Storing eggs for incubation if a Hen Sat on them all Day?

[gamjduke]

I have a couple of broody hens in my nest boxes. I can't collect eggs until evening. If they sit on the eggs all day does growth begin to the point that when I remove the eggs and put them in the queue for incubation they "die"? Will they stop developing and become infertile, or would growth not have even begun in that 8-10 hours?

I know I should remove the broody hens, but I just don't have a place for them at the moment and was wondering if I need to try to get someone to collect eggs earlier in the day to prevent them from ruining eggs that I'd like to collect for future incubation? Or maybe spend my weekend building another pen?

Thanks in advance for any help! I realize there may not be a clear answer and I may just have to experiment, but was curious if anybody had experience with this.

 

[cavemanrich]

growth not have even begun in that 8-10 hours?

I will go with this idea/theory. Development takes a little longer to start. Consider when in summer, and temps are way high,,,,,, you don't rush and get your eggs immediately, so they don't start to develop.

When are you considering to start incubating your batch of eggs???
Consider, that ideal source should be no older than 2 weeks. After that,, the hatch rate goes down the hill. Yes there will be some 3 week old eggs that develop and hatch,,, but not many,,, ,compared to fresher stock.

WSHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

If you do not have any other way to hatch these birds besides your brooder hen...let her keep them. Once an egg reaches incubation temp. That temp should be maintained throughout the process,so it can develop. Say a hen layes a fertile egg in a coop and keeps that egg warm @ 90 degrees. If you gather those eggs and bring em into a the a/c set at 68 degrees.. development will stop. Nothing to grow with. Unsure if I helped. Hope so..long story short...no drastic change in temperature from nest
G

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

If you do not have any other way to hatch these birds besides your brooder hen...let her keep them. Once an egg reaches incubation temp. That temp should be maintained throughout the process,so it can develop. Say a hen layes a fertile egg in a coop and keeps that egg warm @ 90 degrees. If you gather those eggs and bring em into a the a/c set at 68 degrees.. development will stop. Nothing to grow with. Unsure if I helped. Hope so..long story short...no drastic change in temperature from nest
G

90 degrees is just an example..not the ideal temp

 

[phasianidae]

Cell division begins before the egg is laid. From then on cells continue to divide as long as the egg is above 32F — faster at higher temperatures and slower at lower temperatures. The eggs will be perfectly fine if left under hens for the first day, the only benefit to collecting sooner would be a more narrow hatching window. In a similar way to mamalian embryos, chicken eggs can be brought below 32F to pause cell division and subsequently be warmed again to resume developmentment. The limiting factor is the shell cracking.

 

[phasianidae]

If you do not have any other way to hatch these birds besides your brooder hen...let her keep them. Once an egg reaches incubation temp. That temp should be maintained throughout the process,so it can develop. Say a hen layes a fertile egg in a coop and keeps that egg warm @ 90 degrees. If you gather those eggs and bring em into a the a/c set at 68 degrees.. development will stop. Nothing to grow with. Unsure if I helped. Hope so..long story short...no drastic change in temperature from nest
G

When a hen is laying a clutch of eggs they are repeatedly warmed and cooled over a multiple week period as she adds to the nest.

 

[gamjduke]

Cell division begins before the egg is laid. From then on cells continue to divide as long as the egg is above 32F — faster at higher temperatures and slower at lower temperatures. The eggs will be perfectly fine if left under hens for the first day, the only benefit to collecting sooner would be a more narrow hatching window. In a similar way to mamalian embryos, chicken eggs can be brought below 32F to pause cell division and subsequently be warmed again to resume developmentment. The limiting factor is the shell cracking.

This is what I was wondering, I actually didn’t realize that cell division began before the egg was laid, but I suppose that makes perfect sense with the egg being at the body temperature of the hen. In my mind if cell division began and then was paused it would not be able to resume. I’ll just let those broodies be for now and collect my eggs in the evenings. Thank you!

 

[gamjduke]

I will go with this idea/theory. Development takes a little longer to start. Consider when in summer, and temps are way high,,,,,, you don't rush and get your eggs immediately, so they don't start to develop.

When are you considering to start incubating your batch of eggs???
Consider, that ideal source should be no older than 2 weeks. After that,, the hatch rate goes down the hill. Yes there will be some 3 week old eggs that develop and hatch,,, but not many,,, ,compared to fresher stock.

WSHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

I’m going to try collecting for 2 weeks before incubating and see what my hatching rates are. If they aren’t great I’ll reduce it to 1 week. I would really prefer to only have a hatch every 2 weeks, but we’ll see how it goes. I also only want to have hatches on the weekend, so going to a 10 day schedule wouldn’t work well for me. We shall see

 

[gamjduke]

I appreciate all the responses, thank you!

 

[Huntmaster]

@gamjduke