Fertile Egg Handling & Storage…

So your Hens are laying! And your roosters have done their job! Only thing left to do is collect eggs for the incubator! So in that week or so that you’re collecting eggs, what do you do with the eggs you’ve collected? Good question! Let’s go over some pointers to help you have the best hatch possible:

• Store you eggs either on their sides in a shallow storage container, or pointy-end down in an egg carton.

• Store eggs in a temperature range between 55 to 65 degrees (Your refrigerator is too cold! If you do this hatching thing as often as we do, a “Wine Chiller” is a great investment for storing fertile eggs!). Try to maintain the humidity at around 70% in your chiller by adding a water pan, or by purchasing a unit that has automatic humidity control (some of the higher-end Wine Chillers have this feature!).

• Turn or tilt eggs several times a day until placement in the incubator.

• Let your eggs warm to room temp the day you plan to set them in the incubator.

• Make sure your incubator has come up to a stable temperature before setting your eggs.