Re: We lost power to our incubator

Jill wrote:
Steve Newport wrote:
There was something on TV the other night where a man was raising
chicks himself but only had one or two hens. He collected the
fertilised eggs and put them in the fridge and then when he had enough
he put them under his hens (broody I must assume) and they hatched
fine.

Point being dioes a drop in temperature simply suspend development not
kill it?

Yes, but that is BEFORE development has started.
A fridge is not advised for storage before incubating, but its better than somewhere with wildly fluctuating temperatures.
However -- once the eggs have been brought up to incubating temperature and the process has started then the chicks can be very susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity, particularly in the early stages.
Some will have all manner of things thrown at them and survive without a hitch, others can have just the merest tweak from the perfect and fail.
Incubation is a black art ;)


Storing eggs for incubating has always been a bit tricky here because of the temp. I don't put them in the fridge but finding a cool room in the house over summer can be hard :)

All the reading I've done indicates it isn't a good idea although I haven't tested the theory out myself.

--
Ginny - in West Australia
.

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