It’s essential not only to understand the process of hatching eggs in an incubator but also how to keep your incubator in prime working condition.
Don’t culture bacteria in an incubator cell and ruin egg-hatching success. Instead, learn how to clean an incubator properly using a deep disinfectant.
Importance of a Clean Incubator
Hatching eggs in an incubator is a great way to increase your flock size, whether you raise turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, or quail. It’s a great project to include the kids, and a successful hatch provides further sustainability on the farm.
A used incubator will be full of debris, including eggshells, chicken waste and even little chicken feathers. An incubator’s warm, moist environment is the perfect place for bacteria to flourish, so it’s essential to keep your incubator clean.
How Often to Clean an Incubator
Eggs have many defenses against bacteria. These include the cuticle, shell, shell membrane and egg white. Despite these defenses, bacteria can get inside the shell, seriously affecting the health of the bird inside.
It’s imperative to clean your incubator after every use. If bacteria grow on the shell surface of your eggs, there’s a chance of the bacteria breaking the egg’s defenses. Bacteria can prevent the embryo’s development, causing it to die, and reducing hatch rates.
Supplies Needed
- Dawn Dish Soap – Just use the regular blue Dawn. Dawn is entirely non-toxic and safe for animals, and it doesn’t break down styrofoam, so it’s perfect for washing styrofoam incubators.
- Kitchen Sponge – Do not use this sponge for anything besides cleaning your incubator.
- Old Toothbrush – There will be small spaces in your incubator that are easiest to clean with a toothbrush.
- Lysol Wipes – Use Lysol wipes on styrofoam surfaces without melting the styrofoam.
- Hydrogen Peroxide – Use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect your incubator after cleaning. You can alternatively use vinegar as a disinfectant. Pro-Tip: Never mix hydrogen peroxide and vinegar together when cleaning your incubator. Combining the two creates corrosive peracetic acid that is harmful to the eyes, skin, nose, throat, and air passages.
- Spray Bottle – Used to apply the disinfectant. A new spray bottle is recommended. Using an old spray bottle that was previously filled with another substance can either contaminate the disinfectant or cause an unsafe chemical reaction.
How to Clean an Incubator Step by Step
- Start by ensuring that your incubator is unplugged and cooled to room temperature.
- Start by taking the incubator apart, and removing the egg turner, the metal mesh tray and the plastic tray.
- Fill the bottom styrofoam tray with hot soapy water and add the metal mesh tray and the plastic water to the water to soak.
- Allow everything to soak for at least 30 minutes.
- After a good soaking, drain the water and set the trays aside.
- Squirt a good amount of Dawn dish soap onto your sponge, and use good old-fashioned elbow grease to give the base a good scrubbing. If you have a styrofoam incubator, you may notice that stains develop over time. Styrofoam is a very porous material, and stains happen. Pro-Tip: If your incubator base is plastic, you don’t have to be as careful with what kind of cleaning products you use. You can even wash it with a power washer.
- Use an old toothbrush to get into small areas in the base where a sponge won’t work.
- Rinse the base well and set it aside for now.
- Next, take the plastic egg turner and gently scrub it with hot water, a sponge and Dawn dish soap. Once again, get into any small areas with the toothbrush. Be sure to avoid the egg-turning motor. It’s okay to get it slightly damp but don’t submerge it.
- Clean the mesh tray and the bottom plastic tray in the same way with hot soapy water and a sponge, and a toothbrush.
- Lastly, clean the top of the incubator. Most of the electrical parts of the incubator will be in the lid, so be very careful not to get those wet. Wipe it down with hot soapy water. If your cover has a glass top, wipe it with a Lysol wipe.
- Clean the electrical parts with canned air, or you can carefully blow them out with an air compressor.
- Spray down all the clean surfaces liberally using a spray bottle filled with half hot water and half hydrogen peroxide. Avoid spraying any electrical parts.
- Wipe down the entire outside of the incubator with Lysol wipes.
- Set the incubator in the sun to fully dry and finish disinfecting. The sun is a natural way to disinfect.
- Finish by cleaning any surface you touch while cleaning your incubator, especially if you clean it in your kitchen. You do not want bacteria from your incubator to contaminate your food.
