Refrigerated Fertilized Eggs

[MelissaRose]

I heard that if you store hatching eggs at 40 degrees Fahrenheit for about five days, it will kill the rooster embryos and the hens will survive. So then you should hatch only hens, I tried this technique myself and ended up with one rooster and when I haven't used that technique I end up with a bunch of roosters. Ask what temperature they are stored at if it's 40 degrees you might end up with fewer or no roosters.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am speaking to someone selling fertilized eggs that I want to buy to hatch. The person selling told me that they refrigerate the eggs. Does anyone have insights on this? I do not refrigerate my fertilized eggs because I would think that it would prevent them from hatching once its time to throw them in the incubator... HELP

What temperature is that refrigerator? What is their success rate with hatching? How long are the eggs stored? Will they be mailed or can you pick them up? Not all refrigerators are set right next to freezing. The ideal temperature for storing eggs is around 55 degrees according to the experts. I've hatched a lot of eggs kept at room temperature which is a long way from ideal. I've gathered eggs to hatch in freezing weather, though I collect them fairly often so they don't freeze. I fully understand eggs do not have to be kept at ideal conditions to hatch but the further from ideal they are stored and the longer they are there the less likely they will all hatch.

I have no idea where they have the thermostat set on their refrigerator, but I can easily envision someone refrigerating hatching eggs to keep them in better conditions than they could otherwise.

 

[WVduckchick]

I heard that if you store hatching eggs at 40 degrees Fahrenheit for about five days, it will kill the rooster embryos and the hens will survive. So then you should hatch only hens, I tried this technique myself and ended up with one rooster and when I haven't used that technique I end up with a bunch of roosters. Ask what temperature they are stored at if it's 40 degrees you might end up with fewer or no roosters.

I think that only works with certain reptile eggs. There are lots of speculations and myths (egg shape, temps, humidity, specific hens, etc) about getting more of one gender or the other, but I have never seen any scientific proof of anything with chickens.

 

[Pyxis]

I heard that if you store hatching eggs at 40 degrees Fahrenheit for about five days, it will kill the rooster embryos and the hens will survive. So then you should hatch only hens, I tried this technique myself and ended up with one rooster and when I haven't used that technique I end up with a bunch of roosters. Ask what temperature they are stored at if it's 40 degrees you might end up with fewer or no roosters.

Sort of. One study done in 1960 found that the cold tended to kill more male embryos than female embryos, such that of the eggs that survived and hatched, 54.6% were female and 45.4% were male. It definitely didn't kill all the male embryos.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sort of. One study done in 1960 found that the cold tended to kill more male embryos than female embryos, such that of the eggs that survived and hatched, 54.6% were female and 45.4% were male. It definitely didn't kill all the male embryos.

Following your link.

Eggs stored at 40 and 60°F showed no effect of age of egg on number of clears, dead embryos, or number of chickens hatched. Eggs stored at 80°F showed a rapid fall in number of chickens hatched with age of egg before incubation, this effect being produced by increases in number of clears and dead embryos. Storage at 40°F produced a lower number of chickens hatched than at 60°F, owing to a higher number of incubator clears. There was no difference in sex ratio between chickens hatched from eggs stored at 60 and 80°F, neither departing significantly from 50 per cent. pullets. However, storage at 40°F produced significantly more pullets than cockerels, 54.6 per cent. of the chickens being pullets.

@Pyxis I'm trying to read this right. I think the first blue above is just about age of the eggs, so not relevant to my question. The way I read the other two it does not say that no female embryos died, it just says that more males died than females. Is this the way you read it? The implication to me is that you will also hatch fewer females by storing them at 40 degrees.

That would explain to me why commercial hatcheries that only want females don't employ this method.

 

[Pyxis]

@Pyxis I'm trying to read this right. I think the first blue above is just about age of the eggs, so not relevant to my question. The way I read the other two it does not say that no female embryos died, it just says that more males died than females. Is this the way you read it? The implication to me is that you will also hatch fewer females by storing them at 40 degrees.

That would explain to me why commercial hatcheries that only want females don't employ this method.

Yes, that's how I read it too. It killed both male and female eggs, it just killed slightly more male eggs than female ones.

 

[LDFchicksnducks]

54.6 percent is considered “significantly more” pullets?

Nevermind. Misread that.

 

[makcar]

Thanks everyone for your insights. I politely declined. I have bantam and call duck eggs that I leave sitting at room temperature for up to two weeks and my hatch rate is above 70%. Logically, I would think that the cold temperature would do nothing but negative effects to the embryo. And to top it off the person had no idea what degree their fridge was kept at. Sounds like they will keep some refrigerator free though for me!

 

[Deryk]

Does the guy/gal wash them too? What effect would that have on viability?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

@AlleysChicks