Questions about hatching some dirty and maybe cold eggs ?

[PuddleEndChicken]

I've hatched quite a few clutches of bantam/duck/guinea fowl eggs under hens and in incubators in the past so have some experience.

But I have collected a dozen eggs to try to hatch from my rare breed chickens (Hamburghs) which are an older flock and don't lay that often and I've got a couple of questions:

1) the eggs are quite dirty, some were laid on the ground and others were laid in dry clean straw but the hen had been free ranging in mud so got them muddy and I've collected them but the mud is dried on - should I try to gently wipe the mud off with some lukewarm water or does that break the surface barrier ? Which is worse, the mud staying on or breaking the surface barrier with water ?

I read that there are higher chances of deformities etc in dirty eggs but don't know about wiping them clean. I have successfully hatched some dirty eggs before but I failed to hatch a clutch of duck eggs in an incubator last year and I don't know if that was the incubator or because I cleaned the eggs with a cloth soaked in water before incubating them ?

2) several of the eggs might have been at 32F or below for maybe half a day before I collected them - so might they have frozen and maybe aren't viable ?

Normally I'd wait for some cleaner eggs on warmer days but it's now or never because these chickens don't lay much and also one of my hens has just gone broody so it would be good to put them under her (rather than an incubator).

I guess I could just wipe the eggs clean or not and put them under her and see what happens, worst is that they don't hatch or the chicks hatch with problems....

Advice please !

 

[Altairsky]

Just incubate them as they are and don't wash them. Broody will think about everything.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are in a rough spot. Eggs with globs of poop or mud on them, even if dry, could easily have that bacteria barrier compromised. They are at risk and could infect the others if bacteria gets inside and grow. But I understand your urgency so I'll suggest something I normally would not. Try to hatch the dirty eggs.

Put your clean eggs under the broody hen. Let her hatch them.

Wash the dirty eggs using water a little warmer than the eggs. If you use colder water the material inside the egg could shrink, thus creating a vacuum and sucking dirty water into the egg. Warmer water causes it to expand a bit and keep dirty water out. By the time they get back to normal temperature the water should be clean. I'd rub them clean under running water. This will remove any barrier that is left but it's probably gone under the mess anyway.

Sterilize your incubator. I use a weak bleach solution. Take great pains to only handle the eggs with clean hands and try it keep anything that could contaminate them with bacteria away.

Daily, sniff each egg in the incubator. If one smells like a rotten egg carefully remove it and dispose of it. You should be able to detect a bad egg before it can infect the others.

After the eggs hatch give all chicks to the broody hen to raise.

Any time you use a broody or an incubator something could go wrong so you get none to hatch. When I put eggs under a broody I often put eggs in the incubator to increase my odds of her having chicks to raise. I think splitting your dirty and clean eggs greatly increases your odds of some success.

Good luck!

 

[Altairsky]

Honestly in my humble opinion I would never wash an egg. The egg has a layer that makes it impossible for bacteria to enter. Unfortunately this layer is washable. So washed eggs are prone to bacterial contamination.
Washing eggs is so bad in my country that it is prohibited by law to sell washed eggs.

 

[Yardmom]

Rinsing the eggs under warm water might not take the bloom off, but rubbing them will. I think in your case I might try to rinse off the dirtiest eggs without rubbing, but try to set the cleanest eggs as they are.
As far as the cold temperatures. It is possible that they will still hatch. I have six silkie chicks that hatched after mom was locked away from the eggs every night when there were freezing temps.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I understand what both of you are saying, that's why I said I would not normally recommend this. My normal recommendation is to not set the badly dirty eggs. All of this is just my opinion, but as far as I'm concerned the wet globs of poop and mud have probably removed the bloom. Even if it dries the glob of poop or mud can harbor bacteria in the wet environment of the incubator. Especially the poop. The main concern is that the bacteria will grow in the poop or mud if it is not removed, then migrate in through the porous shell.

That's why I suggest setting the clean eggs under the broody hen. Get them out of the biggest danger, which to me is the dirty eggs. Then get the rest as sterile as you can and keep their environment as sterile as you can while checking daily to remove any that don't make it.

This is not a normal incubation. It is a desperate effort to hatch as many as you can from a very limited set of eggs, some of them probably already compromised.

 

[Ecarroll]

I have not done this myself, as I have only ever incubated clean or mostly clean eggs, but I just want to put this idea out there, if some of you more experienced think this is a terrible idea for some reason or another feel free to correct me.

Anyways, I am thinking maybe you could use some sand paper to gently rub off the spots of mud and poop. I get this idea from two spots. First, a farm that I visited did this sand paper trick to dirty unwashed eggs for eating, and still did not refrigerate, it worked fine. Second, I know someone who did a science fair project with sanding brown eggs for easier candling, they started with 18 eggs, 12 hatched with 2 not fertile, meaning only four died otherwise. Just a suggestion and good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sanding removes the bloom. I don't see it as any better than washing. What gets lost in this is that bacteria can't get inside an egg if it is not present. You can hatch washed or sanded eggs in an incubator if you can keep it sterile.

From my understanding the major hatcheries wash the eggs before they hatch them. They do not want to introduce any bacteria into their incubators. Their biosecurity measures with fumigating, sterilizing, and limiting access are beyond what we can normally do.

Of those four that did not hatch, were they rotten from bacteria growing inside them or did they not hatch for other reasons?

The main purpose of our guidelines to only set clean unwashed eggs with the bloom still intact is to improve your odds of getting a good hatch. That does not mean absolute failure if you don't follow the guidelines, just that your odds are better if you follow them.

 

[PuddleEndChicken]

Update: In the end we put about 15 eggs under the hen but she wasn't properly broody and by the time we realised she was leaving them cold it was too late to bring them to an incubator.

But the good news is they are still laying and this time I've made sure they are in clean runs with clean straw so I'm getting a clean clutch together and will put them all in the incubator and see how we get on....