Refrigerated eggs experiment complete!

[Minky]

Congratulations on your little sweetie!
I incubated 6 eggs last year that had been refrigerated for over 3 weeks, one hatched and was female, though I doubt this is scientific by any means.
How about Zero?

LOL . I think Fridge is a boy.

 

[Minky]

I too want to know if you know exactly how your bator runs.
Calibrated thermometers?
Salt tested humidity gauge?
Age of eggs?
How long in fridge?

I've hatched fridge eggs (quail) before and almost all hatched but I run a tight ship with my bator.

maybe your quail eggs were fresh and you turned them?
I was hoping for a better hatch, but all eggs were over 2 weeks old. and I didnt turn on purpose, just to treat them really badly.

 

[Minky]

That experiment isn't going to tell you a thing. Only one chick? Nope.

nope ...but got that experiment out of my system. LOL

 

[333113]

First.. I am CANADIAN.
Second, I wasn't storing them in the fridge by accident- it was an experiment. Done on purpose to see if male embryos would not survive and thus leave me with a better male female ratio , since I ALWAYS end up with 60-70 percent roosters!!!

It was an experiment. It didnt work- and I have a sneaking suspicion that Fridge is a male. His stance is high, he is very eager and first to run to my wiggly finger. LOL Always a sure sign of a cockerel.

And cold...well, Im Canadian- cold is anything below -12 Celsius (10 F)

I have read in several 1930s papers the assertion that hatching at a lower temperature will result in better control of male/female ratio, thereby revolutionizing the poultry industry!

I am still waiting for that to happen.

Still, it can't hurt to experiment in your own flock. I myself have one hen that hatches mostly females (late last summer, 1m 7f) and one hen that hatches mostly males (last fall, 5m 2f). A useful trait, if it can be passed along!

 

[Minky]

What was age of e

So you hatched these chicks from the fridge? Iv wonted to try this, Iv seen that the store bought eggs we have are firtail

I'm not saying you will get the same results. others on here swear by hatching refrigerated eggs... however, eggs from your grocery store- you wont know what type of chickens you are getting for months... you wanna take that chance? I like to know what breed Im putting all the effort into, but thats me.

 

[Minky]

I have read in several 1930s papers the assertion that hatching at a lower temperature will result in better control of male/female ratio, thereby revolutionizing the poultry industry!

I am still waiting for that to happen.

Still, it can't hurt to experiment in your own flock. I myself have one hen that hatches mostly females (late last summer, 1m 7f) and one hen that hatches mostly males (last fall, 5m 2f). A useful trait, if it can be passed along!

yes, I hatched out 8 olive Eggers from one marans hen. 7 males!

 

[Trisseh]

A few of the eggs I’ve set this season now have been colder than they would have been in the fridge. Lol. I was worried a couple of them were frozen by the time I got to them but not quite. They were sludgy looking when I candled but all of them are developing so we’ll see how that works out. xD they weren’t out for days in the cold though, at most probably 6-7 hours. (I’m Canadian too, the weather has been nice up til this past week so been fortunate to not have all frozen eggs - the days I collected eggs it was -5C to -8C or so during the day.)
I’m also one of those poor souls that seems to hatch more boys than anything. Lol. Shipped eggs from all over too, so not just the parent flock that’s the problem I guess. We’ll see what these homegrown ones turn out to be. I’m planning on growing out any pullets for my project pen so hopefully I get a bunch.

 

[Minky]

A few of the eggs I’ve set this season now have been colder than they would have been in the fridge. Lol. I was worried a couple of them were frozen by the time I got to them but not quite. They were sludgy looking when I candled but all of them are developing so we’ll see how that works out. xD they weren’t out for days in the cold though, at most probably 6-7 hours. (I’m Canadian too, the weather has been nice up til this past week so been fortunate to not have all frozen eggs - the days I collected eggs it was -5C to -8C or so during the day.)
I’m also one of those poor souls that seems to hatch more boys than anything. Lol. Shipped eggs from all over too, so not just the parent flock that’s the problem I guess. We’ll see what these homegrown ones turn out to be. I’m planning on growing out any pullets for my project pen so hopefully I get a bunch.

yes, I collected a late one tonight at 7pm! it was too cold to hold..! but not yet cracked. but I wouldn't set one like that unless I was desperate. I like to collect from 10 am til 4 every couple hours. I make sure there are less nest boxes in the winter so the hens keep them warm for me.

Why did you candle before setting? That's interesting that you could tell the texture inside had changed.

 

[Nigel27]

I've read the best temperature for storing eggs is 5-10 C and never to store them in fridges as humidity is too low.

My Fridge stays at 7 degrees C and 70% Humidity. To me it seems perfect for storing eggs.

So is the conclusion out of this that storing in a fridge will reduce 21 eggs to only hatch 1 or that possibly the incubator temperature was not set right?

Or is there another scientific reason why 7 degrees C and 70% humidity would be so disastrous that I cannot comprehend?

sounds like YOUR fridge is perfect for storing eggs to hatch, but not fridges kept at the recommended temperature(below 4) which I assume the OPs fridge is.
(You probably shouldn’t store meat in your fridge btw, or anything else that needs to be refrigerated)

 

[rebeccaH86]

Ok, so about a month ago I was asking if using high temperatures to hatch out eggs would produce more females (because it would basically kill the male eggs).
The discussion led to many responses, and one that came up was from a member who says they only hatch out refrigerated eggs, and they do this to get more females, less males. So, having an abundance of eggs I thought I would try it. I set 21 eggs. Almost all started to develop... (candling is hard with dark and blue eggs) but in the end, I only had one chick hatch...so maybe not something I will try again. LOL. However, it is a very robust little chick. I am looking for better names then its current one... "FRIDGE"
I will let you know if it turns out female.

I think a really cute unisex name would be Yeti