Here's my proposed fridge egg protocol for any interested perusers, tried to attach a word file but it wouldn't let me, let me know if it is unclear or I need to tweak anything!:
Fridge Egg Research Protocol:
Hypothesis: It is the lack of daily turning of stored fertile eggs rather than the storage temperature that results in lower hatch rates in refrigerated eggs.
Participation Requirements:
- Access to hatching eggs (any domestic poultry species) and an incubator
- Prior knowledge of hatching eggs (this isn’t your first hatch!)
- Ability to monitor and record all pertinent data
- Completely voluntary with no financial compensation
- Willing to risk lower hatch rates, higher embryonic death, and hatching complications
- Ability to adhere to the protocol
- Ability to appropriately deal with resulting chicks
- You can remain anonymous and no personal information will be collected or required
- Protocol:
- All eggs must be treated exactly the same, save for the tested parameters (pre-incubation temp and turning)
- Eggs must be marked by treatment group and either randomly or equally distributed
- Collect more eggs than needed for the protocol
- Only place excellent incubation candidates into the incubator and don’t set more eggs than your set-up is meant to handle
- Use whatever your preferred incubation/lockdown settings for species and equipment
- Candling eggs at various points is helpful but not required if you don’t like it or are not proficient
- Make sure to open all unhatched eggs (either when candled and removed or after hatch)
- Record all accidents, incidents, special situations (cracked an egg, incubator broke, etc.)
- The more eggs the better the data, but only if you can reasonably handle them!
- Record data as you go, rather than trying to remember it later!
- Make sure your fridge isn’t cold enough to freeze the eggs!
- Have fun!
- There will be 3-4 treatment groups, depending on your set-up and the number of eggs you can reasonably be expected to incubate. If you can manage 100 eggs, 4 sets of 25 would be awesome, but if you can only fit 16, 3 groups of 5 are better than 4 groups of 4.
- Begin collecting eggs, first day of collection/day laid will be Day 0 of pre-incubation.
- Collect enough eggs to meet your goal as well as some extra (no weird eggs please: double yolks, soft shell, cracks, extra large or small, etc.).
- Collect eggs for no more than a 72 hour period, even if this means you are short on eggs!
- Divide eggs randomly or evenly between your treatment groups (make sure each group is divided fairly evenly between sires, lines, breed, age of hen, etc.)
- Mark each egg as to group (below) and day collected (Day 0-2).
- The treatment groups:
- Group A: Room Temp, no turning
- Group N: Room Temp, turned daily (this is the optional control group, if you don’t have room for more than 20 eggs, don’t do this one)
- Group B: Fridge, no turning
- Group C: Fridge, turned daily
- Divide each day’s collection evenly between the groups and immediately store either in the fridge or at room temp, turning and storage conditions should be the same protocol between groups (ie. turn twice, stored wide end up or turn once, stored on side, whatever), the only difference is if they are turned and where they are stored
- Store eggs for a minimum of 72 hours (3 days) and for a maximum of 7 days with no more than a 72 hour window in which eggs were collected, all eggs go into the incubator together!
- Example: you collect your 27 eggs on Day 0, they are divided into 3 groups and stored/treated appropriately for 76.3 hours. On Day 3 of pre-incubation you place them in the incubator and reset to Day 0 of incubation.
- Example 2: It takes you 3 days to collect enough eggs, you mark each collected the first day with a 0, on the second with a 1, and on the third with a 2. You place each egg into a group the day it is collected and begin storing/treating each group and adding to it daily. By day 2 you don’t have quite enough eggs, but per protocol parameters, you can’t collect any more as it will throw off the data. While the Day 0 eggs are now ready to go in the incubator, you have to wait until the Day 2 eggs are old enough as you want them all to go into the incubator at once. On Day 5, the newest eggs are now ready to go in so you can start incubation.
- If you are comfortable candling, candling your eggs for early signs of development/infertility (Day 3-6ish) would be great but if you are not proficient or don’t like candling, this is completely optional. If you are proficient and feel comfortable, pull dead or infertile eggs at this point, making sure to open each and record the results (infertile, early embryonic death, defective, etc.).
- Move eggs around the incubator every few days so no single egg is in any particular spot/row/column the whole time (minimizes the effects of cold/warm spots on development).
- Continue to incubate eggs per your preference and candle again (if comfortable) around the second third of incubation (Day 10-20 depending on species!). Remove any eggs that aren’t developing, if comfortable, again open and record data.
- Take eggs through lockdown and hatching, candling again if you wish.
- Watch hatching eggs closely, and make sure to record irregularities such as defects, assisted hatching, etc.
- After hatch, make sure your data is correct, honest, and complete and attach to the official project hatch-along.
- Any collected data will be pooled and we’ll see if the hypothesis is correct or needs some adjustment!
- I'll get a data collection post up too!
