What happens to an unfertilized egg that is sat on?

[ehoneybee]

I imagine not all the eggs she sits on will be ferilized. What do you do with the unhatched eggs?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Throw them in the trash.

 

[ehoneybee]

Ha ha yes. Do they smell? Has anyone ever opened one up to see what's inside? My mom has a story of when she lived on the farm breaking open an egg with a chick in it, blech.

 

[Leaguinea]

Candle before opening them.
I have guineas that I am trying to hatch I put some under a broody, candled at 14 - 16 days and anything without veining and development I disposed of, I am a curious person when it comes to things to do with animal science and before disposing I opened them all to see if developing had started, whether the eggs were fertile, quitter's, yolkers etc. What surprised me was at this age they were not smelly, just a stronger than usual egg smell.

 

[ehoneybee]

Candle before opening them.
I have guineas that I am trying to hatch I put some under a broody, candled at 14 - 16 days and anything without veining and development I disposed of, I am a curious person when it comes to things to do with animal science and before disposing I opened them all to see if developing had started, whether the eggs were fertile, quitter's, yolkers etc. What surprised me was at this age they were not smelly, just a stronger than usual egg smell.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity! If I candled them, I'd have to take them for a bit. That might be tough, no?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Depends really. I have had some I cracked open and were just a watery mess. While another got a whole poked that quickly began oozing greenish nasty rotten egg smell. And the late in shell deaths or non pippers rarely stink.

It's my understanding that those which had some development but quit will within a certain period of time quickly re absorb the evidence that it ever started in the first place. So might not give the actual indicator of fertile or infertile if not checked within the correct time frame after quitting.

Definitely interesting.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity! If I candled them, I'd have to take them for a bit. That might be tough, no?

Not that tough. I usually do it during the night to help keep the hen calm. And have even candled cold eggs and put back under the hen when life still appeared in them and she accidentally went back to the wrong nest. They won't cool down enough during a brief candling to cause issue. And the hen should easily get over it.

 

[Leaguinea]

Depends really. I have had some I cracked open and were just a watery mess. While another got a whole poked that quickly began oozing greenish nasty rotten egg smell. And the late in shell deaths or non pippers rarely stink.

It's my understanding that those which had some development but quit will within a certain period of time quickly re absorb the evidence that it ever started in the first place. So might not give the actual indicator of fertile or infertile if not checked within the correct time frame after quitting.

Definitely interesting.

Do you wash the eggs prior to setting?
I have had quitters that I opened at 25 days (these are guineas so 25 is lockdown) and they really did not have a bad smell just a bit strong and I could clearly make out the cloudy little beginnings of a chick.
I could quite possibly have a blow out at anytime with a rotten one but I don't wash the bloom off and I think that helps to preserve the egg? Just a thought, I really don't know, or maybe it has something to do with the thickness of the Guinea shells. I have dropped an egg on the ground and it never cracked (Humpty Dumpty should have been a guinea egg he never would have broken when he fell off the wall )

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I never wash eggs before setting.

But with the one that did stink... hard to say, it could have had micro cracks. And that particular batch was under a broody not the incubator... which the eggs did become heavily soiled. Maybe it depends how long they've been dead in shell and what stage of development they were at. I don't know what stage that green oozer was at.

Another very experienced hatcher I have interacted with said her duds/whatever rarely EVER stink.

Sometimes my eggs bounce without breaking. But not always.

 

[TeeMom]

I've never washed eggs before setting either. I have candled and pulled the ones that were infertile or quit developing. Only one in the 3 hatches I did this spring and summer ended up rotten and stinky and that was because the hen had cracked it at some point while getting in or out of the nest. We tried to tape up the crack and crossed our fingers, but it stopped developing and so we did an eggtopsy and it was a stinky mess...but interesting. The infertile ones just end up looking like a watery orange liquid...like the white and yolk just mix, but no stink.