Starting duck egg incubation tomorrow

[4thGradeRocks]

Hello all! First of all, I'm super excited to be getting a chance to hatch duck eggs for the first time. Some of the other threads have been super helpful! I've hatched white leghorn chickens over the last 3 years in our 4th grade classroom, but had a chance to hatch ducklings this year. I'm a bit nervous, and the eggs I ended up getting are fairly dirty.

- Does anyone have any suggestions or insight into what I need to be concerned about since some of the eggs are dirty (bacterial growth, lower hatch rates, etc)?

- The eggs have sat point side down for at least 1-2 days, the temp in the incubator is 99.5 and I'm adding more water to get it up to the mid 50's range. I'm planning on turning the eggs 4 times a day and having my 3 science classes turn them the rest of the times for a total of seven turns.

Thank you for any information you can provide! I'm also going to check tomorrow for cracks and I have beeswax, but I read on here that it is better to use some sort of skin sealant?

Thank you!!

 

[Susan Skylark]

You could try rubbing off some of the dirt with a brush or take a damp paper towel and spot clean. You can also wash the eggs if they are filthy, just make sure to air dry them before incubating and use room temp water. A little dirt or manure on the shells won’t hurt anything either.

 

[horselover1999]

If there are cracks and you wash them, that invites bacteria to invade the egg. Ducks are muddy by nature, and there are dirty eggs that hatch perfectly all the time. I would just brush or rub off excess loose dirt, but I wouldn't mess with anything really stuck to the shell. You risk damaging the bloom.

 

[4thGradeRocks]

You could try rubbing off some of the dirt with a brush or take a damp paper towel and spot clean. You can also wash the eggs if they are filthy, just make sure to air dry them before incubating and use room temp water. A little dirt or manure on the shells won’t hurt anything either.

Thank you so much!

 

[4thGradeRocks]

If there are cracks and you wash them, that invites bacteria to invade the egg. Ducks are muddy by nature, and there are dirty eggs that hatch perfectly all the time. I would just brush or rub off excess loose dirt, but I wouldn't mess with anything really stuck to the shell. You risk damaging the bloom.

Thank you so much!