The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching

Cold hatching egg

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Sharon Yorks:
Just went out to the coop to bed everyone down and found an unexpected egg. It's 17 degrees right now, and the egg was pretty cold, but I had just been out the about an hour and a half ago and it wasn't there. To get to the point...anyone have any idea how cold an egg can be and still be hatchable? I know there's no way to tell exactly how cold it is, but does anyone have any stories or experiences with hatching cold eggs?

Tailfeathers:
Sharon, I remember 2-3 years ago accidentally putting a couple of eggs in the frig that I wanted to set.  They were in there for 2 days and they still both hatched. 

And, for what it's worth, I also had power go out a couple of years ago for 3 days.  I had an incubator full of eggs.  So I took the trays out, put them inside a sleeping bag, and then all that inside another sleeping bag rated for like 10-15 below.  I don't remember if they all hatched but I do remember that a bunch of them did although they were 2 days late if I remember right.

God Bless,

Mike Gilbert:
Sharon, all you can do is try.   You will know it was good if you can candle a developing embryo within a week.   If you decide to incubate it, let us know how it turned out.  Sometimes I get cold eggs and incubate them, but I have never marked them to see which ones don't turn out.

Sharon Yorks:
Yes, I plan on setting it and a few of the others I found that were cold. I marked them so I will know. I'm kind of in an experimental mood. The one thing I DIDN'T want to experiment with was incubator temperatures. I have 2 Styrofoam incubators going right now, one for baking and one for hatching. I have several dates going at the same time and just move them over on their 18th day. I took the thermometers (2) out and had them in the hatcher. I figured it would be okay since my Hova-Bator 1588 has a digital read out anyway. I just placed the thermometers back in it and the dang thing had spiked to 102. I don't know how long it has been that high. It could be anywhere up to a few days. Needless to say I'm really ticked! This is the 3rd time it has spiked for no apparent reason...well, I'm sure there is one but I can't figure out why. I switched lids with my Hova-Bator 1583 which has always been reliable and I see it is still where I had it last night. I have about 15 more due to hatch from there on Feb 9th. I'll let you know how it turns out.

HarryS:
You should candle the egg to make sure it did not freeze and have a cracked shell otherwise it should be good.
I use to put my surplus eggs in the refrigerator for up to two weeks and take them to an auction till I found out people were buying them at commercial eggs prices and hatching most of them.  I now feed them back to the chickens instead.

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