collecting eggs in winter for hatch

[oldcoop]

will an egg hatch if it gets cold as long as it stays above freezing? I was going to try and collect some eggs this winter and hatch them. just wondering how often I will have to collect the eggs so they don't get cold?

Thanks

 

[DemeterAD9]

I was collecting eggs in freezing temps last year for hatching. I’d check several times a day. I didn’t seem to have any issues with fertility and whatnot but the eggs never got down to freezing if I could help it.

 

[BoundlessLove]

will an egg hatch if it gets cold as long as it stays above freezing? I was going to try and collect some eggs this winter and hatch them. just wondering how often I will have to collect the eggs so they don't get cold?

Thanks

Good morning! I’ve read that some people keep their eggs in the refrigerator before they hatch them.
I’ve always kept mine at room temperature. I’d say cooler temp (not freezing) would be better than too hot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In Northwest Arkansas I collected eggs in late January-early February to hatch. I was retired so could collect them a few times a day if I needed to. I did not let them freeze and stored them in the house with the thermostat set at 72 F. I got pretty decent hatch rates.

I've read the ideal temperature for storage is around 55 F. Some people seem to think life is a disaster if conditions are not ideal. The real world is not that restrictive. The further you get from ideal and the longer they are at those temperatures the more risk you take with hatch rate, but hens can lay an egg every day or two in a hidden nest and wait a couple of weeks after the first one is laid to start incubation and still get good hatch rates, sometimes perfect hatches. In the real world the temperature is not always going to be 55 F.

Take reasonable precautions but don't worry about it too much.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Freezing solid will obviously crack the egg and end all hatching hopes, but near freezing temp exposure even for a couple hours will cause a significant rise in late embryonic death/failure to hatch/dead in shell chicks, this includes fridge eggs and cold weather. We get below zero here and my hatch rates in February (quail in an insulated garage, eggs collected every few hours) are around 50% while September or May are above 90%. Fertility and development are not affected but hatch rate is. Keeping your eggs in a 45-65 degree fridge isn’t a bad idea but one in the mid thirties is risky. You can certainly collect eggs, do it frequently, but just collect more than you need and expect higher death loss late incubation, and then you’ll have a 95% hatch rate and more birds than you can handle!

 

[Debbie292d]

will an egg hatch if it gets cold as long as it stays above freezing?

Yes.

You can buy Bluetooth thermometers so you'd know when the coop is 32°F or below and gather them more frequently than usual.