I recently got eggs from someone that were absolutely filthy. I wish I had taken pics of them, they were that bad. I wiped them down to remove the excess mud, poop, etc off of them but the shells were really grungy. Well just as I thought, none of the eggs that I bought from this person hatched. Most developed blood rings within 10 days and the rest that were fertile died in less than 2 weeks. Although I can't positively say that the cause for so many early deaths was the filthiness of the eggs, I'm sure it contributed to it. What is the best way to clean eggs like this? Or should I not even bother and just toss them because they're such a lost cause? Laurie
We don't even touch the eggs that we are going to set. We use either paper towels to pick them up or surgical gloves. Same when candling, if we even pick them up. With that said, if you HAD to set dirty eggs, I wouldn't clean them. I get my own eggs from the girls, so I won't set a dirty egg. If I were to ship them, I wouldn't send dirty ones either. We put 23 eggs in last weekend, just candled tonight and ALL of them have veining. ETA: Where your eggs Duck eggs? If so, my duck eggs are always dirty.
No, the eggs I bought were chicken eggs, which is more frustrating. They looked like they had laid out in a yard full of mud and chicken poop. I have ducks and we collect duck eggs for eating for ourselves and they're almost always a mess even though they have a nice clean nestbox to lay in, they always choose to lay the eggs next to them. Personally I would never send anyone filthy eggs. Thanks for the idea about the rubber gloves! Thats a great idea. That's something that we have tons of in our home because my husband and I are both retired from the health care field. Laurie
I used to soak eggs in warm water with Iodine in it and got really good hatched but mine weren't that dirty, and when I stopped washing them it really didn't make a difference. But if yours are really dirty you may want to try it. BTW: They shouldn't have sold you dirty eggs to begin with.
It's best to not clean them. If they are very dirty don't set them. If I got really dirty eggs from someone and paid money I'd be demanding a refund, more clean eggs, or leaving bad feedback. If they are somewhat dirty I just put them in the bator as is. I might knock any chunks of poop off with a paper towel or something. I just hatched an egg that you could only see maybe half it's shell for the poop, dirt, and bedding. I didn't manage to collect many of those eggs so I decided to set it without holding out much hope and it was the first one to hatch a couple days ago. If you do wash an egg it should be in warm water and personally I would not use any soap or cleaner of any kind. Washing eggs can actually aid bacteria to get into the shell. Water can pass in and out of the shell and carry things with it. Using warm water lessens that risk but it's still more than if you just left the egg dry. Washing will also remove the protective coating that keeps bacteria out. The egg then has to sit in the bator for 3 weeks without that extra bit of protection. Your odds of a dirty egg hatching aren't really increased any by washing even if you do it right.