Got a hen hatching today. Six out of the shell. Three left, seem to have a fair bit of caked on the remaining ones in places. When I set her, they were clean, so it must come from her not wiping properly and getting back on the nest. Will see by tomorrow morning if these last hatch or not.
But I have noticed that a lot of times, ones that don't hatch have some smeared on them. Anyone else ever noticed this, or am I imagining things? Not covered, but a few gobs.
Another one here. My mother taught me not to wash the eggs if you wanted to set them. Takes away that natural coating, bloom I think its called. And that washed eggs won't store as long as unwashed. Now she also taught me that if they were really badly smeared, wash them and use them sooner.
One more of Mom's wisdoms, to store eggs, rub them with cooking oil. Keeps the air from percolating through. When she was a kid, in the fall, they would do this so they would have eggs in the winter when the chickens weren't laying. went in the store room with the canned vegetables etc.
Anyone else have any observations, thoughts on this stuff?
Poopy Eggs Hatching and Washing and storing.
- Farrier1987
- Stringy Old Chicken
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Farrier1987. South of Chatham on Lake Erie. Chickens, goats, horse, garden, dog, cat. Worked all over the world. Know a little bit about a lot of things. No incubator, broody hens.
- Killerbunny
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Poopy Eggs Hatching and Washing and storing.
Don't wash eggs you are going to set or give a broody. A wipe if they need it. One broody of mine didn't make it out of the nest in time and ed everywhere. I wiped the eggs and they still hatched. This was in her last week. I don't wash eggs as a general rule, I have a cool room under the step to store. Once the humidity gets up in summer I refrigerate them. Never heard the cooking oil thing but we used to put under ripe tomatoes in parowax coating in the cellar.
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Beltsville Small White turkeys.
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Poopy Eggs Hatching and Washing and storing.
I will wash my eggs if dirty, I don't find it affects hatching at all. I do find that a hen that has a dirty bottom for whatever reason, even if her eggs are clean , a lot will go right up to the end then die in the shell. I think they must pass along some kind of bacterial infection, I've heard of people using a disinfect bath on eggs prior to setting, never tried it myself though.
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Poopy Eggs Hatching and Washing and storing.
I use Norwex. I wipe all my eggs. When my Silkie went broody I gave her eggs from the basket. That had been wiped. 3 of the 4 hatched.
My silkie ed regularity in her box. She also wasn't very good at coming out to eat and drink. She meant business when she was sitting on eggs. Her box had flax bedding so when I pulled her out to eat/drink I would clean her out easily. She would away from the eggs in the box but 1 egg did get on it and I left it at the advice of others. I just removed the shells when hatched immediately.
My silkie ed regularity in her box. She also wasn't very good at coming out to eat and drink. She meant business when she was sitting on eggs. Her box had flax bedding so when I pulled her out to eat/drink I would clean her out easily. She would away from the eggs in the box but 1 egg did get on it and I left it at the advice of others. I just removed the shells when hatched immediately.
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- windwalkingwolf
- Poultry Guru - pullet level
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Poopy Eggs Hatching and Washing and storing.
No, you're not imagining it lol eggs that have been ed on are less likely to hatch than eggs that have not been. Also, if an egg breaks in the nest, and some yolk gets on other eggs, they're a lot less likely to hatch as well. Not only can poo and albumin/yolk block the pores of the egg and inhibit gas exchange, but the humid conditions under a hen are great for breeding bad bacteria in egg and poo smears, and those freely move into an egg and wreak havoc whether there's adequate gas exchange or not.
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