How should I store eggs that I'm slowly collecting for incubator?

[hannakat]

I plan to try incubating 5-7 eggs but am collecting the eggs of only 1 of my hens. I figure it will take a little over a week to get that many eggs.

I have no idea how to store them until I get enough. Help!

 

[MuscovyMad]

You need to store them rounded end up but angled slightly in a temperature of 12 to 18 degrees celsius in a place with a bit of humidity to prevent the eggs from drying out.

You will also need to turn them once a day to prevent the embryo from sticking to the membranes.

I wish i had known all this when i stored mine. I didn't turn and so will find out in a few days when i candle to see if it was a mistake or if i got away with it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sounds like your first time incubating. I suggest you check this Texas A&M article. Lots of good information. You don't have to do everything exactly like they suggest. These are guidelines, not absolute laws of nature. Just do the best you reasonably can and don't stress out if you don't meet the gudielines exactly.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/b6092.pdf

I take the turner out of my incubator, plug it in, and store the eggs pointy side down in the coolest room in my house. That way I don't have to worry about turning.

One week is not a problem. Just store them pointy side down and away from extreme temperatures and you will be OK.

 

[Gypsy07]

Put them in an egg carton, pointy end down. Put one end of the carton on a thick book. Move it at least once a day from one end to the other so that the eggs get tilted back and forth. Make sure they're in a cool room where the temperature is fairly even, and keep them out of direct sunlight. That's what I did with my eggs I was collecting from the one hen, and I have eight in lockdown right now, and another eight already hatched out a couple of weeks ago.

Edited to add: Thanks for that link Ridgerunner! I've just printed it out and read through it twice - loads of info I didn't already know.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Been a little warm around here lately here in Florida. I'd store them like I would in the spring and summer. In the refrigerator in an egg carton. I do turn them at least once a day.

 

[hannakat]

Thanks! Yes, this is the first time I'll be hatching. I have specific eggs coming next month and I want to test my incubator with a few of my own first....just to make sure.

I've read others who said they took refridgerated eggs and hatched them. The TA&M site says no. I took yesterday's egg out of the fridge and marked it. Guess I'll find out.

Can you write on an egg with a marker? I don't want to put anything on it that might be absorbed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use a Sharpee. Some people are concerned that the solvents will go through the egg shell to the developing chick, but the black ink is carried by the solvents and I have never seen black ink on the inside of the shells where I marked them. I've opened a bunch. I consider it perfectly safe.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Those recommendations in the A&M site are guidelines, not hard and fast laws of nature. If you follow the guidelines exactly, you still do not have a guarantee of a perfect hatch. If you violate some, you are not guaranteed a total complete failure. The guidelines are there to improve your odds of success but they do not guarantee anything. They are just good targets to shoot for.

Refrigerated eggs are a great example. Not all refrigerators are the same temperature. Some areas in the refrigerator are warmer than others. In the warmest spots in some refrigerators, the temperature is probably not that much lower than the lower bounds of the guidelines. In the middle of the summer here, storing eggs in the coolest part of my house, I am probably further away from the guidelines than A.T. Hagan is with his refrigerator. If you store them in the colder parts of a refrigerator that is set pretty cold, your hatch rate will probably not conssitently be as good as those stored in a warmer spot, but that does not mean they are guaranteed to be bad.

Some people go out of their way to violate the guidelines and still have success. Those eggs can be pretty tough. But just because you sometimes have success after violating the guidelines does not prove the guidelines are rubbish. They are not. The guidelines merely improve your odds. Sometimes you roll sevens and sometimes you roll snake-eyes, regardless of the odds.