I got some eggs that haven't been turned since they were laid, which was a week, are they corrupt?

[alireza18feb]

The guy who gave it to me kept it under a air cooler with good humidity, but he didn't know he had to turn them, they haven't been turned for like a week, are they dead?

 

[R2elk]

The guy who gave it to me kept it under a air cooler with good humidity, but he didn't know he had to turn them, they haven't been turned for like a week, are they dead?

While not the best way to store hatching eggs, they should still be hatchable. One viable method of storing hatching eggs is to store them pointy side up in a carton inside of a plastic bag. Turning the eggs has not shown any benefit when using this method. It is still preferred to keep them in a cool place.

 

[MadamContrary]

I have hatched silkie eggs for a friend that were stored large end up for two weeks with no turning, ambient temperature was in the 50s. 11 of 12 hatched.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The guy who gave it to me kept it under a air cooler with good humidity, but he didn't know he had to turn them, they haven't been turned for like a week, are they dead?

I would incubate them for different reasons. And I would expect success.

A hen laying eggs to build up a brood to hatch does not go to that nest a few times a day to turn eggs that have already been laid. I'm not sure she turns the eggs already there when she goes back the next day to lay anther egg, I sure haven't seen that. She may lay eggs for two weeks before she starts incubating and the old eggs still hatch even with little to no turning.

The commercial chicken industry have studied different things to determine the "best" way to do things. They have determined that it is best to turn eggs a few times a day before incubation, then turning them more after incubation starts. You don't need to turn them the first 3 or 4 days of storing them to hatch but after that it helps. These are people that might hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week in a hatchery and they probably have a few different hatcheries scattered around. They are looking for any little thing that helps. If they can improve the hatch rate by as little as 1%, that's a lot of chicks over a year. You and I don't hatch enough to even notice 1% improvement in hatch rate.

I don't know how much turning them during storage helps, it could be more than 1%. But it would not have to be much to become a "best practice" and become an internet recommendation. Turning is more important once incubation starts but even then there have been posts on here where people forgot to turn them the first week or so of incubation and they still got pretty good hatches. I'm all in favor of doing what is best, at least to my ability. I'll take any advantage I can get. But I really doubt you will see any problems from them not being turned that long.

 

[alireza18feb]

I would incubate them for different reasons. And I would expect success.

A hen laying eggs to build up a brood to hatch does not go to that nest a few times a day to turn eggs that have already been laid. I'm not sure she turns the eggs already there when she goes back the next day to lay anther egg, I sure haven't seen that. She may lay eggs for two weeks before she starts incubating and the old eggs still hatch even with little to no turning.

The commercial chicken industry have studied different things to determine the "best" way to do things. They have determined that it is best to turn eggs a few times a day before incubation, then turning them more after incubation starts. You don't need to turn them the first 3 or 4 days of storing them to hatch but after that it helps. These are people that might hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week in a hatchery and they probably have a few different hatcheries scattered around. They are looking for any little thing that helps. If they can improve the hatch rate by as little as 1%, that's a lot of chicks over a year. You and I don't hatch enough to even notice 1% improvement in hatch rate.

I don't know how much turning them during storage helps, it could be more than 1%. But it would not have to be much to become a "best practice" and become an internet recommendation. Turning is more important once incubation starts but even then there have been posts on here where people forgot to turn them the first week or so of incubation and they still got pretty good hatches. I'm all in favor of doing what is best, at least to my ability. I'll take any advantage I can get. But I really doubt you will see any problems from them not being turned that long.

oh i see it, yes you are definitely correct on that...that was a thorough answer...thank you

 

[Mellowmalt]

One viable method of storing hatching eggs is to store them pointy side up in a carton inside of a plastic bag.

seems exactly the opposite of what I do which is store them in a cool airy place pointy side DOWN.

So considering people seem to do all sorts up to incubating them in a bra I'd say this week of not turning should be negligeable.

Don't forget during incubating it is even ok to not turn the eggs in the final week, it is the first 2 weeks and the first few days of incubating where turning is most essential to stop the embrio getting stuck in one place or something so for these eggs I would candle them all, and turn them while doing so. The dark blob (yolk) you see while candling should move around slightly as your turn the egg. As long as it freely moves around you should be good to go. I think the ggs should be absolutely fine. I think I've not turned eggs for 5 days before with no noticeble ill effects before incubating. The worst would be that the yolk gets stuck to the egg but just turning the egg a bit should free it if that has happened so I don't think anything bad will have happened from not turning them.

 

[Sierra G]

The reason you turn the eggs is to allow new nutrients to reach the embryo. It can't move around once it's used up what's local and nothing else in the egg moves by itself. So turning the egg moves the embryo around inside the egg. This is not important at all before development starts and not important for the first day or two. Once the embryo really gets going though it needs turned every 4-6 hours and at least 4 times a day. Turning should continue until lockdown. Even when the chick is almost fully developed, turning helps keep the chick from sticking to the shell.

 

[R2elk]

seems exactly the opposite of what I do which is store them in a cool airy place pointy side DOWN.

So considering people seem to do all sorts up to incubating them in a bra I'd say this week of not turning should be negligeable.

Don't forget during incubating it is even ok to not turn the eggs in the final week, it is the first 2 weeks and the first few days of incubating where turning is most essential to stop the embrio getting stuck in one place or something so for these eggs I would candle them all, and turn them while doing so. The dark blob (yolk) you see while candling should move around slightly as your turn the egg. As long as it freely moves around you should be good to go. I think the ggs should be absolutely fine. I think I've not turned eggs for 5 days before with no noticeble ill effects before incubating. The worst would be that the yolk gets stuck to the egg but just turning the egg a bit should free it if that has happened so I don't think anything bad will have happened from not turning them.

You are using the normal method. Storing them pointy side up is a method meant for longer term storage and has proven to get around an 80% hatch rate for eggs stored for 4 weeks.

The normal method of storing eggs is said to be good for 7 to 10 days before viability starts dropping..