how do i wash an egg for the incubator?

[1shotcleaner]

i have hatched alot of eggs. but they are clean or not really dirty. i just received 50 filthy quail eggs, and would like to set them. iv never washed an egg that im incubating. can youall tell me how to wash them or clean them for the incubator? thank you in advance

 

[joe17]

Your best bet is to not even clean them. By doing so you are removing a protective layer of the egg. If you must take a dry towel and rub the egg a bit. Some say you can run some luke warm water on the eggs and towel dry them clean.

 

[quintinp]

yeah just rubbing off the gunk and poo with an old rag, is the best thing to do, it has been okay for me, but usually i dont have to clean my eggs, i guess i was blessed with some (NON-egg dirtying) chickens, lol

 

[cmom]

I had some Pheasant eggs that were pretty dirty too. I take a terry cloth and wipe off the dirtiest eggs and don't worry about the rest if they aren't too dirty.

 

[Barrdwing]

One of the problems with washing an egg is that it removes the cuticle, which is a water-soluble barrier meant to block bacteria; without a cuticle, an egg is more vulnerable. When one of our peahens left her nest, there were four eggs still in the nest. A fifth egg had broken and there were gooey splatters on the other eggs, but no bad smell. I wanted to put them in the incubator but didn't like all that glop on the eggs. I remembered reading somewhere about sanding dirty eggs, so I used some fine sandpaper and buffed off just the spots of glop. It worked surprisingly well--the sandpaper literally grabbed the goo and pulled it off--and so far three of those eggs have hatched. The incubator doesn't smell bad, either.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

To wash them put them in the sink filled with very hot soapy water an pull them out one at a time starting with the cleanest. wipe them with your hand an rinse them with more very hot water. Then grab the next one....
Water has to stay hotter than the eggs.

I wash mine. All hatcheries wash theirs. Every study on the subject says to wash them. Yet people keep repeating the "don't wash" stuff.

 

[joe17]

Where are the studies on the subject? I didn't know all hatcheries wash their eggs...

 

[Barrdwing]

Quote:
You're absolutely right. I'm sorry, I should have clarified: I was talking about visibly clean eggs that are headed for the incubator. Eggs that have poop or worse on them, I either don't incubate or spot wash in warm to hot water. The sandpaper routine with the pea eggs was more along the lines of an experiment, sort of a "gee, I wonder how this works?" thing. It worked better than I expected. Did it remove all of the glop? No, hot soapy water would have done that job much better. But it did seem to remove enough to keep any bacterial growth to an acceptable level.

Eggs for eating, we generally wash. While I might put up with a few specks of dirt (not poo), my husband and the folks we give eggs to don't have to put up with dirty eggs.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
I don't have any saved but maybe one of the others do.

 

[Lil'ChickFarm]

Is there a reason you use hot water? Won't it cook the egg inside a bit? I just washed two dozen with dish soap and cool water. I ate them all and they were fine.