how long will eggs keep?

[37 Caddy]

am looking at getting some eggs to hatch,might be a stupid question,but how long will they be still good for?,how long from when they are layed till they are still good to be set under a hen?,was going to get some sent from another farm,and need to know how long they will last. Thanks Harvey

 

[Orca5094]

Typically, you don't want to incubate anything more than 10 days old (7 days is best). Your hatch rate will be greatly decreased if you incubate eggs older than that.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Not a stupid question at all - quite the opposite, really, especially when you are looking at the investment of purchasing eggs and going to the expense of shipping.
There are few different opinions you'll get on this - but for me, personally, I prefer to set eggs that are 1 week or less old when at all possible. Some folks have decent luck going up to 2 weeks. Keep in mind, too, that a lot of other factors come into play here such as how the eggs have been stored pre-shipping, how they were packaged, how they were handled in shipping, etc --all factors which can greatly reduce the likelihood of success if done incorrectly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends to a large extent how they are handled and stored. You might want to read this to get the basics, but I think it goes way overboard in some of the details.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf

Normally you should store the eggs pointy side down so the air cell is at the top. Try to keep the temperature stable. Temperature swings between warm and cool are not good. The temperature should be fairly cool, say around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but just do the best you can. I don’t have any place like that so I keep mine at room temperature, normally around 70. Higher humidity helps but I can’t control that. You don’t have to turn them for about a week or so but it doesn’t hurt. If you keep them more than a week, they should be turned a few times each day.

Eggs kept close this are normally really good for at least a week. If you are keeping them pretty close to “ideal” conditions they are pretty good for two weeks. After that, hatchability can drop. That doesn’t mean you won’t get any to hatch, just that you are not as likely to get a really great hatch.

When you are transporting them from the other farm, be careful not to shake them up. Be as gentle as you can. I made that mistake once and only got 10 out of 30 eggs in the incubator. Country roads can be pretty rough.