Cleaning poopy hatching eggs?

I need some persuasive facts from y'all on cleaning poopy eggs for hatching. Many of my hens are laying in the sand box, and they're super clean. But, many are laying all on the wire, and by the end of the day, I'm gathering a bunch of pretty nasty eggs. I didn't have quite the problem last year, but didn't have as many birds as brood stock, either. The more I google, the more confused I get because the polarized opinions. ......... I've read don't try to hatch poopy eggs, use warm water and bleach, submerge, don't submerge, don't use warm water, don't use cold water, if they're "real" dirty...use sandpaper (what is "real dirty, anyway??)............ The opinions are countless!!

I don't want to discard any eggs. I want to hatch everything I can. Gimme some promising ideas, please.....

I'm A Bit Of A Purist And Try Really Hard Not To Wash Eggs... But In Extreme Cases I Simply Run Cool Water Over Them And Use 1 Of The Scrubby Dish Sponges Lightly To Remove The Offending Substrates And Havent Noticed Any Appreciable Difference In Hatch

Well alrighty then..............guess everyone's birds are potty trained.

Glad to see ya made it thru the storms down your way, was a bit wild the way the news sounded. Bill

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Hold on then Randall, I got a book or two I can pull out and blow dust off of. I had a few duck eggs I was dyin to hatch, but with other clean eggs already in the bator and I was a chicken and didn't put them in because they had some mud and feces on them. I was afraid to wash them for fear of ruining the bloom over the egg. So I let it go. They would have been some lookers, that was a painful week for me. I consulted the almighty JJ even and it was a 50/50 thing. But I had too much to loose with other eggs that could have suffered from contamination...It was MY bad really. I had too many going staggered and at different phases, so while the first hatch would be OK, the second and third in there with the hatch remnants, combined with duck egg matter would have probably poisoned the rest upcoming hatchers with infection (even the ducklings). Now if it were just those eggs and you had no other staggered babies coming, I think using the sand paper or cleaned fingernail to scrape off excesses would be fine.....Those that have literally been smooth coated in doootie, hmmm I have to look at Holderread and other's writings.

Let me get out a few old favorites of mine and read what they had to say. I just woke up with my first cup o joe and things aren't ....well everything hurts like it always does and the books are down the hall...

Back witcha soon Randall. Happy you are ok bud, what with all "H.E. double toothpicks" breakin loose through there.



Tonya

I read from Dave Holderread (who specializes in waterfowl...forgive me) that when collecting hatching eggs you can wash them in clean water that is 10 to 25 degrees warmer than the egg with a disinfectant made for this ( I imagine tek trol is a good one as I have seen other quail breeders write on spraying their hatching eggs lightly with it at setting).

He goes on to state that washing the eggs is preferable to setting them dirty...while you may have lower hatchablitiy with those eggs, you have less of a hazard introduced to the entire population...

Now, this is from Raising the Home Duck Flock by Dave Hollderread (guru of waterfowl folk). Original Copyright 1978 but reprinted over and over again as a primary guide.

***Side rant - I do not find enough on raising quail in book form, which WE need to fix. WE as in someone with me or together need to write a Quail for Dummies....ASAP, as in yesterday.

According to Mercia "Raising Poultry the Modern Way" 1990 page 81

"Cleaning"
"Unless they can be washed properly, they should not be washed but rather dry-cleaned by sanding or buffing. Hand -buffing devices are available for this purpose. Eggs should be washed at a temperature of 110 to 115 F, in water containing an approved detergent-sanitizer. The should not be immersed in the wash water for more than three minutes. The eggs should be dried and moved to cold storage. Improperly cleaned eggs frequently become contaminated and may expolode during incubation"


I disagree with the exploding part unless the egg is OLD...candling and removing will prevent that.

So I say buff em, and for the real soiled ones, wash them as per the authors above. I think that if you put them on one side of the incubator "under tight watch" and candle them for progress you can get a handle on what is not working and when to protect your other clean eggs by getting the bad ones out. Holderread did state that dark blotches on the inside of the egg at candling indicates infection in the embryo" in his chart of things to look for in candling. But I have seen dark blotches that were the embryo...that added with the fact that we all tend to look at eggs that are splotched on the OUTSIDE...well....difficult.

I say wash em, put them to a side where you know "who they are" and candle to keep an eye.

I also would like to hear back from you on what your experience is on it.

Tonya

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I do like an intelligent, open-minded, persuasive and referenced post, nice job.

Duck and waterfowl eggs are an exception for me. They will always be a little dirty so they go in the bator. If I ship eggs I wipe off depris but they are always suitable for hatching. I always have scatter hatches and never had issues so I continue doing what I do. My ducks lay eggs in nests they dig in the ground. They hatch them out that way too. No issues. Why toss out viable eggs?

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If you want full hatch and healthy chicks you should always wash the eggs specially eggs from not waterfowl birds. Keep in mind that if you don't wash them you are putting dirty and bacteria in a warm moist place, which is the perfect environment for bacteria growth.

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Cool water makes the interior shrink and makes bacteria get inside through the porous. Hatchery's procedure include warm water washing.

I wash all my dirty eggs in warm water if they are dirty and still get great hatches. I have seen no difference in hatches washed or not. That also goes for my chickens, turkeys and guineas. If you think about it, how many times are eggs rained on while a hen lays her clutch and durring incubation.