Crystal formation on egg shell during incubation

homeguy03

Hatching
Jan 22, 2025
3
1
6
Hello!

This is my first time incubating chicken eggs. I received these BCM shipped eggs and inspected them for damage. All the ones I put in the incubator were good. After 3 days I took my first look and noticed what appears to be clear crystals of some kind forming as small dots on maybe 5 of them. It isn’t coming from cracks or holes. It almost looks like it comes from pores in the shell.

Based on what I can find, opinions range from normal calcium salt or immune response to imminent egg grenade.

Has anyone experienced this?

For reference these are shipped BCM eggs, incubation started day 5 after lay, no turning for the first 2 days of incubation as some had detached air cells. Currently 3 days into incubation set at 99.5 degrees but hovers around 100 and 30-40% humidity. Eggs were not washed and set at room temp for approx 18 hours before incubation. Im using the Chickcozy circulating air 25-egg incubator which holds the eggs upright and a Govee Bluetooth thermo/hygro to monitor.
 

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Last edited:
I’m still a neophyte Hatcher so can only comment on basic science. As far as incubation goes, I’d leave them alone, candle every so often and if they are obviously dead or not developing then ditch them. Salts dissolve in water and tend to move with it but if the water pools somewhere the water eventually evaporates and leaves the salt behind. That’s why the ocean is salty and the Dead Sea is dead: water and salt flow in but only the water evaporates off leaving ever more salt behind. This is happening on a micro scale with your eggs: evaporation from the surface of the egg is causing small deposits of salt behind. Maybe they have bigger pores or a thinner membrane or ruptured something or who knows, shipping does strange things to eggs but they can hatch even so, maybe more at risk for embryonic death but probably not guaranteed, watch but don’t worry!
 

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