How soon after an egg is laid can you put it under a hen or into an incubator?

[Yucky_ducky_kentucky]

Inside a hen is warm so I'm wondering if a very freshly laid egg needs to cool down first before it can be placed into an incubator to be warmed up again. I know that warming a cooled egg activates it, and this activation starts the chemical reaction which makes the fetus start developing. The inside of a hen is the same temp that the egg needs to be to be activated.

What do you think?

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I don't know the answer, but I can tell you in 29 days! I set 22 eggs on May 1st and two were still "hot off the press," so to speak. I imagine they'll be fine!

 

[Tonyroo]

I would let it rest indoors for 24 hours before incubating.

 

[Sierra G]

It's temperature plus duration. A fertile egg laid in a nest with a broody in it has just as good a chance of hatching as eggs brought back out and placed under her.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

So I put a leghorn egg in the incubator as soon as I found it. It was still warm. Yesterday was day 3 and it has already developed a heartbeat.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I don't think they have to be cooled. I have a hen notorious for laying in a broody nest and by the time I clear those eggs out, they always have started (not enough for a heartbeat, but their yolk stabilizes)