Moisture question for hatching eggs

[gimmie birdies]

I have a guy saving eggs for me. He said he put a moist paper towel on them as they were saving the eggs.

I told him not to do that.

I that going to wreck the eggs? maybe it depends on how wet the towel was and where it was placed. I am not happy.

 

[Slothinc]

I have a guy saving eggs for me. He said he put a moist paper towel on them as they were saving the eggs.

I told him not to do that.

I that going to wreck the eggs? maybe it depends on how wet the towel was and where it was placed. I am not happy.

It probably depends on how wet they were and if the paper towel was placed directly on the eggs. I imagine some of the bloom could have been removed by the towel. How long is he holding on to the eggs for you?

 

[gimmie birdies]

I pic them up tomorrow. Maybe it will not be a big deal if the eggs have not developed yet.

 

[Slothinc]

I think the biggest danger is just having the bloom compromised. But I know people do incubate washed eggs sometimes and they are able to hatch some, so hopefully yours will be okay!

 

[Toothpick]

Lots of folks getting in to the chicken game now that don't really have a clue how to play. I think they will be fine though, probably just wants to keep them cool maybe. I would have told him nahhh don't worry about the towel too but I'd still take them and incubate them. Eggs can tolerate quite a bit of "not ideal" abuse and situations.

 

[gimmie birdies]

He took off the towels, I am picking the eggs up on Monday they will hatch on St. Pats.

 

[Ridgerunner]

While the eggs are being stored they are losing moisture. The longer they are stored, the lower the humidity of the surrounding air, and the warmer they are stored the more moisture they lose. I agree on not removing the bloom, you do not want to wash that off. I don't know what conditions he has while storing the eggs. Was he concerned about low humidity causing excess moisture loss?

There is a window in how much moisture an egg can lose and remain viable. It is a fairly large window but there are limits. I generally do not store my hatching eggs for over a week before incubation starts, I don't worry about the moisture loss. If I were saving them for two weeks I'd consider moisture loss.

I don't know why he used those wet paper towels or how wet they were. I don't know if the eggs were damaged or not.

Good luck with the hatch.