Temperature while forming clutch

[Chick Phil A]

I know to keep the eggs cool and dark, is 60-63* too warm?
The basement doesn't get any cooler than that. Outside temps are in the teens.

It will take me 5-6 days to have enough eggs to try and start incubating, and keeping them in the living area (at 70*) is probably not the best way to guarantee success.

Right now I get 1-3 eggs a day from my layers and would like to set at least a dozen early next week.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First I suggest you read this. It’s got a pretty good section on how to store the eggs. But don’t stress over any of that except pointy side down. That’s important. This article gives the ideal conditions. Most of us don’t have “ideal” conditions. I have the conditions “I deal” with. As long as you are reasonably close to those you’ll be OK. Just do the best you reasonably can. That article gives you things to consider.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/...e-Cartwright-Incubating-and-hatching-eggs.pdf

All eggs don’t automatically go bad at exactly 9 days 23 hours and five minutes. What happens is that hatchability drops the longer they are stored and the further from the ideal conditions you are. Hatchability means you go from an 85% chance of hatching that specific egg to maybe 80%, something like that. It doesn’t automatically go from 100% to 0%.

Not all eggs are the same either. Some may have thinner shells, more porosity, or thinner whites. Those will dry out faster than a different egg. The answer will be different for each egg.

With all that said, you can normally store an egg in not tremendously great conditions for a week without even turning it and hatchability remains pretty high. If you are going to try to store them longer than a week you need to control your conditions better. Your basement sounds pretty good. It's better than I have.

I normally store mine in the automatic egg turner in a spare bedroom for five to seven days. It’s not great conditions but it is the best I can reasonably do. Some people in hot climates without air conditioning store theirs in a warmer part of their refrigerator. It’s not ideal but it’s the best they can reasonably do. Although that is a big no-no, they often get pretty good hatches.