Storing Fertile Eggs in Egg Turner???

[Rose66]

This will be my first time storing fertile eggs for hatching. Everything I'm reading says store them in an egg carton and elevate either end of the egg carton several times a day. My incubator is empty waiting to incubate these eggs so could I store the eggs in the incubator (not turned on of course) in the egg turner and just let the egg turner turn them for me like it would during incubation?

If I can store them in the incubator and egg turner, do I need to add water to up the humidity some? My house is kept between 68-70 degrees but I don't know what the humidity is.

Thanks!
Rose66
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[CayuseRanch]

Storing them in a turner sounds like a good idea to me, but I would not encourage you to store them in the incubator. Main reason being that you should run your incubator for about 48-72 hours before you start to incubate to work out any kinks and regulate temperature. But thats just my opinion and I am certainly not an incubation expert. I have a hard enough time hitting 50% hatch rates. lol

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

You don't need to worry too much about humidity til you start incubating them. Temperature and humidity kick starts the incubation process, til then they remain dormant.

 

[ProfessorChicken]

You certainly DO need to be concerned about humidity and temperature during the pre-incubation storage phase - especially so if you live in the Southwestern US or other areas where ambient humidity is typically low.

It would be fine to use the "automatic" turner.

Recommended storage conditions for hatching eggs:
1. eggs should be gathered twice per day - three times in hot weather.
2.Stored large end up.
3. Ambient temperature maintained as closely as possible min-45 deg - max 60 deg F. 53-55 ideal
4 Relative humidity - 70%
5. Should not be stored over 7 days, 5 is better and 3 is better still.

ProfessorChicken
a.k.a. David Sullenberger