Will light frost affect fertile eggs?

[dayflowr]

Just discovered a hen has laid herself a pretty large clutch of eggs out in the field. She's not broody yet so not sitting on them. We had a light frost last night.....will that affect the fertility of the eggs? Should I toss them and let her start over?


Thanks!

Tiffany

 

[Kelsie2290]

28.4 seems to be the temperature under which a hatching egg can't drop or they will be damaged. From what they say, eggs can be close to freezing for quiet awhile and still be OK. Eggs also will take awhile to drop in temperature, and if the ground was warm then they might be OK. How well are the eggs protected and how has the daytime temps been?
Brinsea has a nice article on hatching eggs / embryos and what effects temperature has on them.
http://brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html

 

[dayflowr]

Thanks for the info. They are not particularly insulated. Just in a pile under some bushes. Daytime temps are generally in the mid 40's and nighttime in the low 40's. It was a pretty light frost so there wasn't any ice on water buckets.