Here's my 2 cents on the duck wash deal.
Yes it's true, the hen will polish them up, but have you ever really felt one? Compare it to the ol chicken eggs , now.
A duck egg being incubated by its mother is nearly waxy feeling, It has a very thick coating on it to help prevent the wash off effect, also, I believe the heavy oil coating on all waterfowl feathers just keeps reapplying protection day after day, therefore the water has little effect.
I aint very oily myself LOL, so I cant replace anything I wash off!
I would think if any , a very light cleaning ONCE may not be too bad, but I personally still never do it.
If you candle them once a week or so, you'll have no problems . A fertile egg, no matter how dirty, will not explode in an incubator, a dead one will, So just candle them every 7 days or so and toss out the bad ones.
Now as for you collection time, are you shipping or are they locall, pick-up buyers.
Think of how long it take a hen to lay a clutch of 8-15 eggs, couple weeks right?
So if your guy is picking them up, eggs that are 7-10 days old will be just fine, I actually collect my eggs all week and set them every Saturday.
On the other hand, I will never ship eggs over 3 days old.
The will arive safer with less chance of air cell damage if they are very fresh when shipped.
So , that's my 2 cents worth HA!
Good luck with them, wash lightly if at all! Your call there!
Aubrey
p.s room temp if just fine as long as you arent storing them for long periods( over a week)
55-65 is ideal, but who keeps a house that cold, and your fridig will be too cold, 70 or so will be just fine, I've kept 100,000 's of eggs at that temp over the years without problem
Yes it's true, the hen will polish them up, but have you ever really felt one? Compare it to the ol chicken eggs , now.
A duck egg being incubated by its mother is nearly waxy feeling, It has a very thick coating on it to help prevent the wash off effect, also, I believe the heavy oil coating on all waterfowl feathers just keeps reapplying protection day after day, therefore the water has little effect.
I aint very oily myself LOL, so I cant replace anything I wash off!
I would think if any , a very light cleaning ONCE may not be too bad, but I personally still never do it.
If you candle them once a week or so, you'll have no problems . A fertile egg, no matter how dirty, will not explode in an incubator, a dead one will, So just candle them every 7 days or so and toss out the bad ones.
Now as for you collection time, are you shipping or are they locall, pick-up buyers.
Think of how long it take a hen to lay a clutch of 8-15 eggs, couple weeks right?
So if your guy is picking them up, eggs that are 7-10 days old will be just fine, I actually collect my eggs all week and set them every Saturday.
On the other hand, I will never ship eggs over 3 days old.
The will arive safer with less chance of air cell damage if they are very fresh when shipped.
So , that's my 2 cents worth HA!
Good luck with them, wash lightly if at all! Your call there!
Aubrey
p.s room temp if just fine as long as you arent storing them for long periods( over a week)
55-65 is ideal, but who keeps a house that cold, and your fridig will be too cold, 70 or so will be just fine, I've kept 100,000 's of eggs at that temp over the years without problem
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