First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[mountain mom]

How long will a fertile egg store before I put it in the incubator.

I read they can be fine up to 3 weeks. Chickens will lay day after day, without being broody yet, until they think they have enough eggs in a clutch. Then they go broody and sit on their nest.
I read about a small business that ships eggs and it took over 10 days for them to reach their destination. I think they had over 80% hatch rate still!

I would say though, 10 days would be a good middle of the road.

Store them pointy end down in an egg carton, keep anywhere from 40-60 degrees, and do not wash them!

 

[duluthralphie]

How long will a fertile egg store before I put it in the incubator.

I really have no idea but an educated guess would be up to a month. If a bird lays an egg 5 days a week and they have a clutch of 20 eggs that's a months worth of eggs. Even at 7 eggs a day it is 3 weeks. I think I read somewhere they can go over a month but the hatch rate goes down the longer they sit around.


MM I put them up on craigslist for 30 bucks each. I had a couple people call but they wanted them for free. (not gonna happen) I thought someone might want a pet or a breeding tom, I did not feel like butchering them in the cold. I will simply do them in when it gets closer to egg laying time here. JJ is a proven breeder, so I always have him. I would like to keep one of the blues, but if not I am happy with baby JJ's.

I will freeze them, maybe even smoke them and freeze them, or grind them. One way or another I will use them. I actually thought 30 dollars a tom was a steal for slate blues.

I guess I was wrong.


Another woman showed up here for eggs. Why is it everyone wants eggs when my girls are on strike?

 

[Ridgerunner]

This gives you some good information on how to store eggs. I personally think they are way over the top. I don’t go this extreme but just do the best I reasonably can.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf

How long you can store them depends a lot on how they are stored. The closer to the ideal conditions the longer they can be stored. There is not a magic number of days where the eggs all of a sudden go bad. The hatchability gradually decreases. It’s not that you can’t be successful if the hatchability decreases, just that your hatch rate might go down.

Something else to consider. These ideal conditions are used by people that might hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week in the commercial industry. A small decrease in hatchability can get pretty noticeable here. A 1% difference to them is 10,000 chicks a week, over 500,000 a year. I don’t hatch that many chicks. Whether or not just one chick hatches for me is going to be over 1%. I won’t even notice that.

Most of the things they mention have a pretty wide sweet spot that works. It is good to know what the ideal conditions are so you know what to aim for. The closer you are to the ideal the better your chances, but with things like temperature there is a pretty wide sweet spot where you are not really going to see much difference even if you are off a fair amount. So just do the best you reasonably can and you should do OK.

 

[lazy gardener]

Of course there's the advice to turn your eggs while in storage to prevent the yolk from settling out of the middle of the egg. Good advice, but can be labor intensive compared to just letting them sit until they go into the bator. there was also a study done recently where hatching eggs were stored upside down, without turning, and the hatch rate was comparable to the traditionally handled eggs. Interesting stuff. Then, there was a study about doing a vitamin C dip which improved hatch rate and vigor. Gotta love it. I may try the vitamin C experiment with some of my eggs.

 

[mountain mom]

I really have no idea but an educated guess would be up to a month. If a bird lays an egg 5 days a week and they have a clutch of 20 eggs that's a months worth of eggs. Even at 7 eggs a day it is 3 weeks. I think I read somewhere they can go over a month but the hatch rate goes down the longer they sit around.


MM I put them up on craigslist for 30 bucks each. I had a couple people call but they wanted them for free. (not gonna happen) I thought someone might want a pet or a breeding tom, I did not feel like butchering them in the cold. I will simply do them in when it gets closer to egg laying time here. JJ is a proven breeder, so I always have him. I would like to keep one of the blues, but if not I am happy with baby JJ's.

I will freeze them, maybe even smoke them and freeze them, or grind them. One way or another I will use them. I actually thought 30 dollars a tom was a steal for slate blues.

I guess I was wrong.


Another woman showed up here for eggs. Why is it everyone wants eggs when my girls are on strike?

What? I think it is a steal! Day olds start around $15 for the heritage breeds, more for blues. And, you have been feeding and caring for them, they are living a free range, happy life. I saw an add for a mating couple of slate blues for $200 on craigslist.
I don't think you were wrong, I think most people want whatever you are offering on craigslist for a haggled price or free. I am sure they see $30 and think, I can totally talk this guy down to free. For this reason, I don't like to list things on craigslist. When we moved, we got rid of so much stuff we really didn't need or use anymore... I was quickly removed as the contact for our listings. I am a total pushover.

The smoked turkey will be soooo yummy. We brined ours for 2 days before we smoked it this Thanksgiving. Granted it was from the store, but it was so tasty!

Only when eggs are in demand, will people want them. I am mad I gave away so many this summer. I, gulp, just purchased eggs from the store. The last of my hoarded fall eggs were used at Christmas

The store ones are so disgusting. I have decided we will only use them in things, not eat them alone.

 

[holm25]

Ralph that was a reasonable price, for our two hens that are quite young was $50.

 

[holm25]

Our Hovabator 1602n should be here the 20-23!!! Started saving duck eggs!! So we should set about nine eggs. Our pekin hen can lay an egg everyday for about two weeks. She is amazing.

 

[duluthralphie]

Our Hovabator 1602n should be here the 20-23!!! Started saving duck eggs!! So we should set about nine eggs. Our pekin hen can lay an egg everyday for about two weeks. She is amazing.

That is great!

I am not going to be able to incubate for a couple months yet, but I am getting impatient. I got a text last night from a guy I sold eggs too about 3 weeks ago, he incubated them and as of last night he had 10 baby EE crosses. He wants me to save him 3 dozen blue eggs to hatch again.

I am happy to hear at least one of my roosters is potent. Rick could be a Daddy!

I hate this computer! It is slow and hard to type on some letters skip when pressed, others print two letters at once, It takes me way too long to type!

I am afraid to tell my wife I need a new computer as this one is not a year old. I cannot help but to think, that Maybe, when I spilled pea soup on it, it might have messed it up somehow. I know if I get a new computer she will go ballistic about my getting a new fish house. I decided I need one next winter.

 

[duluthralphie]

What? I think it is a steal! Day olds start around $15 for the heritage breeds, more for blues. And, you have been feeding and caring for them, they are living a free range, happy life. I saw an add for a mating couple of slate blues for $200 on craigslist.
I don't think you were wrong, I think most people want whatever you are offering on craigslist for a haggled price or free. I am sure they see $30 and think, I can totally talk this guy down to free. For this reason, I don't like to list things on craigslist. When we moved, we got rid of so much stuff we really didn't need or use anymore... I was quickly removed as the contact for our listings. I am a total pushover.

The smoked turkey will be soooo yummy. We brined ours for 2 days before we smoked it this Thanksgiving. Granted it was from the store, but it was so tasty!

Only when eggs are in demand, will people want them. I am mad I gave away so many this summer. I, gulp, just purchased eggs from the store. The last of my hoarded fall eggs were used at Christmas

The store ones are so disgusting. I have decided we will only use them in things, not eat them alone.

I gave away 3 and a half dozen eggs to friends last week, I was getting so many I could not sell them, THEN the strike occurred and I am getting hardly any. I had one woman want 6 dozen on Saturday, another 3 dozen on Sunday, a guy wanted two sunday I had one for him. and Then yesterday a woman wanted 2 dozen and I only had 10 eggs. 5 of which she went out to the coop and watched me gather.

 

[mountain mom]

Our Hovabator 1602n should be here the 20-23!!! Started saving duck eggs!! So we should set about nine eggs. Our pekin hen can lay an egg everyday for about two weeks. She is amazing.

How exciting! Good luck!