[Nhcoll-l] Un-Blown Eggs in Collection

[Steve Sullivan]

I have an unblown hen’s egg that has been sitting on my desk for the last 10 years or so.  I’ve never considered it any more of a pest risk than any of the mounts that go through my office--though maybe I should seal it in a jar with a few dermestid and see what happens.  

 

I suspect the grease could add to the pest risk but don’t worry about explosions.  Once the contents have been desiccated, eggs can’t pop since there won’t be any aggressive bacterial feeding to build up gas pressure inside the shell.  If no one has better suggestions, I’d use Dawn dish soap (the taxidermists friend) to wash the outside.  You could also soak it in 50% dilution of ammonia to get the internal grease out.  Note: I’ve never tried this on eggs but use these principles on bones frequently.

 

As far as removing contents, except for the grease, I’d consider this a cool resource.  I even like the dirt and blood that remains on many of the eggs in our century.5-old collection and usually try not to wash new eggs too well.  My rationale is that the stuff hasn’t cause any problems yet so isn’t likely to but, with all the stable isotope people these days, someone is bound to find a use in comparing dirt, blood, shell, and egg contents.

 

--Steve

Steven M. Sullivan  |  Senior Curator of Urban Ecology

The Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

 

Museum|2430 North Cannon Drive|Chicago Illinois 60614| <http://www.naturemuseum.org/> naturemuseum.org

Collections|4001 North Ravenswood Ave.|Chicago Illinois 60613| <http://projectsquirrel.org/> projectsquirrel.org

P 708-937-6253 | F 773-755-5199 | ssullivan at naturemuseum.org

 

A century of memories and lessons from the Passenger Pigeon at  <http://passengerpigeon.org/> passengerpigeon.org

 

 

 

 

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Ingrid Rochon
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 6:07 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Un-Blown Eggs in Collection

 

Hello all,

 

We are currently re-housing our egg and nest collection in preparation for a move to a new storage facility, and have encountered quite a few sets of un-blown eggs - these have no holes, are heavy with dried yolk matter, and have a greasy, tacky surface.  Amazingly, after 50 years or more in storage, they haven't exploded!  We also have several broken eggs with dried, greasy yolk matter adherent to the eggshell.    

 

Ideally we would like to clean these specimens and remove excess grease and organic manner that will be attractive to pests... but we're not sure what the best treatment might be, and our literature search hasn't turned up many similar cases to ours. 

 

Does anyone know of a way to clean and salvage un-blown eggs?  Any advice would be appreciated.  

 

Best,

 

Ingrid Rochon and Janet Gillette

 

Ingrid Rochon

Collections Intern/GWU Graduate Student

Museum of Northern Arizona

ingrid.rochon at gmail.com 

 

Janet Whitmore Gillette

Natural Science Collections Manager

Museum of Northern Arizona

3101 N. Fort Valley Road

Flagstaff, AZ  86001

(928) 774-5211 <tel:%28928%29%20774-5211>  ext. 265

 <mailto:jgillette at mna.mus.az.us> jgillette at mna.mus.az.us

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