Fertile eggs.

[Joey8765]

I always thought that once a chicken lays an egg that it has to be kept warm and put in an incubator straight away? Is this true?

 

[arabianequine]

No eggs were not refrigerated in the older days even in the store I heard. If the egg is fertilized you can keep them in a cool spot for 3-7 days this varies with people opinions.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

No. In fact the egg needs to cool a bit after being laid before it will develop. But mama hen gets off her nest usually once a day or so and that does the trick.

You can even refrigerate them before hatching. I just recently hatched thirty one out of thirty five turkeys from refrigerated eggs. My step-dad hatched ten out of twelve chicken eggs from a dozen I gave him of our sale eggs. They weren't kept for hatching specifically, but were just a dozen table eggs from the ones we sell. They'd been in the fridge three or four days at that point then a three hour ride back to his place.

.....Alan.