Hatching dirty eggs

[lildinkem]

I use water from the faucet and rinse them cleaner. Not immaculate, but definitely cleaner. No problems with hatch rate and they don't look and feel yucky.

 

[Andy J]

Of course I would rather have clean eggs to incubate,but when all you have are dirty eggs,you must make the best of it.I've hatched hundreds of eggs through the years and experimented with eggs of all degrees of dirtiness.I just brush off any loose dirt or debris,or I may wash them completely with plain water,getting them as clean as possible.I don't use any that have been sitting in mud or water in the yard.I always mark the ones that have been washed.From my experience,the ones that have been washed hatch as well as the eggs that haven't been washed.

I will not incubate a cracked or odd shaped egg under any circumstance.

Think about some of the eggs you've seen under a hen,dirty,poop all over them,and yolk from broken eggs all over them and they still hatch.No doubt,clean eggs are the best,but it's not a perfect world.

Andy J

 

[milleryardchx]

My last hatch I was just hatching my personal mutts for my aunts home school project so I experimented

most of the no nos not to do as people say on here I tried a few muddy eggs a few eggs washed clean with a damp cloth then wiped dry with a paper towel one egg cracked with colored wax from my scentsy warmer and 5 eggs that had been in the fridge for 2 weeks. And I had 20 of 20 eggs hatch. Normally I follow the rules as everyone says on here but I wanted to test it just to see and since it was my mutt batch I gave it a try and I had a 100% hatch rate, my thinking was in the wild in spring no matter how good a hen hides her nest it rains eggs are going to get dirty and a little wet at times.

 

[QuackerOats]

Gloves!

 

[rancher hicks]

Some advise to wash them though I never have. Tepid water, not hot. No soap. Let air dry. No hard rubbing.

 

[little_grey_bantam]

Quote:
Same here, I've been experimenting with washing eggs.
ANY eggs that have ANY speck of dirt on them, even if I can pick them off, I don't send to anyone.
They stay here for eating or for hatching experiments.

What I learned is if you wash them in warm-hot water diluted with bleach and dip them in there, let the "crap" loosen up and slighty wipe the "crap" off, you'll still get a good hatch rate.

My bator just fried another 48 eggs (last time, I'm getting rid of it, PERIOD) and ALL the eggs, but 2 had embryos in them...

This is from dirty, muddy, yuckky OLD and refridgerated eggs that were two weeks to a month old.
You could wash eggs, but I'd try it out with your own test eggs first just in case. I've never tried it with any shipped eggs nor shipped out any eggs that way nor had anyone ask (if they would, I'd be hesitant lol, they'd have to do it themselves!). I even had a gentleman ASK to purchase my eggs at 1/2 price if he could get the dirtiest ones, because he did the same thing (wash them, hence how I got the idea to do so myself).

But same here, I've had hens get yolk all over them and sometimes they hatch, sometimes they don't LOL

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I just can't get myself to put filty eggs in the incubator so I always wash dirty ones. Water needs to be warm, not hot and I take one at a time and get my hand wet with the water and then use that hand to wet the egg.

I continue to do that for a bit until I can feel the "yuk" loosen. Then I use a baby brush and gently scrub it clean. I gently dab it free of any water and let it set to dry.

I have not had any problems hatching yet.

 

[chickencrazymom]

Thank you all for your advice , it makes me feel alot better that others have had this same problem. I took a green scrubbie pad and just scuffed the eggs that were the worst , and only on the biggest piles of nasty . I set 41 eggs last night , we'll see how they turn out !!Hope for lots of

 

[ErniesFlock]

Mine also are filth and I only have 1 bator and these egss cost me a lot. I am going to wash them no soap they are so gross with chicken poop I assume. uuugs