Can a fertile egg be refrigerated and later be put in an incubator?

[CrazyHatchingLady]

Well..I have 2 in the bator Im doing a "test" on-they are due Wednesday! growing just like the others-they were in for a bout 5-7 days! wish me luck-with the temps getting hotter and there wasnt a pot in my house that was cool I just kept putting them in fridge-so the ones I had out for 3 days and the 2 from the ridge I wung it!

I once set some eggs that someone had given me. About 2 weeks in he called and said, "Oh yeah, I just remembered that I'd put those eggs in the refrigerator..." (Thanks for telling me now!) A few of them did hatch, but the chicks were crippled and could not walk and had to be culled.

ETA: Not that it makes any difference, but they were Barred Rocks.

I put refrigerated ones in my incubator and they hatched with no issue...

 

[CrazyHatchingLady]

OK here is the thing I have been learning about and I know with my mixed breeds I am OK but with harder to incubate and get to stay alive eggs... Not such a good idea... I ran an experiment on mixed breeds I got from my dad and he does not date his eggs so I had no idea how long they havd been in there.... I always heard after refrigeration you can't get them to hatch. Out of 42 it seems his green egg layers had less viable ones. And when they where put in hatcher day 18 it's like gave up.... Odd as it sounds I candle all before putting into incubator and one last time before I go to bed and some seem to die through out the day.. Any way his leghorn mix they have an excellent hatch... I only lost 2 to incubator issues. Plus a friend of mine gives me eggs to incubate for him.... Refrigerated or not I have the biggest issues with them. Anyway, I have to refrigerate all my eggs and I had people giving me eggs left and right to incubate. Plus some I ordered off a breeder twice (seperate) breeder I have found the rarer the bird and harder to hatch after being refigerated. I was told by both of them they where They where AC chicks out of 18 2 hatched then one died at 2 and a half weeks so I decided to go with a local cheeper breeder who doesn't refrigerate and who does not cull genetic defect birds....

 

[Nksg75]

I have tested this exact thing, and I left mine in the fridge for over 3 weeks(kind of forgot about it)
I gave it a try and it hatched!! Kinda cool to tell you the truth!!

 

[ojosverdes14]

Hi. I was just wondering if I could store fertile eggs in a refrigerator or what can I do to keep them safe until I can get an incubator. Any info will greatly help.

I know for a fact they will hatch I won 2nd place in scice fair in high school for this with about 80% hatch success up to 4 weeks

 

[milkweeds]

I am going to try hatching a couple eggs that I had placed in the lettuce crisper. One of them was laid by my favorite Duck,....... this week she wandered off the property and a dog attacked her, she somehow waddled home and passed away the next day, So I wanted to hatch a couple of her babies. I will let you all know if it can or cannot be done.....
starting date is aug 11 2018

 

[Muskokacluckers]

Generally your hatch rates severely decline after more than a few weeks of refrigeration. Less so for long term cool counter storage.

But to the poster who said anything over ten days ..just throw it out? You can clean the brooders here when this batch hatches. There are seven dozen eggs, most older than two weeks, one dozen under, and three dozen that were over four weeks, and refrigerated or exposed to excessive heat.

Even have one about to hatch, wher first week the power failed for two days, got it going again and a power surge fried my thermostat and I got up to find my temps 113. The others died then or quit soon after. Thomas, the little orp who could is on day 19. He's doing fine as of this morning.

It's not over, until it's over. Many of my now developing hatch had free air cells due to shipping handling on top of the above conditions. The easiest way to fail is not to try.

Is it BEST to use fresh, well kept, gently handled eggs. You betcha. But NATURE herself is not kind. Brodie's have brains the size of peas. First time Broodies can be insane, lame, idiotic or worse. Nature makes poop, snow, ice, mud, rain, hail and disease, yet we have birds. Eggs are little miracle packages designed for variances common in nature and for challenges from it.

I've hatched healthy chicks from old, cold, muddy, hot, shaken and cracked eggs. Hatching is an art form. Drawing lines to make a coloring book helps people learn, but there IS art outside the lines. Nature is art. Life is art.

You can increase your odds but not past the point of luck. Even those huge hatcheries sometimes lose tens of thousands of "perfect eggs".

Playing with imperfection, means accepting that there is only so much you can do, and waiting on God to see if there is life in there. I actually like letting it roll on impossible eggs. They hatch or not, literally, God Willing. If I do my part and God does his/hers/theirs, voila, as close to a miracle as I am going to ever see in person.

Art and faith have much in common.

If it were a science, hatches would never fail for scientists.

Something else is going on. I happen to like being in touch with that.

Loved reading your prose!!

 

[destry 64]

Thank you very much for all the great info. I will probably start a bunch tomorrow. I will mark all the eggs that were refridgerated and not refridgerated. Iwill let everyone know the results in a few weeks. Wish me luck. Thanks again everyone for being so kind.

I have a 12 or so I think I will go for it also and I will let you guys know what happens

 

[Wonder Quails]

Hatching eggs from refrigerator is possible. However, your hatching rate is lower.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I know this an old thread, but I've hatched many eggs that's been refrigerated 3 weeks max. All washed also.

 

[sergedest_66]

someone bought a carton of fertilized eggs from trader joes and hatched them. They had been in the refrigerator case.