refrigerated duck eggs...updated...lesson learned...Pg. 3

[vfem]

I've hatched 2 refridgerated chicken eggs... I let them sit on the counter over night before I put them under with other eggs I had. The ONLY egg to hatch out of 6 (bad situation with an egg eater) was one of the refr. ones!!!

 

[Sonya]

Of the 6 Pekin eggs I put in, two were refrigerated and 5 of the 6 eggs have squirmy little ducklings in them...one of the refrigerated ones quit early on. They are due next Saturday!

Sonya

 

[countrybum]

Well I wash mine off if they are dirty. I mist them twice a day while incubating. I do not put mine upright in cartons, unless shipping or going into the frig and I only turn them 2xs a day. I have been hatching 10 to 11 out of a batch of 12. I put 32 in awhile back that are due to hatch around the 13th. Will post when I find out what happens. I have 2 cracked and waiting to see if they make it until then. My duck eggs, where out in 32 degree weather and ice cold when I found them, they are fertile and so is the Canandian goose egg.

 

[walkswithdog]

I've hatched both refridgerated eggs and eggs found at roughly freezing temperatures, when I didn't collect eggs on storm days or found them laid in strange places outdoors. I've hatched filthy eggs. I've hatched eggs up to about 15 days old. I have never washed an egg, except for cracked eggs that needed waxing.

With cold eggs the only caveat is let them rest indoors and come up to room temp for a day so you don't throw a cold egg in a hot bator.

My hatch rate for cold eggs runs roughly the same as well shipped eggs and often better. I'm actually surprised when cold eggs don't go at this point.

Rules are meant to maximize hatches and to try to standardize nature. Nature itself is anything but uniform.

While there is what is a hopeful optimum standard - fresh, warm eggs, well kept, perfect temps and humidity and an unintruded (uncandled) incubation. If that actually WORKED all the time, professional hatcheries wouldn't LOSE entire REPEAT hatches. And they do. All the time.

They aren't candling at 7 or 10 or 14 or 18. They throw them in and hatch them. They're gathered fresh and warm and they're left alone during incubation and they fail, just like our hatches do.

I fiddle with rules because I never met a chicken or turkey who knew them. I saw broodies work with all kinds of amazingly outside the box eggs and still get it done. Stands to reason if I'm the chicken, that the rules are probably just as flexible if I figure out what the general parameters are.

First time broodies fail. Even seasoned broodies make mistakes, lose an egg or a hatch. Stuff happens. Life is not a guaranteed thing under any circumstance.

Right now I have a full bator and two dozen eggs waiting in the fridge for room in the bator. I can sell them for eating or try when I get the room. I'd like to buff up my numbers so instead of egg salad, I'll be hatching the lot.

Following the rules only helps so far. And rabidly following the rules means you don't get a feel for what is possible and what is true.

I'd rather understand the parameters, figure out the ranges, see for myself and learn.

So hooray for trying something different. For seeing what you can do and can be done. Keeping records of things you change small and large helps you tailor what you decide are your rules for the long run.

What temp you found them at. what you stored them at, how old you think they are, how often you candled this batch or that batch.

One success or one hatch failure is not an indictment of a process. Or hatcheries would have quit. Try cold or old, or odd eggs several times. If you change humidity for a hatch to see what it does, do it over two or three hatches.

Life is not a guarantee, in the end you'll find what works for you, what you are confident will work in general and you'll have good surprises and bad, because nature is nature and it won't be dictated to.

If every egg guaranteed a chick, you COULD count your chickens before they hatched.

And no one can.

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

thanks i was just curious to see if it would work and it has so far...but like you said i cant count them before they hatch so i will just have to wait until they hatch to see if it truly worked

 

[Sonya]

My eggs are due on Saturday and one has pipped today....I don't think it was my refrigerated egg, but it should be coming along anyday now....I'll keep ya posted too.

Sonya

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

o that's cool...thanks

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I just cut part of that out so as not be repeating the whole thing.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, there are a lot of things that will either work, or make no difference. The trick is trying different things, and keeping track of what worked and what didn't, and, as you said, trying things more than once, because you don't know for sure until it happens 3 or 4 times. Anything unusual can happen once, and you may not ever figure out why.

I have only done 3 batches of shipped eggs. In another post I said 2, but I'd forgotten some shipped turkey eggs I had a long time ago from MHM. Those, I had 2 dozen, hatched half.

My own eggs, and eggs I bought, but went personally and picked up from the guy, about 4 hours from here, have had pretty high hatch rates. Not 100%, but about 90-95%. That includes eggs that were washed and refrigerated.

I would just like to add that if you decide to change methods for any reason, you might want to try it out on inexpensive eggs first, not your pricey, breeder-produced rare breed shipped eggs. Then once you get good hatches with those, move on to the more costly ones, if that's something you want to do.

Amy, good for you, thinking outside the box, and experimenting. Building 'bators yet?

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

it seems that they all developed to the hatch day but only one hatched...he looks like he is gonna be a pekin...he hatched on the due date...i left the other eggs in just in case and i will take them out tomorrow night if nothing happens

 

[vfem]

Pekins need 28 to 32 days... so don't yank 'em too early!

I would like to hear if you get more!