Refrigerated hatching eggs

[Sdominique]

Will refrigerated eggs hatch? Also if they've been washed will they hatch. Getting ready to use my incubator and I have plenty of eggs in fridge but I didn't know if I just needed to get some straight outta the henhouse.

 

[geina]

I have always been told outta the hen house. Keep the cleanest ones, no washing. You can set them in egg carton pointing end down for three or four days til you get enough to set. Raise on end of carton and then switch ends daily til you set them.

 

[Sdominique]

I have always been told outta the hen house. Keep the cleanest ones, no washing. You can set them in egg carton pointing end down for three or four days til you get enough to set. Raise on end of carton and then switch ends daily til you set them.

Thank ya ma'am

 

[lazy gardener]

Your best bet will be straight from the coop. While it's possible for refrigerated or washed eggs to hatch, those are going to be less viable with eggs that have intact bloom and have been properly collected and stored.

Before committing eggs to your bator, please read all the info in the learning center about incubation. Calibrate your thermometer against a good medical grade thermometer, test temp of bator in all areas, do the salt test on your hygrometer. Realize that the info that comes with an incubator is often outdated in terms of what humidity level yields the best hatch. Humidity is a tool to ensure that the air cells develop at the correct rate. I find 30 - 40% through day 18 allows me to manage the air cells well, and yields a great hatch.

 

[Sdominique]

Your best bet will be straight from the coop. While it's possible for refrigerated or washed eggs to hatch, those are going to be less viable with eggs that have intact bloom and have been properly collected and stored.

Before committing eggs to your bator, please read all the info in the learning center about incubation. Calibrate your thermometer against a good medical grade thermometer, test temp of bator in all areas, do the salt test on your hygrometer. Realize that the info that comes with an incubator is often outdated in terms of what humidity level yields the best hatch. Humidity is a tool to ensure that the air cells develop at the correct rate. I find 30 - 40% through day 18 allows me to manage the air cells well, and yields a great hatch.

Thank you! You guys and gals are terrific.

 

[Morrigan]

Freshest is best without a doubt. However, I once put a couple of two week old refrigerated eggs into my incubator, and they both developed normally.

So, it's possible, but not optimal.

 

[aggiemae]

There is/was a thread here for people who hatched fertile eggs from Trader Joe's.

 

[oregonkat]

Your best bet will be straight from the coop. While it's possible for refrigerated or washed eggs to hatch, those are going to be less viable with eggs that have intact bloom and have been properly collected and stored.

Before committing eggs to your bator, please read all the info in the learning center about incubation. Calibrate your thermometer against a good medical grade thermometer, test temp of bator in all areas, do the salt test on your hygrometer. Realize that the info that comes with an incubator is often outdated in terms of what humidity level yields the best hatch. Humidity is a tool to ensure that the air cells develop at the correct rate. I find 30 - 40% through day 18 allows me to manage the air cells well, and yields a great hatch.

@lazygardener, do you ever weigh your eggs through hatch? I am asking because I started weighing mine and made an interesting observation. With humidity at 40 % approx. through day 18, eggs had lost approx. 18-20% of their original weight, quite a bit higher than the 'recommended' 14 -15 %. Hatch rates did not seem affected by this difference, I suffered the usual 'shipped egg losses' and those that did hatch were perfect and healthy. Do you think that the 14 - 15% ideal loss is also kind of an outdated idea? Thanks.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Will refrigerated eggs hatch? Also if they've been washed will they hatch. Getting ready to use my incubator and I have plenty of eggs in fridge but I didn't know if I just needed to get some straight outta the henhouse.

Regardless of what some have said before, if an egg has reached the internal temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit it will NEVER hatch. 40f is a little colder than 5 degrees Celsius. Eggs that have been laid 21 days will almost NEVER hatch and an egg that is 14 days old will only produce a live chick about 50% of the time. I suspect that is why a sitting of eggs is said to be 15 eggs. Eggs start losing their viability the moment that they are laid but are pretty stable out to 7 to 10 days post lay if they are stored under the best conditions.

 

[AlleysChicks]

I hatched a bunch of chicks about 5 weeks ago. All but a few were kept in the fridge and some were a few weeks old. Out of the 24 I set, 22 hatched. 1 fresh and 1 fridge egg were clears.

None of those eggs had been washed. But I still had a good hatch rate.