Eggs...clean or not to clean.

[Sunne73]

I absolutely love BYC and all the helpful info that I get on here...but so often its conflicting...so here I find myself with 20 little silkie eggs that I desperately want to hatch. I am setting them on wednesday and I do not know if I want to clean the shells or not. They all look relatively clean already but I have read several posts from those that soak their eggs in a bleach solution and swear to a great hatch. I know that cleaning the eggs is not the only factor that lead to a great hatch but I want to do everything humanly possible to get some babies from this hatch. Any thoughts?

 

[justbugged]

You can wipe them off if they are really dirty, BUT DON'T WASH.

 

[mommto3kiddos]

I personally would leave them be.. No wiping or cleaning!!

 

[Chicken Charlotte]

Quote:
I aggree

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

I ran mine under cold water and lightly brushed them off with a brisle brush, and mine are doing great!!! If they are ran under hot/warm water, it opens the pores in the shell and the dirt can get in, so I use clod water. Good luck!

 

[Arielle]

I do not set any obviously dirty eggs. I read an extensive indepth data sheet on the egg white. It has amazing properties to fight infectious "things"; biochemicals like antimicrobials . So I do not clean them either.

Large hatcheries need in depth protocols to maintain production and sanitation and disease prevention; they have huge amounts of $$$ riding on successful hatches of 1000's of eggs.

 

[cmom]

If the eggs are really dirty (poopy) I do take a scrubbie and lightly clean the poop off of the eggs before I set them. I don't want poopy eggs in my incubator and I'm sure it isn't good for the chicks either. This is just what I do...