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
......... 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!!
