Hen breaking her fertile eggs; how to clean eggs?

[bobcatdan]

Brought some fertile eggs home for our broody hen and she has already broken and ate two. The yolk has got onto the other fertile eggs in the box. How to I clean the yolk off or do I just leave it on?

 

[3riverschick]

Brought some fertile eggs home for our broody hen and she has already broken and ate two. The yolk has got onto the other fertile eggs in the box. How to I clean the yolk off or do I just leave it on?

Carefully clean the yolk off. So bacteria doesn't rest there. if the hen is eating eggs, she probably won't stop, sigh. Get another hen or use an incubator. You can try removing the fertile eggs and giving her china or wood eggs to discourage that but that isn't going to solve your current problem of how to get these fertile eggs hatched. Have you asked around on your local BYC list to see if anyone will loan you an incubator? I did last year when I needed an extra and a local lady graciously loaned me a wonderful little bator and really helped me out. Where are you located?
Best,
Karen

 

[Pork Pie]

She may be eating the eggs because they are broken, not because she is deliberately doing so to eat them - just a thought that springs to mind.

CT

 

[bobcatdan]

I bought a incubator that turned out to not hold a stable temp. So as of now I decided to add extra bedding in the box to see if it had to do with just normal shell cracking or is she really pecking them to eat. Im afraid to wipe the eggs evwn though there quite a bit of yolk on them

 

[Master Hatcher]

Brought some fertile eggs home for our broody hen and she has already broken and ate two. The yolk has got onto the other fertile eggs in the box. How to I clean the yolk off or do I just leave it on?

I wash all of my eggs with a 3% peroxide - water solution about 50/50 and have a 98%-100% hatch rate .. wash them with slightly warm water and then dip them and roll them in peroxide /water solution for about 30 seconds each will kill most bacteria ! bacteria is the leading cause for eggs not hatching and people who dont wash there eggs wonder why they sometimes have bad hatch rates lol