Should eggs be cleaned before incubating?

[mnhash]

Hi, my CHRF female has laid her egg on the surface. This is the third time she’s doing so despite digging a 3” pit on the other end of the enclosure.

Reading on how fragile the egg is, i marked it with a pencil so i don’t unknowingly roll it over and carefully place it in the incubator.

The incubator is a Reptile Max 60, loaded with 1:1 vermiculite to water ratio and set to 83-84 deg F with 85-90% humidity.

all said and done, i’m just curious, was i suppose to clean the egg before placing them in the incubator?

 

[Yvonne G]

I just gently wipe the dirt off with a dry paper towel. Years ago when I was raising ducks and chickens, the instructions I received told that the eggs have a slimy clear coat applied to them as they are being laid and this coating protects the eggs from microbes.

 

[mnhash]

oh alright. thanks for that. i was so panic-stricken and in fear of damaging the egg that i didn’t think of doing that.

it’s too late to do anything now right, since it has already dried up and formed like a crust?