Are cold eggs infertile?

[Dadsarmy]

Hello. Do cold eggs mean infertile eggs? My barnevelder has been on her eggs for about 7 days now and she has started to come out briefly in the mornings for something to eat and drink. She's in the corner of a very old dairy shed which is infested with rats and visited by at least one cat. I want to move her somewhere safe. First I wanted to check whether her eggs were actually fertile or not before I bought a little coop for her to hatch her chicks. I held each egg up to a torch in the dark but barnevelder eggs are so small that they just seemed completely opaque. I couldn't tell whether they're fertile or not. She's sitting happily on her eggs again but the thing that struck me as odd is that the eggs were cold. Shouldn't they be be warm? It's her first clutch of eggs and she's only about a year old. I'd be really grateful for your advice.

 

[Sphinx]

To develop, the hen has to sit on the eggs most of the time. They get up off the nest occasionally to eat and drink, but in my experience, they never stay off for long, and not long enough for the eggs to get cold.

It sounds like you need a brighter flashlight to see in them better. I use a very bright LCD flashlight and if I start having trouble, I replace the batteries and that helps a lot.

If it were me, I'd err on the side of letting her sit on them, if I wasn't sure.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I use a little pen flashlight- halogen and cup my hand around the egg so it hold the light in and only shines on the egg.