Need some hatching (egg) advice

[zestokasis]

My son has received and incubator for Christmas and he would like to start hatching some eggs, we have our own chickens that are laying and we would like to hatch out those eggs. The problem is that we are only getting a few eggs a day right now, so what I would like to know is how should we store our eggs until we get enough to put in the incubator?

 

[sumi]

Lucky boy, that's a nice Xmas present! I hope he has a lot of fun with it! You can store eggs for a few days before incubating them, but ideally not longer than 10 days. Store them at a temperature of 55*-68* and turn them at least once a day, just turn them over carefully so they lay on their other side.

When you are ready to start incubating them you are welcome to come join us on this thread:

Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Eggs

There are quite a few people, even 1 or 2 kids, incubating and hatching eggs and sharing experiences and advice on there and Sally put together some fantastic info and links on that thread.

 

[Becci]

Welcome to BYC.

Storing at 55-60 degrees F and 70% humidity is ideal. Turn the eggs once a day. It's recommended not to store past one week, because the hatch rates will begin to decline quite quickly. That being said, I almost always store for two weeks and have good hatch rates.

If you store them in a carton or turner, be sure the pointy end of the egg is facing downwards. Otherwise the air sac, which is located at the fat end of the egg may try to migrate to the pointy end, which would result in a chick that cannot hatch. If you have oval shaped eggs and cannot determine which side is which, candle and find out. The air sac will be visible when candling.

 

[zestokasis]

Thanks for the help friends. We'll give it a go and see how it turns out.