Washing fertilized eggs

[Cribbs74]

We had a broody hen and decided to put some eggs under her. Somewhere along the way one of the eggs cracked so we put some frog tape on it.

A week later we find the egg smashed on the bottom of the coop and it smelt foul. Upon further inspection it appears it was crushed in the nest and then possibly kicked out.

Problem is the good eggs are covered in that foul mess. I was wanting to wipe them down, but I heard that was not recommended. Is there something I can do?

Ron

 

[red horse ranch]

We had a broody hen and decided to put some eggs under her. Somewhere along the way one of the eggs cracked so we put some frog tape on it.

A week later we find the egg smashed on the bottom of the coop and it smelt foul. Upon further inspection it appears it was crushed in the nest and then possibly kicked out.

Problem is the good eggs are covered in that foul mess. I was wanting to wipe them down, but I heard that was not recommended. Is there something I can do?

Ron

You can try wiping them off with a disinfecting cloth made for human use but I'm not sure it will help. The yolk will have sealed a lot of the egg so that air cannot get into the fetus. I've had eggs broke many times under a broody hen and will have a very poor hatch if any. I had two hens last year setting on dirty eggs and only got two babies from one hen and none from the other hen.
Just last week a hen was wanting to use the nest my brood hen was setting in. An egg broke and left all the others dirty. Since the brood hen had only been setting for two days I just threw away the eggs and moved her to a clean nest in a separate pen with fresh fertile eggs. She has food and water and the other hens can't bother her.