All, I am curious as to how long after an egg is laid does it stay fertile if it is not in an incubator or being sat on by a mother hen? I just purchased some Japanese Bantams on eggbid.com and the owner said that the eggs were about 5 days old (after I bought them). Am I being ripped off? Will the eggs last and can I still incubate them and expect a reasonable turnout? Help! Ryan
They should be fine as long as they were not left out in the heat all that time. Shipping is hard on eggs so that may hinder the turnout. ~Rebecca
The general rule I've heard that 7 days is the max of how long you can leave an egg out before incubating it. Also, every day that goes by the hatchability goes down. When storing eggs make sure you have them big end up in the carton and that you move or turn them so the yolk won't get stuck to the shell. Cause you know there's still an embryo in there thats alive and growing, just slower because it's not being incubated. Hope this helps
