Project Blue
Songster
- Apr 13, 2025
- 159
- 247
- 113
I had to ask for eggs from someone I gave chickens to earlier after my flock got wiped out trying to keep my project bloodline alive. I'm now hatching chicks from those eggs, so perhaps a little neurotically I wanted to hatch every single eggs laid. It's been wet and mucky outside so I got a lot of very dirty eggs. And of course while I was incubating I decided to hatch some ducks as well. The duck eggs were even stinky dirty. I have a bunch of small incubators and had/have several groups going.
In the past I've not had good success hatching very dirty eggs. Against normal recommendations I washed the eggs in lukewarm water very lightly wiping with a wet paper towel. Next poured hydrogen peroxide over the freshly washed eggs. Lastly a little squirt of hydrogen peroxide in hydration water each time I added water to the incubator.
My results are very good. The ducks are hatching today with 100 percent peeping, though there was only six eggs. Update, one just got out! These were manure/mud covered eggs, the kind you don't really want to wash and eat. The chick hatch is so far about 80 percent, though I had infertile eggs, a giant sized egg, and all were first couple of week eggs from pullets including first eggs. We even had low teens temperatures with these eggs. The last group of chicken eggs were set on the first and sixth and are more normal, but I still cleaned them.
On a side note, two of the duck eggs looked ghastly two days ago. I thought they surely were rotten but left them in the incubator since it was so close to the hatch date. Dark rings had formed around where the air sac is located. Perhaps the cleaning made them more transparent? Ducks are tough but I'm pretty convinced the hydrogen peroxide countered the porousness I created by washing the eggs with both groups.
In the past I've not had good success hatching very dirty eggs. Against normal recommendations I washed the eggs in lukewarm water very lightly wiping with a wet paper towel. Next poured hydrogen peroxide over the freshly washed eggs. Lastly a little squirt of hydrogen peroxide in hydration water each time I added water to the incubator.
My results are very good. The ducks are hatching today with 100 percent peeping, though there was only six eggs. Update, one just got out! These were manure/mud covered eggs, the kind you don't really want to wash and eat. The chick hatch is so far about 80 percent, though I had infertile eggs, a giant sized egg, and all were first couple of week eggs from pullets including first eggs. We even had low teens temperatures with these eggs. The last group of chicken eggs were set on the first and sixth and are more normal, but I still cleaned them.
On a side note, two of the duck eggs looked ghastly two days ago. I thought they surely were rotten but left them in the incubator since it was so close to the hatch date. Dark rings had formed around where the air sac is located. Perhaps the cleaning made them more transparent? Ducks are tough but I'm pretty convinced the hydrogen peroxide countered the porousness I created by washing the eggs with both groups.
