Dirty Eggs

[Barry Natchitoches]

My broody had an egg explode last night.


My wife discarded the eggs surrounding it that got egg goo on them or had egg shell dried on them. (BTW, was that necessary? )


Anyway, she noticed today that two of the eggs had some brown stain on them that she does not remember being there before. It looked like it might have been poo residue, although my wife was pretty sure she cleaned the hen up after she let loose three days worth of poo on my lap after my wife removed her from the nest after she found the exploded egg.


Is this dangerous?


Should she remove the two slightly dirty eggs?


We're going to candle the eggs Thursday, but we have never candled eggs before, so we're not sure if we'll know what we are looking at. (Yes, of course we've read all the candling info on this website, and we will have the pictures up on the monitor to refer back to when we start to view our own eggs. Even so, we're concerned that we will lack the experience necessary to figure out for sure what we have.)



We thank you in advance for your insight and suggestions.


And please bear with us, cuz we're new at raising chickens.

 

[tazcat70]

I am not sure if there is a 100% right answer. It is more along the lines of what you want to do.

When I had an egg explode I cleaned the other eggs up. I got as much of the just off as possible. Chickens are not the cleanest of creatures and their eggs will get dirty. The best you can hope for is to keep the nest area as clean as possible and not worry about it so much.

When you go to candle the eggs, you can sniff them. Bad eggs will have a smell even through the shell. It may be faint but ou should be able to smell the bad ones, plus when you candle then you will be able to tell they are different.

The hens will only get off the nest once or twice a day, so they save up their poo so as not to soil the nest. It is normal for them to have huge piles when they go.

I would not get rid of any eggs unless they are not growing.

What day (#) will Thursday be? Day 10 is the earliest I like to candle, because I have made a mistake before. If you wait until then you <i>should</i> be able to tell what you have. If you aren't 100% sure, don't get rid of it. By day 14 you should know for sure. I always mark the day 10 eggs that I am not sure about, so that I can learn.

Hope this helps.

 

[poweki]

I have a similar question.
We recently bought a farm and inherited the chickens and sheep that came with the place.
We are having a wonderful time so far - we have 6 darling lambs - it's awesome!

In the last 2 weeks, 2 of our chickens have gone broody - each sitting on a huge clutch of eggs (13 & 15 when I last got a chance to check!).
In one nest, an egg broke and the residue has dirtied the other eggs which have poo on them as well.
The smashed egg stinks but we have been told not to interfere with the hen.
She's super protective - we're not afraid of her but we don't want to upset her.

Should I endeavour to clean the mess up a bit?
It seems unsanitary but I am a total novice so I don't know.
My chicken books don't address this issue.

Your guidance and advice is most appreciated!

 

[poweki]

Does anyone have egg advice to give to me?

See post above. Thank you!!

 

[Razadia]

I have a similar question.
We recently bought a farm and inherited the chickens and sheep that came with the place.
We are having a wonderful time so far - we have 6 darling lambs - it's awesome!

In the last 2 weeks, 2 of our chickens have gone broody - each sitting on a huge clutch of eggs (13 & 15 when I last got a chance to check!).
In one nest, an egg broke and the residue has dirtied the other eggs which have poo on them as well.
The smashed egg stinks but we have been told not to interfere with the hen.
She's super protective - we're not afraid of her but we don't want to upset her.

Should I endeavour to clean the mess up a bit?
It seems unsanitary but I am a total novice so I don't know.
My chicken books don't address this issue.

Your guidance and advice is most appreciated!

You should check out tazcat's post. I don't think I could come up with better advise than that if I tried.