Washing the eggs before incubation?

[Sylviaanne]

it is a bummer when you lose a chick
.
i candled her eggs and removed 3 - 2 were cracked, one stopped developing. they are due on 9th, 14th, 17th, I will remove as they hatch.

I was born and raised in southern Arizona, Tucson to be exact. I know what it's like to have the poo dry before it hits the ground. LOL I didn't raise chickens out there but dog poo dried really fast.

Is your nesting box as deep as it looks? Sylvia

 

[gimmie birdies]

no- just kinda tall.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Looks like your hens would feel safe in them. Sylvia

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Thank you. This land out here is not flat for long. It is beautiful and lush green in the spring, summer and fall but when it rains, the dirt is clay. I have a henhouse that doesn't have any nesting boxes yet, just hay on the floor about shin deep. They have dug out 2 nesting spots and most everyone lays in one nest with one or 2 laying in the other one. Even the ducks go in and lay in the bigger nest. At this time, I smell a foul odor so I have to clean out their nest and remove whatever egg/egg mess is in it. The hay is clean other than that. I just don't have the money or the skills to build nesting boxes so I will have to wait for a little bit of money to make nesting boxes out of plastic totes. Looks easy but probably isn't. Thanks, Sylvia

No wonder, you got every bird in the area hanging around crapping on the eggs and walking on them with their dirty feet. You don't need any skills or $$ to make nest boxes, any kind of old bucket, box, dishpan, cat litter box, milk crate, old stove or dryer, anything you can put some straw in and set it on a block or something to raise it off the ground a little bit will work fine.
If you built something nice or expensive the chickens would just crap on it and go lay their eggs under a bush or somewhere else.
Hope this helps.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Are the wash basins you get from the hospital big enough for them? I have 2 of them. I have 3 Cornish Cross hens. I also have cardboard boxes that have the tops and front cut out that my dogs just love to sleep in. Those are easily disposed of if they get nasty. Is cardboard ok? I can get lots of those. Thanks, Sylvia

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Yep. Whatever you can get that's big enough for a chicken to sit in it.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Thank you. I will get some of those boxes. I have 2 and have already put one out there. Tomorrow I hope to find an egg or 2 in it. Sylvia

 

[ChickenLegs13]

You might have to bait the hens by putting an egg in their new box so they'll stop laying in the hole they scratched in the corner.

 

[KatD]

The instructions on my incubator indicated to wash the eggs. 24 of 31 appear to have the airspace associated with a developing embryo. I only notice movement in one on day nine but my candling room was too bright before that and I think I may have missed it. Today is day 16. I am having difficulty raising and maintaining the humidity. If I don't have a good hatch rate I may not wash the next batch and also work with higher humidity. I have read different specifications for humidity from 45-65 for 17 days then 60-95 in the last three days. I'm sure it has something to do with the local RH but I just went with the instructions on the box and tried for 55 and now I'm trying for 70 for the eighteenth day Friday the fifth. Yesterday morning the temperature increased for the first time. I got it down but it was tricky and I hope the eggs are okay. This morning the RH was suddenly 30 percent. I have been working on it for the last couple of hours. I'm trying to get it up to seventy by Friday.

 

[Spongegirl]

I got a poultry magazine this months because of the incubating article. It says to wash the eggs. It also says "pipe" instead of "pip", so I didnt give any credibility to the article. I always read to not wash the eggs because it could force bacteria into the egg and also washes away the bloom that protects the embryo from bacteria. I think I will wash a clutch of eggs I just received in the mail before I set them because they are very dirty. I had it in my mind that dirty eggs mean a dirty coop but I guess I didn't consider the rain and mud like some of you spoke of. Even in the rain, my hen goes in a raised dog house to lay her eggs and that is where they sleep at night, out during the day. I keep that box really clean so the eggs are never dirty even when it has rained for a week.