Taking incubator eggs from strangers.... ;)

[wems2371]

Much like taking candy from strangers, I'm thinking that a person shouldn't bring home eggs from strangers either! The weekend before last, I went with some friends to a new bird supplier, to buy some quail. The place was a hodgepodge of makeshift looking pens, not well organized, and a little on the dirty side IMO. The quail were young, but could fly, so at $4 each I took a dozen and may go back for more. My friend and I got the fifty cent tour while we were there. Several different varieties of call ducks, geese, chickens, rabbits, goats, turkeys, etc. In conversation, I mentioned to the older gentleman that I had just received my incubator, and was getting ready to put some of my only pair of call duck's eggs in it. Next thing I know he's heading into a pen, and comes out of a shanty with 4 eggs for me. Seemed generous, although he mentioned that they could be bantam chicken eggs as well, since they were all housed together. We were there for probably another 10 minutes, and as we worked our way back to the truck, he disappeared into another pen and came back with 4 more possible call duck eggs. He told me to make sure I got them in an incubator within a couple days, and I got them into mine less than 48 hours later. I pondered tossing them in the nearest ditch, but thought the surprise hatch would be fun.

Well I got a surprise all right. Less than 8 days of being in the incubator, and one exploded green goo yesterday. Might not have been too bad, except I don't have a building to put my little Brinsea incubator in, so it's in the house. Thankfully I discovered the egg mess almost immediately and got it cleaned up, so there's no lingering smell. Well I barely got it cleaned up. I can't explain the smell of a rotten egg, but I was dry heaving all the way to the garage sink to rinse the plastic egg tray off.

So here are some questions. Could a freshly sat egg have gone that rotten in just 8 days...or was I given old eggs? The manual that came with the incubator talks about candling at 8 days, so surely I shouldn't have that rotten of an egg in that short of time. I did not throw the remaining eggs away, but I'm highly tempted to do so, if it stops a repeat episode. Secondly, I did not buy a candling lamp. Can I candle successfully with a flashlight and like a tp roll or piece of conduit? And thirdly, I have a diagram of what different candled eggs should look like. Is an egg that rotten, just going to be a solid mass? I feel like I'm handling mini bombs...

[topher40]

I wouldn't get eggs from an untrusted source, to many chances something could go wrong concerning diseases and such. You may have received eggs that were older than advertised or not fertile. You already have them in the incubator so I would leave them, any damage that could have been done has been. IMO I use a pen light that doctors use to see up your nose, check your eyes and see down your throat. My wife is a doctor so I get more than I need. They work well to candle even if I don't candle eggs very often. When you put the eggs in and do everything right the eggs should hatch unless the weren't fertile to begin with.

[wems2371]

I wouldn't get eggs from an untrusted source, to many chances something could go wrong concerning diseases and such. You may have received eggs that were older than advertised or not fertile. You already have them in the incubator so I would leave them, any damage that could have been done has been. IMO I use a pen light that doctors use to see up your nose, check your eyes and see down your throat. My wife is a doctor so I get more than I need. They work well to candle even if I don't candle eggs very often. When you put the eggs in and do everything right the eggs should hatch unless the weren't fertile to begin with.

Thanks Chris! I'm an EMT, so I can come up with a pen light. I did think a little bit about disease, but the chance at surprise over came me. I have one of my own call duck's eggs in there too, and the difference in shell cleanliness in the freebies, leaves something to be desired. I definitely will disinfect well after this adventure...

[gotpointers]

Eggs should not explode unless they are really old or Exposed to direct sunlight and or high temperature for long periods if time. Tektrol is a good disenfectant, i also spray white vinegar between loads. Also try to write date and time on each egg you set. No matter how much you pay for your thermometer the best way to get accurate temp is by timing the hatch. Candle often and get rid of clear eggs over 10 days old. Eggs that appear fine often will show cracks under candling also.

[wems2371]

Thanks gotpointers. That's good info. I had one more explode on Tuesday, and decided enough was enough and dumped all of the guys eggs. Kind of disappointing, because while I was fooling with his eggs, my call duck started laying and I should've been putting her eggs in the incubator. Call ducks are notoriously bad at sitting, so we'll see if she gets it done. This is her 2nd time laying a nest, and there was a little confusion for her on her first go round.

I now have one little egg of my own rolling around in the Brinsea with 16 days to go. I JUST candled it right now. I can definitely see blood vessels and a small dark spot. Better not count my chicks before they're hatched , but I'm thinking this one is fertile.

[stevoman]

i Know the feeling of being let down like that. i bought bantam eggs online from a dealer in the UK. a fair price paid too, but none of them hatched they were all duds. Also bought pheasant eggs from another man, same thing and he was only down the road.

I gave up on my hatching days after that!

[gotpointers]

The new eggs are still useable unless she started the incubation process. Usually they won't stay on the nest enough to start it until 5-10 eggs are laid. The best way is to pick eggs a couple times a day. They are usually laid before 1 pm. Eggs can be kept indoors out of direct sunlight at 65 degrees for up to 14 days before incubation, fertility does drop the longer you wait. We set eggs once a week so we have group hatches. The veins and spot you describe are 10 day indicators. I don't know how long call duck incubation times are.

[wems2371]

You are pretty much on the money, gotpointers. This afternoon was 11 days in and everything I've read for call ducks says 26-27 days.

[gotpointers]

Cool, if you need help don't hesitate to pm me.

[QuailHollow]

I've been hatching chickens / ducks / and game birds for years now. The occasional egg bomb is gonna happen. I've hatched eggs out of the refrigerator!

[RockLobster707]

Hi there, My wife and i have been incubating eggs of all sorts for years now, and to be honest the old guy probably didnt know how long those eggs had been in there. The others could have been fresh laid but that one had been sitting around for weeks. As for quail they are fast growing and fast hatching, i just bought 100 eggs for 20 bucks. Dont know about you but that is worth its own weight in gold to me. Plus then you can sell the chicks, to your friends for 2 bucks and then they think your the best for selling them half price. My wife is the one who finds the eggs online they ship them to you, and to be honest if you have them mailed its a gamble but this is how we've been doing it for the last 5 years now. If you have any questions hit me up and ill put some links up from where my wife finds them. She is also a part of a forum called backyard chickens, and those people are incubator-holics wow. If you want to know about incubators or breeding or what not talk to them.

[wems2371]

Thanks for the replies. I candled it again this morning and the blood vessels are still visibile but one side had a large dark spot/shadow now. Hope that means it's still a good viable growing duckling. I was gone for a couple days this weekend. We had some storms and I know the power must have flickered or went off at one point, because there was a flashing P on the LCD display when I got home. I doubt it was for long, as we've never had a significant outage here, and there isn't anything I could have done about it anyway. 11 days to find out.

I don't think the guy had a clue how old they were. He had good intent, but I would have never bothered with them if I'd realized their egg-splosive potential.

[wems2371]

Hatch rate 100% Now to just keep it alive. And yes, that's a sock in the incubator. I came home this morning to see the egg rolling around and figured that might make it harder for the duckling to get out of the shell, so I grabbed the first thing I thought of.

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa28 ... V04858.mp4