Hatching my fridge eggs

I don't know how many people saw my post 21 days ago. A neighbors dog got in my Silkie pen and killed all but one hen. So I ordered an incubator off Amazon, grabbed my fridge eggs (Silkie eggs I had planned on eating) and asked if they were fertile based on one I cracked. Well .... here you go! I have one that pipped at 18 days and hatched at 20 days. And one that pipped at 19 days and hatched at 20 days. And the remaining Silkie eggs have pipped. I also put my one Welsummers egg in there (also killed in the attack - stress - next day) and some Easter Eggers (one of my EEs was also killed). But two silkies so far! Gorgeous!

Thats good news - congratulations !

9 hatched so far - 8 silkies and an Easter Egger. Three are still in the incubator getting fluffy. And I have three eggs with pips left - a Welsummers, a Silkie and an Easter Egger.

Speak2Erin said:

I don't know how many people saw my post 21 days ago. A neighbors dog got in my Silkie pen and killed all but one hen. So I ordered an incubator off Amazon, grabbed my fridge eggs (Silkie eggs I had planned on eating) and asked if they were fertile based on one I cracked. Well .... here you go! I have one that pipped at 18 days and hatched at 20 days. And one that pipped at 19 days and hatched at 20 days. And the remaining Silkie eggs have pipped. I also put my one Welsummers egg in there (also killed in the attack - stress - next day) and some Easter Eggers (one of my EEs was also killed). But two silkies so far! Gorgeous!

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I know the feeling. A week ago we got burglarized while out of town where I lost my sportsman plus over 100 birds ranging from 1wk olds to 4 wk olds cuz they left main gate open and dogs raided my coop. Anyways I've had personal experience with fridge eggs, I used to buy eggs from a local farm/market to incubate, on one occasion his wife placed the eggs in the market fridge without knowing I was picking them up the following day. When I picked them up they had spent 1 1/2 days in the fridge. I got 24 eggs and let them settle to room temp and placed in bator, 21 days later I had a good hatch. Maybe the cold didn't kill the fertility being that they had been placed there a day before, I really don't know but HEY.....Congrats!!!

Speak2Erin said:

I don't know how many people saw my post 21 days ago. A neighbors dog got in my Silkie pen and killed all but one hen. So I ordered an incubator off Amazon, grabbed my fridge eggs (Silkie eggs I had planned on eating) and asked if they were fertile based on one I cracked. Well .... here you go! I have one that pipped at 18 days and hatched at 20 days. And one that pipped at 19 days and hatched at 20 days. And the remaining Silkie eggs have pipped. I also put my one Welsummers egg in there (also killed in the attack - stress - next day) and some Easter Eggers (one of my EEs was also killed). But two silkies so far! Gorgeous!

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Congratulations. Refrigerator eggs can give you a great hatch. (And to think when I save eggs for hatching I carefully turn them three times a day and keep them in the cellar while the fridge eggs are just grabbed out.) Of all the large fowl eggs I put in the incubator that had been refrigerated, only one never hatched. Unfortunately the bantam eggs were a different story. None of them hatched while 50% of the fresh ones did, but they were all pullet eggs and the little rooster had died over a week before I decided to collect the eggs.

I ended up with 100% hatch rate! I have three eggs siting in my counter that I want to hatch from another bantam. I'm wondering if I'd have more luck if I had washed them and put them in the fridge. Now that I'm looking at all these fuzzy bottoms - I can't believe they were going to be food at one point. Now they will just be members of our flock for eggs and fun.

dekel18042 said:

   Congratulations.  Refrigerator eggs can give you a great hatch.  (And to think when I save eggs for hatching I carefully turn them three times a day and keep them in the cellar while the fridge eggs are just grabbed out.)  Of all the large fowl eggs I put in the incubator that had been refrigerated, only one never hatched.  Unfortunately the bantam eggs were a different story.  None of them hatched while 50% of the fresh ones did, but they were all pullet eggs and the little rooster had died over a week before I decided to collect the eggs.

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That is just devastating! Those poor chicks! I'm so sorry!

Speak2Erin said:

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Congrats on your 100% hatch! Sorry it was necessitated due to your chickens being killed.
May I ask about your incubator? Is it a Magicfly? Does it have a fan?

Again, congratulations and good luck on the next hatch!

Leave a LightOn said:

 Congrats on your 100% hatch! Sorry it was necessitated due to your chickens being killed.
   May I ask about your incubator?  Is it a Magicfly?  Does it have a fan?

 Again, congratulations and good luck on the next hatch!

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Yes! It was a MagicFly. You could tell? I was so panicky about the lack of humidity controls - but it worked! It does have a fan. And it "auto turns".