Is it okay to scrub living eggs??

Apr 15, 2021
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Hi, I've recently hatched out a batch of chicks, and my incubator was absolutely nasty. I had 4 Naked Neck eggs incubating now they reek with incubator gross. I don't want this to kill them, can I scrub them instead??
 
You should clean your incubator between batches. If your incubator is dirty you'd probably be better off getting a big tub of warm soapy water ready and then moving the eggs onto a towel lined container and covering them while you quickly scrub out the bottom of the incubator.

Eggs still need the bloom while incubating. And unless an egg is rotton, the funk is more likely to be bacteria in the incubator and not anything on the eggs. If one of the eggs is rotten you should be able to tell it's dead by candling them. Or you might see deposits of clear or amber fluid dried on the shell. If it's rotten you'll want to take it out before it explodes. This can happen with shipped eggs because they can get microfractures during shipping that lets in bacteria. It's less common with eggs from your own chickens, but it can happen there too.
 
Thank You!!
You should clean your incubator between batches. If your incubator is dirty you'd probably be better off getting a big tub of warm soapy water ready and then moving the eggs onto a towel lined container and covering them while you quickly scrub out the bottom of the incubator.

Eggs still need the bloom while incubating. And unless an egg is rotton, the funk is more likely to be bacteria in the incubator and not anything on the eggs. If one of the eggs is rotten you should be able to tell it's dead by candling them. Or you might see deposits of clear or amber fluid dried on the shell. If it's rotten you'll want to take it out before it explodes. This can happen with shipped eggs because they can get microfractures during shipping that lets in bacteria. It's less common with eggs from your own chickens, but it can happen there too.
 

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