fridgerator?

[thebitty]

I have no way to keep eggs at 55-60 degrees until ready for incubation so today I put a couple of eggs in the fridge until I built my incubator. Will this make them unhatchable?

 

[Majd]

No.... they can hatch out fine.... I hatchey 15 from the fridge under my broody hen.... it's a mith that eggs if were in the frige they wont hatch.... they just not have to be frozen.... old people gave it for new generations... but it's not true....

 

[thebitty]

Thanks! That's great to know ha. I just read on here that they should be kept between 55 and 60 degrees

 

[deejeff442]

i would have never thought that. i own a concrete company and the old wives tale is to spray water on new concrete to make it stronger .NOT. this is good info thanks.

 

[thebitty]

I can't keep my temp at 99 will it still incubate between 100 and 104?

 

[Majd]

Well the temperature of incubation I'm not sure because I never used a bator to hatch out chicks... I love natural and enjoy seeing them grow up with their mothers... not under heat lamps.... and they become stronger and healthier... besides it's cheaper and save time.... and I don't have enough time... so their moms warm them and feed them.. etc... but temperature should not be higher than what Iit's supposed to be.... it won't work.... ask someone with more experience in bator preparation... wish you all the luck!!!! And why can't you keep the temperature 99?? maybe at 100 they can hatch but with a lower hatch rate :/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have no way to keep eggs at 55-60 degrees until ready for incubation so today I put a couple of eggs in the fridge until I built my incubator. Will this make them unhatchable?

A whole lot of things given on here are guidelines, not absolute laws of nature. Things like how to store eggs, how much space is needed in a coop and run or on roosts, even how to feed them. Following the guidelines exactly does not guarantee total absolute success. Violating the guidelines does not guarantee total absolute failure. Following the guidelines as best you can improves your odds of success. Nothing more. No guarantees, just better odds in your favor.

With practically everything to do with chickens, it’s not a real clear hard line. It’s not that if you turn them 3 times a day 100% will hatch but if you turn them two times a day, absolutely zero will hatch. More are likely to hatch healthy if you turn them a little more. It’s not if you store the eggs ate 55 degrees you’ll get a perfect hatch but if you store them cooler or warmer absolutely none will hatch. The further you are from the ideal conditions and the longer you are away from them, the less likely you are to get a great hatch, but being off is not an absolute guarantee of failure.

The experts, the ones that maybe hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week in incubators that might hold 60,000 or even 120,000 eggs, have determined that they get a better hatch rate if the eggs are stored a certain way. They have determined optimums for what temperatures, humidity levels, how long they are stored, what positions they are stored in, things like that. With them, a 1% difference is 10,000 chicks each week. That’s noticeable. I wouldn’t notice a 1% difference. I just don’t hatch that many.

I don’t have any place that is perfect to store eggs for hatching. I just plug in my turner in a spare bedroom and whatever the room temperature and humidity happens to be is how they are stored. I assure you, we don’t set the thermostat for the house at 55 degrees. I usually get pretty good hatch rates. It’s not “ideal” but it’s the conditions “I deal” with. That’s the best I can reasonably do. The best some people in hot climates can do is to store them in the refrigerator. And don’t forget that not all refrigerators are exactly the same temperatures everywhere inside that refrigerator. Refrigerators have warm or cool spots and they have thermostats. Conditions in one might be closer to the ideal than in another.

A lot of people seem to think that just because they have violated a guideline and had a good hatch that the guidelines are bogus. It doesn’t work that way. Those eggs can be pretty darn tough. There are a lot of conditions where they can hatch. The closer you are to the ideal the better your odds, but the sweet spot for hatching is pretty wide. Just do the best you can and you will probably do OK.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't keep my temp at 99 will it still incubate between 100 and 104?

Is it a forced air or a still air? Do you have a fan to move the air around?

In a forced air, the perfect ideal temperature is 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do a forced air right and get the fan working properly, the temperature should be the same everywhere inside. If you are a degree off, you should still get a pretty good hatch rate. If it’s warm, they will just be a bit early. The warmer you go from that, the worse your odds become. I don’t know when you go from incubating your eggs to cooking your eggs, but I’d be really worried about 104.

It’s not about an instantaneous temperature either. What counts the most is the average temperature over the incubation, not a spike. A short spike shouldn’t hurt you that much. It takes a while for the inside of the egg to warm up. So how long you are at those higher dangerous temperatures is a big factor.

A still air is different. Hot air rises. The temperature in a still air can be a lot different depending on where you take the temperature. They are also prone to cool or warm spots. The ideal is 101.5 degrees taken at the top of the eggs. That should put the core temperature at the center of the eggs around 99.5 degrees. Yeah, just that much difference in elevation can make that kind of difference in temperature.

I don’t know enough about your specific incubator to know if those temperatures are good or bad. I just know the closer you get to the ideal, the better your odds of a good hatch. There is a sweet spot around the ideal temperatures where you can do pretty well, but once you get outside that sweet spot, the odds do drop pretty rapidly.

 

[loverofbirds14]

I can't keep my temp at 99 will it still incubate between 100 and 104?

We just hatched a bunch and had temps generally between 99 and 102. Almost all of them hatched!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

The IDEAL place to store hatching eggs is in a humid room around 50-60° (think cellar or basement). That doesn't necessarily mean they HAVE to be stored that way. For example, I store mine on my kitchen counter and keep my house around 73°. I've hatched eggs from the fridge, small pullet eggs, ect. Heck, there's even a thread where someone has taken the egg contents from the shell and hatched in a bag or a lady that incubated an egg in her bra. Where there's a will, there's a way. You just want to keep them in temps cool enough to keep them from developing and warm enough to keep from freezing, IMO. And out of direct sunlight.

As for your temp, that does largely depend on what type of incubator you're using. Mine is a still air and I run it between 100-102°. The air in my bator isn't circulated, so different heights will be different temps. Forced air bators are much more consistent. They control the temp much better so should be kept around 99.5-100°. When I tried hatching in my still air at 99.5 (per the directions), my chicks hatched very late- well, the ones that hatched anyway. I would be concerned about the temp getting up to 104. Make sure tour bator is in a draft free space and isn't getting any sunlight, both can cause temp swings. Good luck!