Will refrigerated eggs hatch?

[Silkiefan]

My dear old friend (92 years old and going strong) sold me his last batch of eggs, and I put them in my refrigerator... sadly, his RIR hens were all killed that next weekend by raccoons, and I'd love to hatch out his babies from his beloved lost girls...
I'm aware this may seem like a totally silly question, but hey, it's worth asking right? I was reading the post by the person who bought Organic eggs from Wal*Mart and is hatching them... my question is this:
HOW LONG CAN EGGS CHILL BEFORE THEY ARE NO LONGER VIABLE?

 

[briarpatchfarms]

They can if left in under 7 days but no longer and it decreases the chance by every day goes by but I have hatched from refridgerated eggs before

 

[Silkiefan]

oh.

it's been longer than that... I figured that'd be the answer... THANK YOU.

 

[MariposaMama]

How long has it been? Unless it's been close to a month or something I might go ahead and try. Even if you only end up with a couple, it's better than what you'll get for not trying. How wonderful it would be if you could give your neighbor back some piece of what he lost. Good luck, let us know how it goes if you do make the attempt. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and the eggs.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I've left eggs in the refrigerator for 2 weeks and had them hatch. A friend in OK says he stores them in the fridge, because it's the only place that it's not over 70 °F in the summer!

Give it a shot... what do you have to lose at this point? Just let them come to room temperature first before setting them.

 

[Silkiefan]

sadly, I have to say it's been about a month...

I'm thinking about finding him some sweet little RIR pullets... OR... rescuing some battery hens...

 

[Silkiefan]

...sssso... If I were to give it a shot, how could I do it without an incubator? (LOL- as a side note, when I was 14 my friend and I tried to hatch eggs in our electric blankets at home... uhh... it didn't work...

- I got in trouble when the rotten eggs finally cracked and stunk up the whole house)
Right now, I'm unemployed, and short of sitting on them myself, I suppose I could try to force my 4 month old Silkie into broodiness. She sits on the 1 month old Barred Rock... maybe I could make a special "undergarment" with a third cup so that I could keep the eggs a constant "me" temperature...
OK, now I've totally lost it. Seriously though, how could I do this?

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

you can build a bator on the cheap. i spent about 50 euros on mine and 21 euros of that was on an decent digital thermometer/hygrometer.

i reckon if you wanted to do it as cheap as possible you could probably put one together for about 25 euros, about 35 usd...although even if you can afford that right now you'd need several days to build it then fine tune it so it doesn't really help for these eggs...but maybe for the next ones...

it's a lot easier than you might think. start a thread if you want some help.

 

[Mrs MIA]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8510
Try this...I'm not sure what the conversion from Euros would be, but I think I did this for about $18 plus spare parts/cooler.

 

[Rootball]

refrigerated eggs will hatch..



1 month old refrigerated eggs incubated in an electric blanket.....Almost certainly not.