or if there is large area holding them together, then I cut open the bad egg, and just leave the section attached to the other eggs, removing as much of the bad egg as a I can, and leaving only the patch of the egg connected to the rest, and just wiping them off (this does stink more, and makes a bit of a mess sometimes, but I know I won't mess up the good eggs).

no idea what everyone else does, that is just what I do.

oh, and personally I would put any in the incubator, just because I feel it is easier than trying to give the mom the correct environment to incubate them correctly.

[Seneschal]

once I am REALLY SURE it is bad, 1 of 2 things. If there is a fairly small amount that is holding them together, then I use the dental floss sawing technique, which works pretty good. The egg shells are pretty tough.
Or if there is large area holding them together, then I cut open the bad egg, and just leave the section attached to the other eggs, removing as much of the bad egg as a I can, and leaving only the patch of the egg connected to the rest, and just wiping them off (this does stink more, and makes a bit of a mess sometimes, but I know I won't mess up the good eggs).

no idea what everyone else does, that is just what I do.

oh, and personally I would put any in the incubator, just because I feel it is easier than trying to give the mom the correct environment to incubate them correctly.

Thanks for the response, I was wondering if I'd get one given the age of the thread. I actually have a clutch in the incubator right now that I think one of the bottom eggs got damp pretty early on. There's a slight odor to the incubator right now, and since the top ones don't look to be rotting, I suspect it to be the bottom one. Problem is that the eggs, a clutch of 8, were laid in a pile, and adhered before I got to them. I have 7 visible eggs and one in the center/bottom of the clutch...I have no clue how to get to the thing to remove it without damaging the others. Really afraid of trying to cut/drain it, given that I'll have to somehow do it without tilting the remaining eggs.

[yzguy]

I'd start by seeing if there are any that are a little loose, and use the dental floss to saw it off and separate it. Then you can at least get a good look at that center egg.

Last year, I did cut 2 that had not piped yet, and those eggs are pretty tough, so I don't think you can hurt them with dental floss, just put pressure on it, and keep sawing back and fourth.

Also, I'm not even sure that the bad egg will affect the others.

[Seneschal]

Thanks for the advice. I'm a little hesitant to mess with them too much, as it's my first clutch, and I'm a bit of a nervous nelly with them. I'm concerned about having them out of the incubator long enough to do that (temp and humidity drops) and...if the bad egg won't hurt them, then I don't see a point in messing with them. I might actually create a new thread/poll and see what people have to say, rather than continuing to hijack this one...lol.