How long can you hold an egg

[chickengeorgeto]

If I understand correctly a fertilized egg will not begin to develop until it begins to be incubated. Therfore keeping them on the counter will not reveal any developement after, say, a week when you go to make an omelet... if suddenly you had a broody on your hands how long could fertilized eggs be setting on the counter and then set under a potential mama hen... Which brings up my next question. Can I tell if an egg is fertile before begining incubation without cracking it open?...

Eggs that have been sitting on your kitchen cabinets are poor candidates for producing chicks. Your wrong about when chick development begins.

Chick development begins at much lower temperatures than those temperatures encountered during incubation. This SLOW development saps the egg of its vitality. Only eggs that are kept under the best conditions to preserve fertility and viability should be set.

Eggs stored under the absolute best conditions for 14 days will only hatch about 50% of the time. Most hatcheries will not set eggs older than 7 days old because eggs older than 7 days start falling off the hatchability scale real fast. You can forget about hatching 3 week old eggs because after 21 days those eggs are not worth the wear & tear on the old hens' you know what.

Do this, store your eggs under the best possible conditions. Since ALL eggs destined for hatching should be marked with the date that they were laid, put these eggs aside and store them as possible hatching eggs. Every day remove any egg from storage that is older than 15 days and then you can let those eggs sit on your kitchen counter till the cows come home if that makes you happy.

The best conditions to store eggs are @ 65% humidity
about 55 degrees Fahrenheit
In a dark location
away from spikes in temperature
and vibrations like on top of or near a dishwasher, clothes dryer, washing machine, refrigerator, or microwave oven, and whatever you do TURN your eggs once, or three times every day but never turn your hatching eggs twice in one day.

 

[Cryss]

Eggs that have been sitting on your kitchen cabinets are poor candidates for producing chicks. Your wrong about when chick development begins.

Chick development begins at much lower temperatures than those temperatures encountered during incubation. This SLOW development saps the egg of its vitality. Only eggs that are kept under the best conditions to preserve fertility and viability should be set.

Eggs stored under the absolute best conditions for 14 days will only hatch about 50% of the time. Most hatcheries will not set eggs older than 7 days old because eggs older than 7 days start falling off the hatchability scale real fast. You can forget about hatching 3 week old eggs because after 21 days those eggs are not worth the wear & tear on the old hens' you know what.

Do this, store your eggs under the best possible conditions. Since ALL eggs destined for hatching should be marked with the date that they were laid, put these eggs aside and store them as possible hatching eggs. Every day remove any egg from storage that is older than 15 days and then you can let those eggs sit on your kitchen counter till the cows come home if that makes you happy.

The best conditions to store eggs are @ 65% humidity
about 55 degrees Fahrenheit
In a dark location
away from spikes in temperature
and vibrations like on top of or near a dishwasher, clothes dryer, washing machine, refrigerator, or microwave oven, and whatever you do TURN your eggs once, or three times every day but never turn your hatching eggs twice in one day.

Why should you turn a hatching egg one OR three times but NEVER twice?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Why should you turn a hatching egg one OR three times but NEVER twice?

So that the embryo doesn’t end up in the same position it started out in.

 

[FishMtFarm]

I’m telling ya, the refrigerator is perfect. Humidity is right and the super low temp suspends any embryo growth. People say no but I have tested this time and time again. I have had the best results storing them in the fridge. It’s the only way I do it.

 

[dotporter]

Best practice: store eggs at around 50 - 60*F, and turn them several times/day. They do better if stored in a semi humid environment. And hatch rate is highest if the eggs are set within 7 - 10 days. Some studies have shown that IF you can't turn the stored eggs every day, the hatch rates are actually IMPROVED if the eggs are stored upside down (pointy end up)

While hatch rate will be decreased, there has been success with refrigerated eggs, as well as eggs that are quite a bit older. I would try to set eggs less than 7 - 10 days old.

If I wanted to set eggs, I'd start saving the eggs that I wanted to hatch, and keep a ready supply of those eggs, rotating new eggs into that supply as I removed the older eggs. Then, when you have a committed broody (she's been sitting on the nest for 3 days/nights without leaving it. The nest is in a secure location where you can block her in so other hens don't mess with her, and she won't return to the wrong nest), you'll have a supply of eggs to give her. My 2 broodies had wonderful hatches 10 + 12 chicks!

It's also wise to get the flock on a good protein feed, and multivits before collecting hatching eggs.

For more information regarding embryo development and hatching details (even if you are not using an incubator) sift through the compilation of excellent resources in "hatching eggs 101" in the learning center.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-635X2012000400003 Yep. Storing eggs pointy end up increases survival of hatching chicks. Improving their survival rate from sixty some percent to above eighty percent.

Now, if anyone wonders why a chicken can hatch eggs just fine while humans have a problem? Neat study
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/pou3573

Apparently warming up eggs prior to incubation improves hatches? Hm. Sort of like a chicken sitting on the nest for an hour singing the chicken song and waiting for an egg to pop out.

neat stuff.

 

[dotporter]

I’m telling ya, the refrigerator is perfect. Humidity is right and the super low temp suspends any embryo growth. People say no but I have tested this time and time again. I have had the best results storing them in the fridge. It’s the only way I do it.

depending on your fridge temp, that's completely possible. https://extension.illinois.edu/eggs/res22-handlingeggs.html as low as fourty degrees and the fridge holds humidity which is an important part of storing eggs.

 

[Cryss]

So that the embryo doesn’t end up in the same position it started out in.

Thank you. That makes perfect sense, I get it now.