how dirty can an egg be for hatching

[Berynn]

I am not a neat freak, but two of my eggs that I got today were really dirty, I wish that I could post pics. I am going to ask my daughter tonight if she can help me post some pics. Especially of my two new chicks that I just hatched.

 

[NewGuineaChooks]

Dirt on eggs cuts down on likelihood of successful hatching. But its not something that is easy to measure. To be safe, try to choose as clean eggs as possible.

That being said, one of the chicks in my incubator hatch came from the dirtiest, yolk covered, egg imaginable. I put it in thinking nothing would grow, but got a healthy chick out of it!

 

[perrym1962]

I have gently washed dirty eggs many times with warm water and they still hatched just fine. I did not scrub them, just put them in the warm water a few seconds and wiped it off with my fingers. A friend gave me 16 duck eggs last year that were covered with mud. I washed all of them off and hatched 15 out of 16. That is my experience.