Can I move incubating eggs?

[Heather J]

I had a woman call me today who is going to buy all of my excess young birds and chicks (yeah!) for a display she's doing about the life cycle of a chicken, I guess. Anyway, she wanted to know if she bought some partially incubated eggs from me, if she could transport them two hours away, put them in her incubator, and have them hatch still...

The ones I have are being picked up on the 4th and are due to hatch on the 7th. So it would be really close to hatch time. I could also put some more eggs in today just for her and have them halfway through incubation if that would be too close. What do you think? Would it work?

 

[2txmedics]

Not sure but I dont think they can be out of an incubator for 2hrs...all hatching material Ive read including what Ive heard in here...is to take them out to candle when its time...to not take them out more than 30mins....

 

[Heather J]

I know when there's a power outage there are thins you can do to stretch the time a bit so keep the eggs viable for a few hours. If it's just not plausible, I'll tell her we cant and sell her hatching eggs instead.

 

[crdawson80]

I'm not going to say the eggs will ruin but being out of the bator for 2 or more hours along with transporting them will seriously reduce the chances of a successful hatch. I would be inclined to give fertile eggs rather than eggs that have already started the incubation process.

 

[Heather J]

That's kind of the way I felt. Thanks!

 

[Laurelm]

I just picked up 4 turkey eggs from a guy whose an hour away and I didn't get home for a few hours. I kept them in cooler wrapped in a towel with a bg a HOT water ( not directly on them).

I put them in the incubator and now a week later they all look good! When I candle I see the little guys moving around! So it worked for me but there's probably always a bit of a risk.

 

[farmin'chick]

I brought home a dozen light brahma eggs that were under a broody hen -- wrapped them in a heavy towel. That was Thursday, they were out for a good two hours. Today, so far, 11 have hatched out of a dozen. Some went back to the broodies, some went in the incubator -- all of them seem to be doing fine.

 

[STEPHANIELAUREN]

well iknow when the power went out a few days ago because ofa storm we had this plugin adapter that you plug into the cigarette lighter in a car and it has a spot where you can plug in the house type plug so we just took the bator out there plugged it in until the power came back on i think they have them at walmart maybe try that?