How old can eggs be?

[poularde]

I ordered some eggs that were shipped last Tues. I think they were shipped ground. I still have not received them yet. I contacted the seller and she offered to send more. So if I get my eggs today they have been shipped for 8 days now. Would the eggs be to old to even try to incubate?

I think I will get the seller to send me more with different shipping. My poor eggs.

I feel awful that they are out there somewhere still. The eggs are Houdans and I am very excited to try this breed. I hope the eggs arrive and it is not to late.

 

[Kedreeva]

Typically not more than 7 days, and after you get them you are supposed to let them settle for a certain amount of time (I think 12 hours, but don't take my word for it). Sorry to hear about the shipping trouble, I would contact and ask for tracking this time. That will at least help you track where they are going. It shouldn't take 8 days even at ground; my bet is that they've gotten lost. You can TRY to incubate them (just in case) but I wouldn't expect them to hatch after so long.

 

[TaLani]

You can still have decent hatch rates with eggs that are two weeks old. The main thing is the temperatures that the eggs were exposed to, not to mention if they were handled roughly. I think there's still hope for your eggs though. It couldn't hurt to get more eggs for the price of shipping though I suppose, just to be on the safe side. Did the lady give you any sort of tracking number?

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I want to tell you that I have successfully hatched chicken and duck eggs that were several weeks old (no shipping though. these were from my own flock). And I did an experiment on the viability of eggs. I saved 10 duck eggs for 35 days and then incubated them. I got 1 out of 10 that made it all the way to hatch. So although viability goes down as the egg ages, they can still be incubated and get some to hatch.

Laurie