how long are eggs good for?

[Mike_Winters]

can you hatch eggs that come form the supermarket? their all refrigerated and fertile.
i usually have to clean my eggs since my ducks always manage to get poop and dirt on them.

 

[cadman68]

Typically eggs that you get from the store have been layed by hens that have no rooster contact, so i would say you would not have any luck with that.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Quote:
All supermarket eggs have been though a cleaning process and then refrigerated. Which would kill the embryo, so I would say no way could you hatch them even if they are fertile.

 

[robinh]

Quote:
you can keep eggs for incubation for up to ten days, but they need to be kept somewhere cool 55 degrees is what they call for.

 

[Mike_Winters]

well all the eggs i get form stop & shop are fertile cuz they have a white spot were the chick wound develop in the egg

 

[JamesC]

Mike_Winters:
All eggs contain the white spot, it's called the blastoderm and is the place where fertilization takes place. If an egg is fertilized, when it's laid, the white spot is then referred to as a blastodisk and it's actually a tiny embroy containing approx. 100,000 cells, depending on the length of time the hen took to lay it.
If you buy your eggs from a small shop it's possible that they buy from a local farm that does have males running with their females, so they may be fertile. As a rule Supermarket eggs are not fertile because they are laid in large factory farms where the hens are caged and no males are kept.

I wash all of my eggs before incubation in an Egg Washing detergent so I know that washing will not harm the embryo. So far this year out of 24 fertile eggs set, I have 23 chicks.
When I was young I took some eggs out of my mother's refrigerator to put under a broody and they all hatched. I'm not recommending it but it can be done. The problem with most refrigerators today is that they're too dry. Eggs kept in them will lose a lot of moisture. My fridge also has cold spots and I often have eggs freeze, so as jimnjay advised, try to store for up to 10 days at about 50-55F and if you can measure the humidty, 70% is ideal.

James

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Sometimes you will see fertile eggs in a health food store. It's possible they may hatch if incubated, but if they were ever refrigerated, or if they are more than ten days old, they probably won't, and you don't have a guarantee purchasing fertile eggs this way. When a breeder or hatchery offers hatching eggs, they are selling a product that has been handled so as to improve the likelihood of hatching chicks. In the case of chicken eggs, this means that the eggs have been maintained at temperatures between 40 degrees and 70 degrees, though 50-60 degrees is preferable, and humidity has been maintained between 70 and 80%. Hatching eggs have also been laid within a week (10 days at the longest), so they are fresh, and they have been rotated during this period. When hatching eggs maintained this way are incubated, you should get somewhere between 60 and 95% hatch.

 

[ozark hen]

Quote:
I know that the stores have eggs much longer than this so this does not seem viable does it? I am just wondering?

 

[aran]

when one gets a dozen of more eggs in the mail from a breeder with only 2-3 hens of a given breed surely even at one egg per day each that is 4-6 days laying time then the 2-3 days shipping time then the 12-24hr standing to let the airsac settle time--> 7-10 days would be the normal time frame from this scenario right? Hopefully with this kind of scenario ppl are still getting at last 50% hatch rates if the incubation process is done correctly. Anyone with any experience with the above type scenario?

 

[ozark hen]

I have included a thread that informs all of storing eggs.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=936
hope this helps.
I am editing this as this is wrong thread!!