You can't store hatching eggs like that!!!!

[mirandaleecon]

I have a similar 'test' going on in my incubator right now. Wasn't really intentional, I just had some open spots in my incubator so I grabbed some eggs from the fridge not really thinking they would develop. Not sure how old they were but probably 2-3 weeks. Just did my first candling and it looks like 4/5 of the fridge eggs are developing just fine...There were quite a few clears in the non-fridge eggs too so the one not developing could easily just not have been fertilized. Gotta have a chat with the rooster...

 

[Blooie]

But, of course! Hey friend, what you doing today?

Cleaning out and washing cabinets. Oh, why did I ever start this project? Oh, well, Bee would say that I'm doing it so I can look back at the end of the day and say, "Look at that! Ain't that better?" and feel satisfied with a job well done. Me, not so much, at least not yet. And of course Kendra is helping. <sigh>

Wow, @JetCat you raise a ton of birds! In some ways I envy you - but in most ways I'm glad it's you and not me.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hope you got room for all those babies!

 

[JetCat]

Hope you got room for all those babies!

while i do have the room, i really wasn't planning on having quiet so many chickens at the moment, but we'll make do or have a big sale one!!

 

[JetCat]

one interesting thing..........these eggs came from my daughters flock, she has two roosters, one a VERY large mixed and a very tiny red Cochin bantam, usually there's about a 50/50 split on Who's that baby daddy but on this batch it's about a 90/10 split...........she has another batch in her Hova-bator with an expected hatch date of the 7th Dec, it'll be interesting to see if that batch has the same split.

Been a busy last few days but wanted to reply back on this after the daughters set hatched out........ she had 18 viable eggs go into the hatcher, 16 of those hatched with a 9/7 split so that throws a big 'Hummm' as to why the eggs that had been refrigerated so long were so one sided...........but for now we're busy taking care of the 56 chicks and the 80+ quail (still hatching as of just a few ago) and then getting the hatcher cleaned out and ready for the other quail going in on the 11th

 

[aart]

I've hatched refrigerated eggs that were about 2 weeks old and long skinny eggs at 50/50 gender(someone said they'd all be males).
There was a long thread at one time about hatching refrigerated fertile eggs from a whole foods grocery.

But, yeah, jetcat sounds like you broke all the rules at once...congrats.

 

[MeepBeep]

I love it when folks kick the goads, or otherwise challenge all of the "they say" facts.  If something makes sense, then sure, do it that way.  But often, I'm left scratching my head, thinking... "I can't see the logic behind that, or can't see why that should matter!"  Then, it's time to challenge it... or even dust off some of those old wives tales, and put them to the test.  (Egg shape experiment, anyone???)  An other one that I bought "hook line and sinker" was that young birds needed to be kept out of the flock until they were full sized, roughly 12 weeks old, so that they could defend themselves against the older birds.  I'm finding, as have a lot of other people, that it's better to integrate when the babies are much younger, as they will enter the pecking order before they are perceived as a threat to that pecking order.  

WAY TOO MANY black & white proclamations are made on this forum and all over the Internet in regards to poultry...

Sure some have basis in logic, study or established rules or procedures but that still doesn't equate to them being the only way to do it and the other ways 100% wrong...

Sometimes argumentum ad verecundiam has to be taken with a big grain of salt, unless it's been repeatably proven with controlled study to be as harmful as claimed...

I do a plethora of 'wrong' things or things against convention as I doubt or challenge the conventions, and I have seen little to no detrimental effects in doing so...

Lockdown? Skip that...
Staggered hatching dates in the same incubator, sure...
Don't concern myself with humidity in incubator...
Candle every day 1 - 21, sure...

Only 10% 'treats', LOL my birds get about 5-10 times by weight more fresh foods vs commercial feed a week...

And being the ultimate rebel, I also heat my coop

Back to the OP, people have had decent luck hatching 'fertile' commercial store bought eggs, and we know they most certainly were not optimally treated for hatching purposes...

I have not doubt that doing certain things and procedures is likely to produce decent results, but that doesn't mean it's the only way to get good results...

 

[JetCat]

I've hatched refrigerated eggs that were about 2 weeks old and long skinny eggs at 50/50 gender(someone said they'd all be males).
There was a long thread at one time about hatching refrigerated fertile eggs from a whole foods grocery.

But, yeah, jetcat sounds like you broke all the rules at once...congrats.

Thanks.

 

[MeepBeep]

I've hatched refrigerated eggs that were about 2 weeks old and long skinny eggs at 50/50 gender(someone said they'd all be males).

Unlike some reptiles, gender in chickens is determined at fertilization not by outside or incubation temps...

**Although this might not be 100% absolute as there is a point during incubation where the sex of the embryo could potentially be flipped, but we have not figured out if this is possible or probable to any degree...

 

[aart]

Quote: *I* knew that....some newbie spouted it at the time I happened to have just set the long eggs, was kind of funny.