Dirty Eggs

[Diamond dave]

Any one have any theories on dirty eggs? Just had one nest out of five with dirty eggs that didnt hatch. Is it the quality of the parents -The hen is a late bred and the cock is an old timer - 9years old. Would it have made any difference if I had cleaned the eggs when they got dirty? The eggs appeared to have developed to about 75%.

Diamond Dave.

[Guest]

Confess I used to clean them by spitting on the shell and cleaning dirt off with a cloth dampened in virkon (spray).

 

Don't think that the dirty shell is the real danger tho, because anything outside has 4 barriers to get thro before it can do any damage: the shell, two membranes and the albumen (egg-white).  These barriers are there to stop that happening.

 

Think the real danger comes from anything that gets into the egg during formation inside the hen, like salmonella, then gets itself shelled-in.

[velo99]

Dirty eggs can and need to be cleaned with a damp cloth. The egg needs air to circulate thru the shell. if you get a lot of dirty eggs you might need to make larger or cleaner nestboxes. I change out the nesting material and the pad with every round. Two bowls per box. Clean it out and it is ready for the next round.

 

v99

[jimmy white]

:'( :'( sorry to say ,,,if youve dirty eggs , theres something wrong in the birds or in the loft [could be an inexperienced pair, but still should be clean]  if theve plenty nesting material and loft bone dry ,, eggs should be spotless [and the birds contented]

[snowy]

we had this happen this year.

only one pair of yearlings had a dirty pair of eggs & didnt make much of a nest, but the both eggs just hatched out? (we didnt think they would)

[Guest]

Agree Jimmy, there's dirty eggs, dirty nests & dirty birds.  

 

If the nest is fairly sparse a newly laid egg is wet and will pick up dirt from it when its still wet. Real problems come when one of the birds deposits droppings in the nest ... or maybe a big youngster jumping in and out of the bowl..

 

Worst I've got just now is the odd bit of straw stuck to egg. Wouldn't call that dirty.