H2S

Lessons from high school chemistry class came rushing back to me Saturday evening as we were getting ready for the last night of the county fair - a loud pop was heard in the kitchen. I rushed into the kitchen and discovered little pieces of egg shell strewn about which led my eye to a blackish green pool of fluid on the counter. I didn't fully connect the dots until I got a whiff of a wretched and vile odor that repeatedly triggered my gag reflex and brought back chemistry with Mr. Bowen. I raced to the door for air and leaned over the railing.

Hydrogen sulfide is the chemical compound with the formula H2S. This colorless, toxic and flammable gas is only partially responsible for the foul odor of rotten eggs. I am really not sure what all else is packed under the shell, but it is foul (sic).

I guess I need to back up a bit. Mary wanted to preserve the little eggs pullets were laying so we gathered a bunch of them - too many to bronze so we decided to blow them out and keep the cute little shell.

Problem is we had another batch of petite eggs after the first batch that eventually got mixed in with the blown eggs - that was a couple of months ago that the anaerobic decomposition first started inside these eggs. One exploded and four remained intact. We had to defuse the situation fast so we could get on to the fair; keep other eggs from also bursting; clean up the whole mess, air out the house and keep from hurling inside the house as we clean up the mess.

It was a complicated situation, but Dalton stepped up to the challenge donning his gas mask he was able to clean up the contamination site, remove the unexploded hen bombs and bury them outside.

We were pretty pleased with the final outcome until we saw Duke dug down to get the four remaining eggs and ate them. He was staggering around eating grass as we drove off to the fair.

Duke survived. He greeted us on our way in and when we opened the car door we were greeted with the smell of rotten eggs that Duke had liberated from the grave.