I have a dumb question........ about hatching eggs.

[Myst4]

The first time I didn't keep them in the fridge for hatching. They were there for human consumption.My dh bougth me a bator, I brought the eggs to room temp and then put them in it. I had 100% hatch rate. Then with my second batch of eggs,in order for me to have enough eggs to hatch(I wanted lots) I saved all of my white and green eggs,sold my brown eggs,and put my kept my green and white eggs in the fridge until my bator was free to put them in. I brought them also to room temp before I set them in the bator. I have candled them and all are growing well and very active. There are 28 of them. I'm not saying to anyone to do what I have done,about storing them in the fridge, I have no other place safe enough to keep them. I also kept them big side down(because that's how the store do it) before I read on here otherwise. Everything so far has turned out fine with my hatches. I get my eggs from my own hens,so I'm not worried if they don't hatch,I'll be disappointed , but I can always hatch more. The fertility rate on my eggs are very high. But anyway, please don't think I am encouraging anyone to put their eggs in the fridge for a long time,it just might not work out for you and especially if you had spent money on your eggs.

 

[Break an Egg]

Quote:
Oh cool, I was telling my husband to buy me an incubator and a turner would be nice too! 42 eggs would be perfect!

And yes I could probably hatch an egg in my garage with our heat and humidity!

Thanks for the info!

 

[Eggseronious]

I like to set eggs on a weekly basis 7 days X 3 weeks =21 days, so I dont hold eggs over 7 days, yes I have done it longer! The temperature while holding should not be over 68*

the cells of the embryo are active at 69* and up.

What U want to do is get and keep these eggs in a "dormant" stage. How cold? I cant say! I like to store my eggs in the low 50* range. I store my eggs in an old fridge that dont work for the home but will keep temps in the 48* to 55* range. Then warm them up to room temperature before placing in the incubator.

 

[MrsCountryChick]

Quote:
Funny thing is even human eggs are kept "cold" for storage.

I'm not suggesting a refrigerator is the same as cryogenic freezing, just mentioning the similarity. I thought I read somewhere that refrigerator storage is fine for hatching eggs as long as it's not colder than 40degrees. If my thermometer I put in my refrigerator to test the temperature works, then my frig is 40degrees exactly. Not saying I'm storing hatching eggs there. But it has me wondering about the 3 dozen farm fresh eggs I have in there...... that seem to all be fertilized when I break one open to cook or bake with them....hmmmmmm

 

[NYREDS]

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Do it this way & you'll be fine. As a general rule you can keep them 10 days before incubating-much beyond that & hatchability declines rapidly.
I prefer to keep them for 7 days. That way I can have a hatch occur each weekend when I have more time to deal with it.