Info On Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, & Other Poultry.
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Dear TTC,

For 14 years, I also had that notion that there is no need to wash eggs but when I got to experience doing it to all pheasant eggs we collect daily, I found it helping in coming up with outstanding hatches. Both fertility and hatchability performances are more than 80 and 92% respectively for 10 hatches! And the resultant chicks for these 10 batches only recorded 1-3% mortalities for the 1st 7 wks. Really terrific!

My hens are good housekeepers, there's rarely anything on the eggs. Might have something to do with the birds roaming free instead of being confined. The hay in the nest boxes only needs changing after they hatch eggs. So I've never washed eggs.

I usually don't refrigerate eggs unless the air conditioning isn't working. (I know folks who have had eggs on their kitchen counter hatch!) As an experiment, I left some eggs in the fridge for one month. Took them out, let them warm up to room temperature, and placed them under a setting hen. They all hatched.

All eggs hatch here (lots of roosters roaming with the hens), but I had heard about storing eggs in the fridge so had to try it!

I have also heard that NOT washing them is better because it removes the protective coating around the eggs as it is hatched.

But on the other hand, we cannot sell unwashed eggs according to what I've read on the WDATCP site.

Wow, according to Morcar's county extension officer, most people must be dumb as posts. We can't figure out how to wash eggs in warm water and detect cracks? The person quoting this rubbish has obviously never washed an egg.(the extension officer who is paid to read from reference books but certainly not paid to think) A hairline crack in an egg that I cannot detect with my eye does become visible when placed in very warm water, it bubbles. What's that old saying, where there's bubbles, there's a crack.

I wash eggs since I would not feel right sending off dirty eggs with my customers. I also keep stained or cracked eggs for myself, badly cracked go to the dog. I have never used soap, nor bleach, but bleach my little washing cloth and the designated wash bucket after each use. Air dry the cloth so no contamination happens from one day's eggs to the next.