Touching eggs during egg candling

[WillMauritsen]

Hi all!

So I recently put 8 eggs in my incubator, and it is my first time incubating chicken eggs. Today was day 8 so I decided to candle the eggs to see how many were fertilized. Anyways, I candled all the eggs and so far 100% fertilization! After I returned the eggs to the incubator, I realized that I forgot to wash my hands! Does anyone know what not washing your hands will do to the egg? I just hope I haven't screwed this perfect batch up!

Thanks! -Will

 

[floppysquirrel04]

They’ll be fine.

 

[WillMauritsen]

They’ll be fine.

Thank you! I was getting very worried, Happy Easter!

 

[floppysquirrel04]

 

[Uff Da]

My hatch rates improved after I was very careful to wash or sanitize my hands every single time I touched my eggs. But I still got decent (75% or so) hatch rates before I started getting serious about cleaning hands before handling eggs. So it is a good idea to wash your hands first, but you won't ruin a hatch by forgetting!