Wash? Eggsplosion halfway thru brooding

[chicChickChick]

I have a broody hen under a clutch of eggs at about day 18. An egg broke ( either a quitter or a fresh egg another hen sneaked in and laid) and the developing eggs are filthy and stinky. Do I wash them?

 

[FunClucks]

I have a broody hen under a clutch of eggs at about day 18. An egg broke ( either a quitter or a fresh egg another hen sneaked in and laid) and the developing eggs are filthy and stinky. Do I wash them?

Nope. Don't wash. Remove as much as you can of the mess, soiled bedding, etc. without disturbing the hen - you don't want her to stop sitting. Put a bit of clean bedding if needed. Wipe inside of nest box with a dry rag to get things dry. For the eggs, gently blot them dry, or gently rub them in the shavings to get the muck off. Also dry the bottom of your hen. The hen's body heat will soon dry the muck out, and anything left will just be a dry coating of nastiness. If you try to wash the eggs with just water or water and/or some type of soap, you risk removing the bloom, which is what protects the eggs from bacteria. Vigorous dry scrubbing can also remove the bloom. Right now, you have a layer of grossness over a layer of bloom, and depending on how thoroughly that bloom covers the eggs, they are protected. You want to keep that bloom on there. Many have had nasty eggs hatch fine, it's the luck of the draw at this point. The only cleaning up I'd do is what I've stated here. Try not to worry about it too much, they're usually fine. Good luck!

 

[chicChickChick]

Nope. Don't wash. Remove as much as you can of the mess, soiled bedding, etc. without disturbing the hen - you don't want her to stop sitting. Put a bit of clean bedding if needed. Wipe inside of nest box with a dry rag to get things dry. For the eggs, gently blot them dry, or gently rub them in the shavings to get the muck off. Also dry the bottom of your hen. The hen's body heat will soon dry the muck out, and anything left will just be a dry coating of nastiness. If you try to wash the eggs with just water or water and/or some type of soap, you risk removing the bloom, which is what protects the eggs from bacteria. Vigorous dry scrubbing can also remove the bloom. Right now, you have a layer of grossness over a layer of bloom, and depending on how thoroughly that bloom covers the eggs, they are protected. You want to keep that bloom on there. Many have had nasty eggs hatch fine, it's the luck of the draw at this point. The only cleaning up I'd do is what I've stated here. Try not to worry about it too much, they're usually fine. Good luck!

I’m already at the “dry layer of grossness “ sadly.

Good news is there is no way I’ll break her broodiness. We’re taken to calling momma the Angry Pterodactyl. She’s all in.

 

[FunClucks]

I’m already at the “dry layer of grossness “ sadly.

Good news is there is no way I’ll break her broodiness. We’re taken to calling momma the Angry Pterodactyl. She’s all in.

If you're already at the "dry layer of grossness", there's not much to be done, but that's actually a good thing. Dry = no/minimal bacterial action.

I love angry pterodactyls! They are so fun to watch as broody mamas! Hope you don't get pecked!

 

[Debbie292d]

I doubt sterlizing them without scrubbing does much good to make them look better, but I did a successful experiment soaking eggs for a minute in an Odoban solution. That kills just about every germ and disease known to man. At least you'd get rid of a lot of the germs that way.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/sterilizing-hatching-eggs.79104/

 

[FunClucks]

I doubt sterlizing them without scrubbing does much good to make them look better, but I did a successful experiment soaking eggs for a minute in an Odoban solution. That kills just about every germ and disease known to man. At least you'd get rid of a lot of the germs that way.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/sterilizing-hatching-eggs.79104/

Did they all hatch good after that? I regularly wash and scrub my incubator eggs in Hydrogen Peroxide prior to setting them in my incubator (I always want to hatch the dirty ones for some reason), and have had no impact on my hatches from this. Not sure if it helps, but it sure doesn't hurt - I've had 100% develop and 80% successful hatch (lives after hatching and is healthy). Always looking for more cleaning methods, Odoban sounds interesting. Where did you get the idea?

 

[Debbie292d]

Did they all hatch good after that? I regularly wash and scrub my incubator eggs in Hydrogen Peroxide prior to setting them in my incubator (I always want to hatch the dirty ones for some reason), and have had no impact on my hatches from this. Not sure if it helps, but it sure doesn't hurt - I've had 100% develop and 80% successful hatch (lives after hatching and is healthy). Always looking for more cleaning methods, Odoban sounds interesting. Where did you get the idea?

Yes, they hatch fine after being soaked in it for a minute, rinsed, dried, and put into the incubator.

I had a jug of Odoban from my mom as the hospital recommended it for killing germs when she was on chemo. I researched it and found it's used in hatcheries too as it kills chicken diseases and viruses as well as human ones.

As for the idea of soaking them in it, that was just my idea to test it for those who suspect diseases on the shell of the egg as I couldn't find anyone else ever did.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

My last all natural batch was the smelliest creatures on earth. We knew when they were out and about with momma before we had a visual. They were grenade victims.
A batch before that was threatened by snakes, so we had to broody tub them the rest of the way. That tub had a sulfur smell compared to our oven baked hatchlings. Incubation seems to be the cleanest. Best regards with the egg grenade. It happens to the best of us.

 

[Altairsky]

Do nothing. Whatever you do might make things worse and certainly won't fix the mess.
The same happened to me on day 16, I did nothing and everything went well.

 

[FunClucks]

Yes, they hatch fine after being soaked in it for a minute, rinsed, dried, and put into the incubator.

I had a jug of Odoban from my mom as the hospital recommended it for killing germs when she was on chemo. I researched it and found it's used in hatcheries too as it kills chicken diseases and viruses as well as human ones.

As for the idea of soaking them in it, that was just my idea to test it for those who suspect diseases on the shell of the egg as I couldn't find anyone else ever did.

I heard they spray hydrogen peroxide on the eggs commercially prior to incubation to remove disease, mites, dirt, etc., but I don't have a reference for that, it's what I've been told by someone on this forum. But there's a lot of really smart folks on here, and I had no reason to doubt the source. And it worked for me.

I'll remember that about the Odoban, that and Virkon-S are used commercially to clean industrial chicken coops/buildings/equipment, etc.