Picking eggs for incubator help.....

[BigWeenMachine]

Hello, this is our first year picking eggs out of the coop to stick into the incubator. Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on how dirty a duck egg can be to put into an incubator without creating a bacterial nightmare. Right now, we have 26 eggs collected in the last 5 days that are all awaiting their month long stay in our Lyon incubator that should hold about 50 eggs. It seems like we throw just as many away as we keep because there seems to be too much poop on them. I guess what I'm asking is how successful people are with setting eggs that have a couple specs of poop on them. I have been gently picking the large specs off with my fingernail and a paper towel but it seems that most are never completely clean. Will they be okay or should I get even more picky about our selection process??? Here are 24 of them, do these eggs look clean enough to hold up for 4 weeks in the incubator? I usually run my temp at 99.5 and humidity between 40 and 45%. Are there any eggs anyone would throw out or should they all be ok?





I'm worried that if I get any pickier we won't be able to acquire enough eggs to fill our Lyon incubator before ten days are up, and the first eggs we picked will start to go bad and be unable to hatch anyways. Thanks for any help!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Hello, this is our first year picking eggs out of the coop to stick into the incubator. Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on how dirty a duck egg can be to put into an incubator without creating a bacterial nightmare. Right now, we have 26 eggs collected in the last 5 days that are all awaiting their month long stay in our Lyon incubator that should hold about 50 eggs. It seems like we throw just as many away as we keep because there seems to be too much poop on them. I guess what I'm asking is how successful people are with setting eggs that have a couple specs of poop on them. I have been gently picking the large specs off with my fingernail and a paper towel but it seems that most are never completely clean. Will they be okay or should I get even more picky about our selection process??? Here are 24 of them, do these eggs look clean enough to hold up for 4 weeks in the incubator? I usually run my temp at 99.5 and humidity between 40 and 45%. Are there any eggs anyone would throw out or should they all be ok?





I'm worried that if I get any pickier we won't be able to acquire enough eggs to fill our Lyon incubator before ten days are up, and the first eggs we picked will start to go bad and be unable to hatch anyways. Thanks for any help!

I think your eggs look pretty clean, especially compared to some I set a couple of weeks ago (all developing with the exception of 1 early blood ring, and that was in a clean one). I don't worry too much about the crusty ones because some of the eggs my broodies hatch are dirty, too, and I make every effort to keep the bloom intact.

I'd make myself crazy if I only set "clean" duck eggs with this weather.

Hope you have a great hatch!

 

[BigWeenMachine]

LOL, good point. With all the wet days we get in the spring it is almost impossible to get a perfectly clean egg. We have a heck of a time trying to keep the coop dry so the ducks aren't constantly smearing poop and mud everywhere.