Fridge/cold stored eggs revisited

[Susan Skylark]

While torturing my quail eggs to see what you can and can’t do to them and still get them to hatch, I was rather puzzled by a twenty five percent mortality rate in late term embryos post water candling (also a No turn and cold weather hatch but water candling is not something I do routinely). But then I got the same results in 2 subsequent hatches (cold weather yes, but no water candling and they were turned frequently) that I wasn’t intentionally trying to botch up. My previous “fridge egg” experiments yielded excellent development rates but I didn’t take them to hatch (or maybe only a couple?, not enough to notice a hatching pattern anyway). The last three hatches (over fifty eggs in total) have all been December/January hatches with ambient temps in the pens around 32F. Eggs were collected every couple days, sometimes stored in the fridge for a couple days, nothing froze but they were cold for 48-72 hours plus. Normally I have less than ten percent late embryonic death/failure to hatch. These three have been 25-40%. The only common denominator is the cold. Great development rates but significantly reduced hatch rates. The take home: gather hatching eggs several times daily in near freezing temps. Don’t store hatching eggs in the fridge. If you are hatching fridge/cold weather eggs expect reduced hatch rates and hatch extra!

 

[Kiki]

It's best to collect eggs daily, not every few days.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting results. I always considered the viability issue, do they even start to develop. I was not aware that it affected hatchability of otherwise viable eggs that started to develop.

The take home: gather hatching eggs several times daily in near freezing temps.

The effects are from both how cold it gets and how ling they are at that cold temperature.

Don’t store hatching eggs in the fridge.

If you have better options. For someone living in a very hot climate without Air Conditioning (Yes, this condition exists) the fridge may be the best option.

 

[LaFleche]

twenty five percent mortality rate in late term embryos post water candling

Well, water candling is dangerous as it can cause them to drown in their eggs as the shells get more porous the farther along they are.

Normal dry candling will show you tbe development just fine and give you a better hatch rate.

 

[MrNoName]

While torturing my quail eggs to see what you can and can’t do to them and still get them to hatch, I was rather puzzled by a twenty five percent mortality rate in late term embryos post water candling (also a No turn and cold weather hatch but water candling is not something I do routinely). But then I got the same results in 2 subsequent hatches (cold weather yes, but no water candling and they were turned frequently) that I wasn’t intentionally trying to botch up. My previous “fridge egg” experiments yielded excellent development rates but I didn’t take them to hatch (or maybe only a couple?, not enough to notice a hatching pattern anyway). The last three hatches (over fifty eggs in total) have all been December/January hatches with ambient temps in the pens around 32F. Eggs were collected every couple days, sometimes stored in the fridge for a couple days, nothing froze but they were cold for 48-72 hours plus. Normally I have less than ten percent late embryonic death/failure to hatch. These three have been 25-40%. The only common denominator is the cold. Great development rates but significantly reduced hatch rates. The take home: gather hatching eggs several times daily in near freezing temps. Don’t store hatching eggs in the fridge. If you are hatching fridge/cold weather eggs expect reduced hatch rates and hatch extra!

Hey, I have an egg I found in my fridge, that I got from a friends farm about 5ish days ago, that seems to have a baby chick embryo in it and it’s pretty big. If the egg was in the fridge for 5 days can it still hatch? I would post a picture but don’t know how, I’m new here. I did make a post about it though, idk if you know how to find my post and you can see the picture on there. I also have this Imgur link for the pic. Please take a look if you can and let me know if it’s hatchable or should I throw out?

https://imgur.com/a/i7G8QZU