Storing hatching eggs

Most people say they can be stored for up to 2 weeks, or even 3 weeks. They should be at a temperature between 11-15 degrees Celsius, and turned twice a day (not upside down; just lift one side of the container and then the other). The rounded side should be up, because that's where the air sac is, and it shouldn't be under the weight of the egg.
How long have you stored hatching eggs before incubating them?

Edit: this is about quail eggs, and I guess it's similar with chicken eggs. Do you have experience with other eggs? Is it different?

I would consider how long it would take that bird to lay as many eggs as they would normally sit on... and use that length of time as the standard.

For instance an average hen lays 1 egg a day and can sit on 12-15 eggs at a time. I would not want to store the hatching eggs more than 15 days.

Google says quail lay about 1 egg a day, and can sit on 8-12 eggs at a time. I personally would not want to store them for longer than 12 days.

I found some interesting research papers about this.

"Hatching performance of Japanese quail from eggs stored for different periods - a preliminary study - this article says, that although quail egg quality deteriorates during prolonged storage, the researchers still had good results hatching quail eggs stored for 24 days, which is longer than hen eggs.

"Although chicks obtained from the oldest eggs (24–32 days) showed significantly lower activity, poorer down quality and limb malformations, this did not significantly affect the differences in their overall evaluation."

The optimal eggs for incubation were considered to be those weighing 11.51–12.50 g. Researchers observed egg weight loss during storage, due to water transpiration.

Eggs in this experiment were stored at "physical zero conditions", which is a temperature at which embryo is not developing.

"Egg Storage and the Embryo" - this article discusses optimal temperature for egg storage; 15°C is considered "physiological zero", but in other experiments eggs were stored at room temperature. Also, eggs stored for longer time may not start developing in the incubator right away, so the incubation time may be extended too.

Mad scientist mode! This is interesting too:
"Effects of Egg Storage Material and Storage Period on Hatchability in Japanese Quail" - they tried to reduce egg weight loss due to transpiration, by using different materials (B = no use of any storage material, P = use of perlite, H = use of hay).
Another problem during prolonged storage are bacteria developing, so perlite makes sense. From conclusion:

"Perlite is an inorganic material, having low heat conductivity and also in which microbial agents and bacterial fermentation cannot exist. [...] The present study revealed that perlite did not influence the early or late embryonic death rate but had an increasing effect on hatchability of quail eggs, in three storage periods. Perlite is concluded to be safe for use in the storage of hatching quail eggs."

I only have experience with Chicken, Duck and Goose eggs - not quail. My friend has experience with Bantam Chicken eggs as well.

There are so many experiments we could do with this concept if we had the time!

Factors that I'm aware of, but no clue as to how accurate the info is:
1. I've always been told, "room temperature", but it may be more complicated than that... I recall reading that some eggs should be warmed up every day or two, rather than being left at the same temperature, because every 1 to 2 days, the bird returns to the nest to add another egg, warming the existing eggs in the process. (Geese lay every second day, and I may be recalling correctly that this is the group the warming up applied to.)

2. Shell strength and thickness may impact storage. We find that younger birds tend to lay smaller eggs with stronger shells than older birds. The problem is that smaller eggs result in smaller chicks, which also has risks. We were told by one person that when a chicken first starts to lay, those eggs won't be as viable as eggs laid even 1 month later.

3. When we first started, we did just put the hatching eggs in a paper carton and flip it over each day. My friend with the banties follows Flora's method of raising the different side each day. However, I heard at one point that leaving the eggs on their sides the way they'd be in the nest was better for storing and rolling them over once a day was best. For eggs going under a bird to hatch (our Muscovy *love* to hatch eggs and tolerate me insisting they hatch Khaki Campbell eggs or goose eggs, but much prefer to hatch Muscovy eggs - we simply don't have room in our universe for the number of Muscovy this would result in!) However, the incubator my friend left here has an automatic turner and it has the eggs vertical on their long axis and tips them slowly back and forth over a 12 hour period. This turner will cope with chicken, Khaki and just barely Muscovy eggs, but I have to manually turn the goose eggs or buy more equipment.

4. Even if the plan is to have a duck/chicken hatch and raise eggs, I still need to store them while waiting for various stars to align. I need a safe place for the broody bird where other birds can't add more eggs at a later time. Ideally I need to catch her when she's done laying, and ready to start sitting, otherwise she might add more eggs herself. So normally, I start saving eggs from multiple birds and when I have a suitable clutch size, I start removing the older ones which are still perfectly fine for human consumption, while adding new ones. If your goal is to have an incubator full and have them all hatch at once, this will usually require you to store many more eggs for longer. I would only do this if I had multiple birds laying, as I would worry about the decrease in quality.

5. I also wonder if humidity may be a factor. Higher humidity may help the eggs last longer, because they might not loose water as quickly. I don't recall any recommendations for humidity levels for storage - only for incubating and hatching. This would again be something worth researching.

One of my reasons is that I could have the rest of the herd in the freezer and travel while the hatching eggs are stored... Which makes me think of putting them in a box filled with perlite and hanging up a tree on a string... which should keep them nicely ventilated, somewhat protected from humidity loss, bacteria, and physical damage, and the movement of the tree would do the turning. And temperature should be ok during autumn months, perlite keeping it stable but not the same all the time. The downside is that it might be a bait for predators. Dress it up as a scarecrow? I should turn off the mad scientist mode :D

Flora Eerschay wrote:... The downside is that it might be a bait for predators.

I think I'd want the box well covered with 1/4" square hardware cloth. There are plenty of critters other than humans, who consider eggs a tasty treat!

Jay, this reminds me of a gadget I saw in one restaurant. There was a discount for clients who lock their phones in a small cage. The waiter kept the key. Or, the hatching eggs could be (safely) stored in a trap, to catch all those predators ;)

Matt McSpadden wrote:I would consider how long it would take that bird to lay as many eggs as they would normally sit on... and use that length of time as the standard.
For instance an average hen lays 1 egg a day and can sit on 12-15 eggs at a time. I would not want to store the hatching eggs more than 15 days.
Google says quail lay about 1 egg a day, and can sit on 8-12 eggs at a time. I personally would not want to store them for longer than 12 days.

My only experience is with chicken eggs. Hens often make communal nests, which enables the farmer to get enough in a couple of days to bother incubating, so storage should not even enter the picture. I would not store them at all if I can. 3-4 days in a warmish spot is the most I'd consider. I know I could store them longer, but why take the risk?
Eggs have to incubate 21 days, so, let's say you get eggs from 2 hens, and wait until there are 15 to incubate, the hatch would stretch well over 21 days. [Once they are born, she may lose interest if the hatching lasts too long: Like all species, she will prioritize the living over the not yet born, take them to food, water, an start teaching them. Most good broodies will give it a great effort though.
Of course, don't refrigerate and don't put in a sunny window. (It goes without saying that the longer you wait to put in in an incubator, the worse results you are likely to get).
But with a hen incubating her own, Matt is right on the money. The hens can't really take good care of more than 15, so it's no use allowing more than that: It stresses the hen: mark them and don't let her sit on more eggs than 15. (Besides the hen's ability to cover *all* the eggs, she also has to turn them and sort out the bad ones, clean the nest...
More critical, I feel, in a successful incubation, is the choice of the perfect eggs:
Don't use eggs that were dirty and you had to wash.
Don't use very large eggs: If they have a double yolk, they won't hatch a bigger chick. They will have to compete for the very limited space and food in the egg. Very rarely, they will hatch but be unhealthy. Reptiles and birds lay eggs, and they are limited by the prison they are in. It is an advantage of mammals to have a womb that can stretch to accommodate ,more babies.
Use eggs that are as round as possible: Eggs that are abnormally elongated will make it hard for the hatchling to get out.
Finally, do a candling on the first day: That will allow you to spot an eggs with a weak or porous shell; it looks dark with all sorts of little pin holes [that don't go all the way through, of course]. Darker eggs are harder to diagnose too, except for the porous ones. You have to experience a few hatches to be able to discern blood vessels in the darker ones.

I decided to store them in a wooden box filled with perlite (which I rinsed to get rid of dust), in a portable cooler with ice packs. The herd is small now, so I'm only collecting 3-4 eggs per day. I want to collect 20 and then we'll see if they continue laying. If they do, we'll see if the oldest of these are edible. If they are, I'll try to extend the storing for as long as possible ;) so I don't really have a precise plan but I'm curious if this is going to work.

Flora Eerschay wrote:I decided to store them in a wooden box filled with perlite (which I rinsed to get rid of dust), in a portable cooler with ice packs. The herd is small now, so I'm only collecting 3-4 eggs per day. I want to collect 20 and then we'll see if they continue laying. If they do, we'll see if the oldest of these are edible. If they are, I'll try to extend the storing for as long as possible ;) so I don't really have a precise plan but I'm curious if this is going to work.

I'm interested in how this experiment goes :) Keep us posted.

Three hatching eggs which have spent a week in the portable cooler were cooked with two eggs that went straight to a normal fridge (these were 2 days old), and they all looked and tasted the same.
At the moment there are approximately 20-24 hatching eggs in the cooler, and if hens continue laying, I can keep replacing the oldest eggs and they will be not older than a week. So if the hens stop laying, the hatching eggs can be stored for 10 days and the oldest will be 17 days old. Or they will ruin my math by being inconsistent ;)
Anyway, we had guests so I made a fancy dish with sheep ricotta, garden herbs and flowers!

Flora Eerschay wrote:Three hatching eggs which have spent a week in the portable cooler were cooked with two eggs that went straight to a normal fridge (these were 2 days old), and they all looked and tasted the same.
At the moment there are approximately 20-24 hatching eggs in the cooler, and if hens continue laying, I can keep replacing the oldest eggs and they will be not older than a week. So if the hens stop laying, the hatching eggs can be stored for 10 days and the oldest will be 17 days old. Or they will ruin my math by being inconsistent ;)
Anyway, we had guests so I made a fancy dish with sheep ricotta, garden herbs and flowers!

Are they quail eggs, or pigeons eggs or chicken eggs? The size says chicken eggs, (but I'm not sure  because we were talking quails and pigeons). My other question is: why are you eating your "hatching eggs"? (Aren't hatching eggs the ones that were carefully selected for hatching?) after one week, all cooled eggs will have no living embryo but should still be delicious.
This looks like a really delicious dish. Pretty fancy too. It's a good choice to do them hard boiled after about 10 days because the shell will separate more easily than with fresher eggs.

Cécile, these are quail eggs.
We're eating the oldest hatching eggs, because the hens continue laying, and I don't need more. I just need to store them for as long as possible at the moment. Some people say that their quails have already stopped laying, but I'm still getting an egg per day from each hen.

Flora Eerschay wrote:Cécile, these are quail eggs.
We're eating the oldest hatching eggs, because the hens continue laying, and I don't need more. I just need to store them for as long as possible at the moment. Some people say that their quails have already stopped laying, but I'm still getting an egg per day from each hen.

They look big! you are obviously doing something right.

So the roo has a wing injury. Not too bad and he's much better now, but he's not mounting the hens, I guess it hurts him still when he tries. I won't be collecting new hatching eggs, because I think they may be infertile... we'll see if he fully recovers and gets back to business, or not. I guess that's why some people keep more than one rooster, but my herd is too small for that.

Let the incubation begin... eggs are more or less two weeks old, the oldest were collected on 28.09 so 3 weeks. I increased the humidity in the beginning in case if they dried a bit during storing time. We'll see!

Done!
I candled the eggs after a week and 7 were empty.
Lockdown started at the end of day 14, because they were wiggling a lot. They started hatching on day 17 and finished on day 18, 2 hatched but didn't make it and 5 didn't hatch.
So there are 13 healthy chicks, 48% of all eggs collected or 65% of the 20 eggs that weren't empty after candling.
Not terrible, considering they were stored for two weeks...

So here is a cute pic of the band - check out the middle guy! He (or she) is the only one of this colour. Most look like the "wild" variety and some look like the "italian" (but of course it's hard to tell on day one).

Fantastic :)

Update: there's actually 14 of them. They must have multiplied in the brooder :D