If you don't collect eggs for 18 -20 days and they are that close to hatching, well shame on you. Those eggs weren't that developed because they sat on a counter, they sat under a hen somewhere who kept their tems at 90+ degrees for three weeks, not because the eggs weren't refrigerated.
I've kept eggs, fertile eggs mind you, I normally have a rooster, on the counter, or down in the cool part of the basement in the summer, for 40 years and never had anything like that happen. If I find a nest that my freerangers have hidden with a pile of eggs in it, I would never bring them in for food purposes. I don't even check them to be honest... I agree, yuck! I wait a little longer to see if a hen is setting on them and how well she's doing etc. If no hen is taking care of them, I take them out in the woods and pitch them, literally, out in the way back of the woods.
If you gather your eggs daily, I would never worry, my house isn't as warm as a hen's butt which is what it takes to get em going, but you all do whatever you want.
//edit// Here is a quote about it,
"Before Egg Laying:
>Fertilization
>Division and growth of living cells
>Segregation of cells into groups of special function (tissues)
Between Laying and Incubation
No growth; stage of inactive embryonic life.
When the egg is laid, some embryonic development has occurred then stops until proper cell environmental conditions are established for incubation to resume.
(i.e. consistant 99 degrees F for one thing, how else do hens lay a whole clutch of eggs that all hatch on or near day 21 together? She lays a pile, then starts to incubate them consistantly at the same time. )
