Hatching refrigerated eggs=frozen embryos

[kryptoniteqhs]

Ok so my grandma made a good point the other day. I was talking to her about how I dont put eggs meant for hatching in the refrigerator, but how its still possible for them to hatch once theyve been in there, but chances go down. She asked how its any different from when scientists freeze or chill embryos? Or semen? eggs? I was just wondering if anyone knew what the difference was. I told her I figured it must be a different kind of freezing in a controled environment with particular temperatures. If this is true, does anyone know what the "safe" temperature is? Have I totally lost my mind? lol

 

[Akane]

Conception rates go down with frozen semen but you have thousands of the buggers to kill off. With horses at least sometimes it doesn't even work. I took equine reproduction classes so this is where I can best base my information. It's also not just stick things in the freezer and wait for it to become cold. This is the process for equines from one company:

The semen is then mixed with a centrifugation extender, and the majority of the seminal plasma is removed by centrifugation. The resulting sperm pellet is resuspended in a freezing extender which contains a nutrient medium and a cryopreservant. This mixture of sperm and extender is then loaded into straws. The straws are then lowered in temperature by being exposed to liquid nitrogen vapour for a timed period. After the completion of that timed period, they are plunged into the liquid nitrogen, from which they can subsequently removed, and stored in a liquid nitrogen storage container. Of course, this is just a simplified outline of the procedure, and there are several different techniques that vary.

Even with complicated techniques up to 1/3rd of stallions cannot have their semen frozen and still result in a pregnant mare. I believe the methods for more expensive storage of human or other semen requires much lower temperatures and the proper solution to keep the cells from being damaged. Try this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryopreservation . Just letting something freeze, especially slowly, will damage it and you will not get any offspring.

Refrigeration is different from freezing. Without the methods mentioned above freezing any part of an egg is most likely an instant death sentence for any chick you hope to hatch from it. Cold eggs that don't freeze are not damaged like that. In fact if you really want to try to hatch some eggs but for some reason just can't do it within the next week or 2 putting the eggs in the fridge can get you more chicks than leaving them sit out. It will help slow things down and preserve them. Some will not survive the cooler temps just like some will not survive higher temps while others will which is why you would get more chicks from fresh eggs that had not been refrigerated. I've hatched eggs from my coop in the middle of winter though so eggs can get really cold and still hatch so long as they don't freeze.​

 

[MissDeb]

With dogs we used fresh chilled semen all the time? They also used frozen with great success now a days......


Edit: you know, you could have just added your own idea's into my thread posted 45 minutes before yours, 4 down.....LOL!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

Cells frozen in science all have different protocols depending on the type of cell and it's intended future use. Bacterial cells like E coli kept for the long term are stored in glycerol stocks at pre determined concentrations at -80C for optimal restoration when put back into culture, but sometimes are flash frozen in a media at a certain growth stage to be "competent" as in to have the ability to pick up plasmids if one so desired. These are generally flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and thawed on ice for use. Eukaryotic cells, like stem cells, cell lines, and primary cells are stored in liquid nitrogen at their pre defined concentrations in pre defined media, and are slow frozen and quick thawed for restoration. As with either method, they do get old and many cells do die in the process the longer you keep them even at ideal conditions. At this time, you can't really save things "forever" and even cell lines can undergo a thing called "drift" where the cells can change and no longer have their original founding characteristics.

The eggs from the chickens you want to hatch will store for different periods of time depending on the environment they are kept in for storage. Ideal temps and humidity can have the egg last a month and still get a few to hatch. The rate of deformities and thus quitters greatly increases as a function of storage conditions. If it is really cold or hot (or any deviation from ideal), the ability for the cells in the blastocyst of the egg to properly develop declines. Nutrients for the chick break down, natural enzymes in the egg start to degrade themselves or each other/components, the DNA/RNA quality decreases, the replication machinery starts to "go bad"....

To answer you storage question, in the lab where I used to use chicken eggs, 14 deg C (about 58F) and near 100% relative humidity was our ideal storage temps for the best and most consistent development of stored chicken eggs.

Of course, anyone who really knows this stuff will find this explanation rather sloppy, but the idea is there. It's late and I'm procrastiating. LOL Back to work I go!