Help! Hatching eggs just arrived covered in broken egg goo!

[EggyBaby]

I just picked up my narragansett turkey hatching eggs from the post office. The box was wet and when I opened it up I found that one of the eggs had exploded. Not just cracked, but fully exploded, I believe from being rotten, but I suppose I can't be positive. ANYWAY, it has covered all the other eggs. It doesn't smell great. I removed a few that had small cracks, which I was expecting some to have after being in shipping for three days, but I wasn't expecting an explosion. SO do I clean the remaining eggs? Let it just dry on there and hope for the best?? I have them just resting now, it's only been about in hour since I picked them up. Should I candle them? HELP!

 

[MrsEarthern]

There are some informative comments about this in other threads, but for the sake of time you can wipe with a clean dry cloth, some people do dry brushing (Mostly for poop/dirt). You can clean with warm water (105F or so), wiping or quick rinses seem to be preferred due to fear of 'drowning.'
Egg cleaning solutions are sold, but plain water is fine too.
You want to use warm water so that you don't create a vacuum effect in the pores on the shell wall. Cool water would allow contamination much more than warm temps.

 

[Tonyroo]

Use a clean cloth with warm water and wipe as much goop off let the eggs dry on a rack or plate. Then use a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and lightly spray each egg and let dry. Then you can place it in the incubator.

 

[nao57]

Stop! the ones with small cracks can still hatch sometimes! Give them a try!

Yes exploding eggs happen because of them being rotten. They should have caught that before shipping them to you. All you have to do is do the float test. (Don't do the float test on cracked ones though.)

People on this site have also hatched slightly cracked eggs, if its not big cracks. And mailed eggs you get some that will be duds already from the stress of that, so you don't want to lower your chances even further by pulling out what might still work.

Also, its harder to tell what's going on with candling until the first 2 weeks have passed. You can still try it but its got an error margin the smaller the inside growing part is.

 

[nao57]

Use a clean cloth with warm water and wipe as much goop off let the eggs dry on a rack or plate. Then use a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and lightly spray each egg and let dry. Then you can place it in the incubator.

I liked the hydrogen peroxide idea.

 

[EggyBaby]

Use a clean cloth with warm water and wipe as much goop off let the eggs dry on a rack or plate. Then use a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and lightly spray each egg and let dry. Then you can place it in the incubator.

Do you know at what concentration of hydrogen peroxide to water to use? I've read so many conflicting opinions on cleaning or not cleaning and how...

 

[EggyBaby]

There are some informative comments about this in other threads, but for the sake of time you can wipe with a clean dry cloth, some people do dry brushing (Mostly for poop/dirt). You can clean with warm water (105F or so), wiping or quick rinses seem to be preferred due to fear of 'drowning.'
Egg cleaning solutions are sold, but plain water is fine too.
You want to use warm water so that you don't create a vacuum effect in the pores on the shell wall. Cool water would allow contamination much more than warm temps.

Thanks for your help. I read everything that seemed even vaguely related but wasn't finding anything specific to the eggs being not yet incubated, and covered in exploded egg and not just regular dirty like with poo. I thought I could trust the bloom to do a lot of the heavy lifting here and was very hesitant to clean them at all so as not to compromise it, but it's seeming like cleaning with a warm, damp cloth and spraying with some dilution (tbd) of hydrogen peroxide is the general consensus :/

 

[MrsEarthern]

Thanks for your help. I read everything that seemed even vaguely related but wasn't finding anything specific to the eggs being not yet incubated, and covered in exploded egg and not just regular dirty like with poo. I thought I could trust the bloom to do a lot of the heavy lifting here and was very hesitant to clean them at all so as not to compromise it, but it's seeming like cleaning with a warm, damp cloth and spraying with some dilution (tbd) of hydrogen peroxide is the general consensus :/

The hydrogen peroxide is new info to me, but my eggs are under a broody hen and it was rotten egg contents on mine so I opted for rinsing/wiping.
Dry brushing could work on dried yolk, but it can degrade the shell/bloom; so it just depends on what you are comfortable with.

 

[Tonyroo]

Do you know at what concentration of hydrogen peroxide to water to use? I've read so many conflicting opinions on cleaning or not cleaning and how...

Full strength, do not mix with water. If you mix it with water it won't be able to kill the bacteria. Use a spray bottle.

 

[Tonyroo]

Rotten eggs are filled with living bacteria.