dirty egg question

[MandyH]

Here's my two cents: I hatch between 2000 and 3000 chicks a year, and have NEVER washed an egg. If I have one that is just extremely nasty, I wash it with sand. I keep a little bucket of play sand in the hatching house and I gently rub the egg with the sand to remove the excess poo or dirt. Sand won't harm the surface or remove the bloom from the egg. Since eggs are porous and absorb anything that comes in contact with them, I NEVER wet them. That's just me, and I have excellent hatch rates with this method.