Bacteria And duck eggs

[moodybubbles]

This ain't my first rodeo. I did this last spring with a still air incubator. 2 times zero hatchlings and the last time I had 3 hatch and all three times I had 20 eggs. i was so worried trying to follow all the rules last year and had so many that just didn't pip the last time. It was frustrating.

So this year I have a new circulated air bator. It is day 5 and I just shined the flashlight on them, didn't even pick them up and found at least 5 of the 10 have development.

I only turned my eggs once a day last year so I'm turning them 3 times a day. Morning, mid afternoon and before bed. I just purchased an egg turner but don't want it to mess up the temp by raising the eggs closer to the heater so I can't use it since they have already been in 5 days.

Anyway these are duck eggs. I couldn't get clean duck eggs out of my ducks so I gave up and dusted off as much as I could (which was practically nothing) and put them in. They look dirty. The bacteria from my hands is supposed to be awful, yet I shouldn't wash dirty eggs so It seems if your birds won't lay clean eggs, you won't succeed.

And after I set those eggs they gave spotless, super clean eggs for 4 days straight. Im saving them hoping the laying goose will go broody and I will shove them under her so I can have twice the chances for live hatchlings.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

The problem with washing the eggs is you wash off the bloom, which protects them against bacteria invasion. Even from your hands and poop. Hand washing minimizes the amount of bacteria the eggs are exposed to.

Good luck with your hatch, hopefully it'll go better this time around!

 

[JetCat]

you said your new incubator is forced air so there are no worries about adding the turner and having the eggs closer to the top, the temp will not change because the fan keeps it pretty constant temp throughout the entire incubator.

there are also no issue with washing eggs prior to incubation, many of us wash our eggs prior to incubation and have upper 90% hatch rates, EVERY commercial hatchery out there washes and disinfects their eggs prior to incubation, you'll find some people who will argue against washing them but their argument is based on their opinion not facts or first hand experience. the bloom is to protect the eggs in it's natural environment, not in your clean incubator (you do keep your incubator clean and disinfected don't you?)