broken egg under setting hen

[chickenman67]

I just went down too check on my setting hen, there was a broken egg under her witch caused three eggs too stick to her feathers I peeled the feathers off the eggs.and was wondering, should i go down and wash the eggs off or just leave them alone?

 

[pdsavage]

if the sticky stuff is all over the eggs then if it was me I would wash em.The eggs need to be able to breath.try using a damp cloth and only water.
Others may have better advice though....

 

[chickenman67]

I forgot about the egg breathing. gunna run down and washem off.

 

[CrestedGirl]

All eggs when layed have a protective coat that provents bacteria from getting in. If you are using theses eggs for incubation i would not wash them because it would take off the protective coat.

 

[Faith Hope]

I have very little experience, but I had my first broody this past winter. The same thing happened to her. I just wiped them off a little bit, but they were still sticky. Unfortunately, since they were still sticky, over the next several days, several more of the eggs stuck to her and broke as well. Eventually, I brought her and the eggs in the house and gave her a bath and washed the eggs thoroughly. I really thought we had ruined the whole clutch, but I didn't know what else to do. However, 3 actually still hatched out out of the 5 or so remaining eggs. A fourth one must have died shortly before hatch.

So I guess the washing must not have harmed them too much.