06/06/2026
🎯 DO NOT let your shipped eggs rest this time of year!
Here's why:
The first phase of development in a fertilized egg is the blastoderm stage. Following fertilization, the single-cell zygote begins to divide as the egg travels down through the hen's reproductive tract, turning into a bullseye 🎯 shaped cluster of cells called a blastoderm that we're all familiar with seeing when you crack open a fertilized egg. The blastoderm stage is the initial pre-incubation phase of the embryo.
🥚 Once the egg is laid, the blastoderm halts it's growth and remains dormant until it is kept warm, around 98-100°F for several hours. Once heated, the blastoderm formally becomes an embryo.
📬 This time of year, when eggs are shipped they can get warm enough, and remain warm long enough, that the embryos start their growth process. After this process is started, they are no longer dormant, and if given long enough periods without heat, they can die without leaving a trace behind of the usual 'bloodring' that often forms when eggs stop growing in the incubator. Leaving eggs rest on the counter for a day, or even half a day, can cause them to die if they have already started growing.
🐥 I recently had a chick from a shipped batch of eggs pip and hatch a full 2 days before any of the others even pipped. Had I not gotten these eggs right into the incubator, this little one could have been lost without leaving a trace behind, as he had clearly started growing on the teip over to me.
These eggs shown were taken from a broody hen after only a couple days of sitting on them. As you can see, the blastoderms in most have already started growing and becoming more prominent, and one of them is very large and round. If these arrived in a shipping box and were left to sit on the counter, some of them would die, and you would think they must have not been fertilized.
🔥 My best advice this time of year is to get those eggies right into the incubator, fat side up, and leave the turner off for a couple days if you can. But DO NOT let them sit on the counter to die.
Some people think the Winter is too cold to ship eggs. I hatch eggs year round from shipped eggs, and the best hatch rates I have are during the colder months. I believe this is one of the reasons why. Eggs can tolerate cold when they are in a dormant state far better than they tolerate heat.
Happy Hatching! 🐣
