Does dirty water give you gross eggs?

[DeepDishChix]

Hi,
My chickens haven't started laying eggs yet, but I wanted to know if their water is dirty will you have dirty eggs? I just give them a bucket of water, they make it turn brown but they still drink it.

 

[BantamLover21]

The only way dirty water will make eggs dirty is if the eggs come into contact with the water (by being laid nearby, by touching a bird's dirty feet, etc.).

 

[DeepDishChix]

Thanks! I reeeeeaaaallllyyy wanted to know.

 

[donrae]

Nope. My birds have clean water available but love to drink from the puddles of horse poop, or just overflow from the duck's pool when it runs across the run. I call it fortified water

 

[Peeps61]

Is the plant Audrey from "Little Shop of Horrors?"

 

[Toddrick]

If your birds get diarrhea then you will get dirty eggs. And possibly pasty butt. It is very important you have fresh, clean water for their primary water source. I make sure to refresh their water at least once a week, even if it isn't empty. I use ACV to prevent algae. And since my water source is a rain barrel, I add some chlorine/bleach to the barrel once a month or so.

Before I got my rain barrel installed I was using pondwater, because the house was too far to carry water from. Anyways, lots of diarrhea ensued, although the eggs were still good, just dirty on the outside.

Perhaps you are most concerned about their poo in their water. Thus will always happen if the water is on the ground, or if they can climb on the waterer. A hanging waterer is best, but it is still good to dump the rim once a day or so if here is debris in there.

 

[junebuggena]

I have know idea what you are trying to ask. Are you asking if they drink contaminated water, will the eggs contain traces of that contaminate? Are you asking if muddy water will make the eggs muddy on the inside?

 

[rubbleanddebris]

Is the plant Audrey from "Little Shop of Horrors?"

That is Ivysaur, the evolved version of bulbasaur from Pokemon

oh geez, I'm a nerd

 

[Ridgerunner]

The eggs themselves will be perfectly safe to eat. Plenty of chickens on small farms drink from stagnant ponds and such and lay perfectly good eggs. The water they drink is filtered through their body before it is used to make eggs.

The egg may come out of the same vent opening as poop but nature took care of that potential problem. When a hen lays an egg a bit of the shell gland extends out past the end of the vent. That protects the egg from coming in contact with anything associated with poop when it is laid. It’s always a good idea to wash the eggs before you use them but them drinking dirty water won’t cause a problem with the eggs.

There may be an issue though. If the water is turning brown from their poop you are taking a chance on their health. There are disease organisms in their poop that thrive in poopy water. Normally those organisms aren’t a problem because the concentrations are pretty low. But if you allow them to breed in their water they can get sick from ingesting a lot of those organisms when they drink. That doesn’t affect the safety of the eggs, that affects the health of the chickens. You do need to keep the water pretty fresh to keep those organisms under control. Usually changing it every couple of days keeps the numbers of those organisms under control. Clean water is necessary.

There is another issue too. Mosquitoes love to breed in standing water. If adult mosquitoes can lay eggs in it and you don’t change out the water pretty regularly the mosquito wigglers will develop into swarms of mosquitoes. Most mosquito wigglers take several days to grow and develop but totally changing the water out every three days or so will stop them.

 

[DeepDishChix]

Is the plant Audrey from "Little Shop of Horrors?"

That's Ivysaur from Pokemon Leaf Green. Love that game!