Egg gathering temp for first incubation.

[gilpinguy]

I have been gathering eggs for my first incubation. I should have 50 eggs in an Incu View on Saturday. The only thing I'm questioning is the temperature of the eggs when I collect them.

The cages are in a shed that sometimes gets down to about 30 degrees F at night - it's usually closer to 50. I check for new eggs often when I'm off from work, but some have been sitting there for a few hours and are cold to the touch when I get off and collect them.

I collect them and store them in a dark place that stays right at about 65 degrees.

Will these eggs have a dismal hatch rate due to their temp when I collect them?

 

[pa2chitown]

A few hours at freezing is not good, but a few hours at around 50 is probably ok. Size of the egg and health of the chickens will have a role. The temp inside a larger egg, with more albumin, will not drop as quickly as a smaller egg. At 50 degrees, a newly hatched egg could probably set for ??30 minutes?? before inside temp drops to below 55?
These are eggs and sperm, at this point, so its not a matter of interfering with development, just whether a significant amount of proteins are damaged by freezing molecules.