frozen egg questions

[adorable]

This might sound stupid. But here goes. Because it is starting to get cold at night. The silkies lay there eggs in the morning. I am collecting to put into bator. But i was wondering how do i know if it almost frozen. I know if it cracked it is frozen. But i was wondering like when it starts to form ice cristals that you cant see .....Is there any way of testing?.

 

[Akane]

Not really. You just have to set them and see if they hatch. I did it last winter. Eggs don't freeze until well below 32F though and it usually takes half a day or so even at quite cold temps. I was collecting eggs in subzero temperatures once daily and still not getting all frozen eggs and had 2 from that time hatch.

 

[dbcooper02]

I believe you can determine if an egg is frozen the same way you can tell if one is hard boiled. Set it on the counter and give it a gentle spin. A hard boiled or frozen egg will spin quite freely, while the liquid in a fresh egg will cause it to not spin so easily. If you touch the spinning egg gently on top to stop it then let it go, the boiled or frozen egg will stay stopped, while the inertia of the moving contents will cause the fresh egg to want to start turning again. Try it!
db

 

[adorable]

oh ok. that makes sense. I will try it.