# Incubating refrigerated eggs question



## Treewhisper (Nov 24, 2010)

Hi 
I'm getting overwhelmed with eggs in my fridge. We just cant eat them all so i decided to try my hand at hatching them in an incubator. Anyone know how long eggs can stay in a fridge and still hatch out?

Second question, its below freezing where i live and when i collect the eggs in the coop they have been sitting in the nest for most of the day while the hens have been out free ranging. Can these eggs still hatch ok?

Last question, its about 50-55 degrees in my basement. If i store the eggs there how long can i store them in the basement and then put them in the incubator?

Many thanks for your help!


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## Wingdo (Oct 5, 2002)

I don't believe a frozen/partially frozen egg would be much of a candidate for my incubator. However, I have had decent success with eggs from the refrigerator, and better from eggs taken from the girls in 40-50 degree weather. When I collect for the incubator during the winter I collect 3-4 times a day until I get a decent load and go from there. Works for me.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

The basement will be a great place to store eggs for incubation, store them with the air cell up and raise one side of the egg carton a little. Switch the side raised every day to give them a little movement. The fridge is a bit cold, but some will still hatch. Spending the day out in the freezing cold will be more of a problem and likely affect fertility pretty severely. 

You could store your eggs in the basement for a week to ten days without affecting fertility too much, after that you should still get eggs to hatch, but the rates will go down. 

I sent a bunch of eggs that had been on my counter for a week off with a friend, she had great success hatching them (duck eggs). I hadn't done anything special with them, just hadn't refrigerated them yet. This was in the early summer.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Some people store their hatching eggs in a spare refrigerator. Just turn it up so it don't get too cold. Makes a good egg storage area for hatching eggs.


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