Washing Duck Eggs

[smfamf]

What is a safe way to clean duck eggs? I want to incubate some but they are really dirty.

 

[Squirtchy2009]

damp cloth them, duck eggs have to be whiped with a damp cloth sometmies anyway so just use a damp tea towel or something to whipe away any poo or dirt

 

[FenDruadin]

Mine get really filthy too. I use a bucket of very warm (but not hot), soapy water. I take them, one at a time, and dip them briefly in the water. Then I rub gently with my hands. Dip and repeat until they are clean. I never rub them very hard.

I don't know if that is the best way, but it was recommended to me and seems to have worked. I am hatching this batch on Monday, and out of 13 only one has not made it so far, and it was a fairly porous egg that I knew was a gamble. If they had had cleanliness problems, they would already have been dying from the bacteria load.

 

[smfamf]

Washing won't destroy the bloom, like on chicken eggs?

 

[FenDruadin]

It does destroy the bloom. There is some debate as to whether that is preferable to having filthy eggs in the incubator. The thing about ducks is that they are not so reliable about laying in nests as chickens are, and they tend to walk & poop all over their eggs. So it is much harder to get "nest clean" eggs, so many of us simply wash them. Perhaps we get slightly lower hatch rates, but if I'd tried to set only nest-clean eggs this time, I would have two in the bator instead of 13. Or I would have 13 but 11 of them would be coated in filth.

So it's a bit of a toss-up. I prefer clean eggs, even if that means removing the bloom. That is why I wash them very gently, however--to leave them as in tact as possible. And the warm water prevents contamination from passing into the eggs during washing.