Do freshly laid eggs develop faster than eggs laid a week or more ago?

[Yucky_ducky_kentucky]

Do the embryos in freshly laid eggs develop faster than the embryos in eggs that were laid days or weeks before? I've noticed that an egg laid yesterday develops faster than eggs laid last week. Does anyone know if there's any science to this? Or am I just imagining things?

 

[sourland]

Not in my experience.

 

[LaFleche]

Do the embryos in freshly laid eggs develop faster than the embryos in eggs that were laid days or weeks before? I've noticed that an egg laid yesterday develops faster than eggs laid last week. Does anyone know if there's any science to this? Or am I just imagining things?

Eggs that are laid the same day you start incubation will usually hatch one day earlier than older eggs.

 

[Kellyjenny]

The fresher it is is the best.

 

[DearChicken]

The fresher ones have a better chance of not dying and hatching.

 

[Kellyjenny]

I don't know if it was a fluke but the eggs that I hatched for the first time were eggs I picked up in the morning and put right in the incubator. They hatched on the 19th day.

 

[sourland]

The fresher it is is the best.

I have held eggs as long as 21 days and still gotten high % hatches. A lot depends upon how they are stored and handled prior to incubating. It can take a hen that long to build a clutch, and in my experience good mothers have nearly 100 % hatches.

 

[LaFleche]

And a well balanced nutrition of the parent birds will raise the hatch rates also, as weak chicks due to malnourished parent bird might develop for some time during incubation, but often are too weak to hatch.