How long can I keep fertilized eggs in the fridge?

[naf_appaz]

I have kept quail and chicken eggs for up to two weeks with decent hatch rates....refrigerator is to cold! If you can keep them 55 to 60 degrees they will last up to 2 weeks, certainly 10 days, and you don't need to turn them as long as they are kept cool...I'm sure the viability starts going down quickly after about 10 days

 

[bantamluv]

Umm, don't mean to butt in on anything, but refrigerating fertile eggs typically kills or delays the embryos to the point where they don't hatch, die during incubation, or hatch with problems. I'd just keep them at 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 10 days. The longer the settle time, the less likely your chicks are to hatch. Hope this helps!

 

[getaclue]

Since someone suggested I misunderstood, I would like to readdress, please. You state you still have the rooster, and hens with bare backs, so the eggs should be fertile. You don't have to have a broody to hatch eggs. Collect the eggs for the next 10 days, storing them at room temperature, and hatch them. Usually refrigerated eggs don't do very well, but there have been exceptions. 10 days is usually the limit on viability.

 

[speckledhen]

How long can I keep these fertilized eggs in the fridge and have them still be viable?

Well, there is no one exact answer. I have hatched eggs sitting on a shelf in my cool basement that were two weeks old and most hatched. I have pulled an egg from the fridge that had been in there a week to put under a broody, not thinking it would hatch, sort of as a place holder, and it hatched.

Eggs begin to lose viability in proper temps, unrefrigerated, but at cool temps, after a week. After two weeks, viability drops dramatically. At three weeks, it's unlikely any will hatch. I would never purposefully store eggs in the fridge to hatch. They won't be viable in the fridge as long as they are on a counter in a cool location. If it's in hot weather times and you have no cool basement, you store them low to the ground in the coolest location in your house that you know of because cool air sinks.

On the flipside, one situation happened to me almost 7 years ago when I traded my breeding rooster for a freezer of venison. I had sold the eggs up until that point that he left and I figured I had viability for another two weeks on eggs I collected after he was gone. Well, it didn't happen. I got only one chick from all the eggs collected so it was a major goof-up. Fertility lasted on that batch only about a week for some unknown reason. It was not an incubation problem or a rooster problem (he was very young and virile, no issues with any other eggs hatching). This is why I say there is no one exact answer.

 

[Maddison]

According to my chicken book

"You can store eggs for up to 6 days without noticing a significant difference. for each day thereafter, hatchability will suffer by approximately 1 percent. Store eggs out of sunlight in a cool, relatively dry place but not in the refrigerator. the best temperature is 55*F (33*C). Humidity should be low enough to prevent moisture from condensing on the shells, which would attract molds and also encourage any bacteria already on the shell to multiply" "to minimize evaporation of eggs stored longer than 6 days, seal cartons in plastic bags, or better yet, wrap the eggs individually in plastic wrap." "store eggs in clean cartons. Hard-plastic egg cartons can be easily disinfected for re-use; recycled styrofoam or cardboard cartons from the grocery store accumulate bacteria over time. When I use such cartons for hatching eggs, I discard them after one use." " Place eggs in the carton with their large ends up to keep the yolks centered within the white. if the eggs will be stored longer than 6 days, keep yolks from sticking to the inside of the shell by tilting the eggs from one side to the other. Instead of handling eggs individually, elevate one end of the carton one day, and the opposite end the next day."

I recommend you follow this as I stored 4 eggs for 4 days using this information and they are now properly developing in my incubator.

 

[Maddison]

Oh! and there all these things called chicken vests/jackets, also known as an apron or saddle, if your roo is ripping out the feathers when treading you can put these jackets on them so they can grow back there feathers without having to be separated from the roo. My book covers this in more detail though, as well as plans for a DIY jacket. the book is called "storey's guide to raising chickens" if you want to read more about it. Or just google it

 

[The Moonshiner]

Nope you said, "Why the fridge?" That is not an answer. Everyone knows they do best at room temp and for roughly 10 days. That was not what the OP asked about.

Ha ha.
Since when is it wrong to ask questions in a reply?

 

[RollTideChicken]

Ha ha.
Since when is it wrong to ask questions in a reply?

Ha Ha. Never.

 

[Foristers]

Why the fridge? They do best stored at room temp. They are usually good for up to 10 days, stored at room temp.

Only because I read somewhere that they keep longer in the fridge but I can't remember where and why. Thanks!

 

[Foristers]

You could just incubate some eggs now. Just use an incubator.

I just don't want to use an incubator. Call me lazy but I rather the broody hen do all the work. LOL. I'll keep my rooster longer if I have to.