How old eggs for hatching?

[MomFoldingLaundry]

I’d always assumed quail eggs should be no more than a week old when you put them in the incubator, but I saw somewhere that up to 10 days is okay. What do you guys think?

 

[nuthatched]

People try to hatch grocery store eggs with some success. I depends how they've been stored.

 

[HuffleClaw]

I’d say 10-12 days is fine.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I stored mine for 10 days on the counter, all fertilized hatched. I've seen numbers as high as 2 weeks (14 days).

If you are curious as to whether it makes a difference, use a china marker (grease pencil) to mark and date the eggs for comparison.

 

[FloorCandy]

I usually try to incubate within 7 days of being laid, however, I once took several washed eggs from my fridge, where they had been for over 2 weeks, just because I had room in the bator and I wanted to see if they would hatch, a few hatched, maybe 2/3 did not hatch, so nothings impossible.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Yes, liturature says after 7 days hatchrate drops dramaticly.

But theorie and reality can differ.

I had some troubles with a second delivery once and had to store the first delivered hatching eggs for about 16 days and still had a hatchrate of 65%