- Sep 12, 2012
- 2,252
- 277
- 193
I thought this might be a good idea for those of us that have tried it, plan to try it in the future, or are trying it now.
I fall into that last group at the moment, and I am going to post updates here. I just took six eggs that I had placed in the refrigerator, back out of it, and into the incubator. Apparently some people have gotten hatches from them. I'm not expecting much, but the nieces and nephews aren't eating the eggs fast enough, and I have two people interested in my large fowl chicks now. So I figured WHY NOT?
The following is a pic of what I have right now.
The eggs are only out of the trays until room clears IN the trays. Two of the trays were broken by nieces, so I have to lay some on the wire and manually turn them for now.
The numbers on each of them are the day they are due. I usually put eggs in my incubator as they are laid - I don't usually hold them and set them all at once. The R means it was a refrigerator egg (there are a few taken from nestboxes today too). I'll be able to candle them in a week and see if there is any development. At that point, I'll decide if it's worth it to continue doing this or not. If any of them have developed, it will be kept through hatch. But if only one or two develop, I probably won't do this again.
Has anyone had a very high hatch rate from it? I'm still surprised to hear people get hatches from refrigerated eggs AT ALL. I know commercial ones won't work, because those hens aren't allowed to come into contact with roosters. But I thought the refrigerator temperature kills the egg and keeps it from developing.
But once I read about it happening, lightbulb went off and I thought "Well, what about chickens who lay during the winter? In nature, they probably sit on eggs in early spring despite those eggs being subjected to cold temps, too!"
So, maybe the temperature they are stored at really doesn't matter that much. As long as it isn't boiling water, I guess!
I fall into that last group at the moment, and I am going to post updates here. I just took six eggs that I had placed in the refrigerator, back out of it, and into the incubator. Apparently some people have gotten hatches from them. I'm not expecting much, but the nieces and nephews aren't eating the eggs fast enough, and I have two people interested in my large fowl chicks now. So I figured WHY NOT?
The following is a pic of what I have right now.
The eggs are only out of the trays until room clears IN the trays. Two of the trays were broken by nieces, so I have to lay some on the wire and manually turn them for now.
The numbers on each of them are the day they are due. I usually put eggs in my incubator as they are laid - I don't usually hold them and set them all at once. The R means it was a refrigerator egg (there are a few taken from nestboxes today too). I'll be able to candle them in a week and see if there is any development. At that point, I'll decide if it's worth it to continue doing this or not. If any of them have developed, it will be kept through hatch. But if only one or two develop, I probably won't do this again.
Has anyone had a very high hatch rate from it? I'm still surprised to hear people get hatches from refrigerated eggs AT ALL. I know commercial ones won't work, because those hens aren't allowed to come into contact with roosters. But I thought the refrigerator temperature kills the egg and keeps it from developing.
But once I read about it happening, lightbulb went off and I thought "Well, what about chickens who lay during the winter? In nature, they probably sit on eggs in early spring despite those eggs being subjected to cold temps, too!"
So, maybe the temperature they are stored at really doesn't matter that much. As long as it isn't boiling water, I guess!