Been thinking about starting to incubate some eggs from our Buff Orpingtons. But since it is rather cold here the eggs get cold very quickly after being layed. I figured that these cold eggs would not be any good for incubating. But I was wondering if anyone know what temperature the eggs can not fall below before the eggs are no longer viable?
It depends on temperature and length of time at that temperature. I've clipped a piece from Aviagen which is about turkey hatching egg storage, but it should apply to chickens as well. Basically, the pre-embryos: will suffer tissue damage with exposure of more than 6 hours at temperatures between 35F and 50F will die at temperatures below 35F The PDF is here: http://www.aviagenturkeys.com/media/183179/atihe-storagetempchart.pdf Collecting eggs to hatch during the winter is a challenge. We are doing it for the first time this winter, and it has been tough. You really need to gather eggs every 3 hours or so to be successful. It doesn't make it any easier that their lights come on at 2am to promote egg production...
Another good read that has some explainations is http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html ignore the title alot of good info!
Here in Colorado I incubate eggs all winter long. I have successfully incubated eggs even when the temperature is about 20 or 30°. However, when I gather the eggs I touch them to my face, if they feel slightly warm you can incubate them, if they are cold or sweating then you cannot get them to hatch.
