I'm getting ready to ship some fertile eggs for someone else to hatch out, and am worried about the eggs freezing in transit. I'll try to pack them so that they won't, however:

IS IT POSSIBLE to incubate eggs that have been frozen?

Thanks,

-- chuck in md (woah@mission4me.com), February 03, 2002

Answers

I don't think the eggs are viable once they have been frozen. My hatching experience is rather limited, but with the failure rate being what it is for eggs that never came close to freezing, my best guess is that eggs that got too cold wouldn't have any hatch out.

-- Carol - in Virginia (carollm@rockbridge.net), February 03, 2002.

According to Carla Emery in her book, Encyclopedia of Country Living, temperatures below 40 will kill the embryo. The only safe way is to wait until ambient temperatures are higher.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), February 03, 2002.

If you properly package the eggs and ship them priority mail, I suspect it would be hard to damage them through the cold. See the thread in Shipping eggs (Best way to)in the Poultry - Eggs category. The styrofoam chips not only provide cushioning but insulation. Once you leave the package at USPS, it really won't be exposed to much cold. Just make sure to ship on a Monday and have the recipient waiting for it so it doesn't sit outside on a porch.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 03, 2002.

With the temps we are having here lately, we have gotten several frozen eggs, always cracked pretty badly.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), February 03, 2002.

Chuck, I have learned thru trial and error, the best way to ship eggs is to wrap each egg idividually in bubble wrap then place each egg in the soft foam and wrap that up in a stryofoam container. If it keeps the eggs from breaking it should protect them from freezing too. Good luck and it is warming up in some parts of the country.

-- Karen Mauk (kansashobbit@yahoo.com), February 03, 2002.

I have hatched eggs that I had refrigerated in cartons inside paper bags, which were kept in the drawer in the bottom of the fridge. They did fine, but whenever my eggs have accidentally frozen, the shells are cracked, and they wouldn't hatch with cracked shells anyway.

-- Lela R. Picking (stllwtrs55@aol.com), February 04, 2002.

Eggs that have frozen will most likely not hatch and we wouldn't waste the electricity to even try.

We ship fertile eggs all over the country and have had good luck with our packing method.

Here's how we pack and ship eggs with photos:

http://www.poultryhelp.com/eggpacking.html

Hope this helps, Pete

-- Pete Theer (webmaster@poultryhelp.com), February 05, 2002.