Something New and I Really Need to Keep My Mouth Shut

nchls school said:

Yes. This is something I read today. I have been doing a lot of research every moment that I could today. While I have been raising chickens for several decades I have not dealt much with shipped eggs or incubators; only on a very limited basis so I have a lot to learn. I'm going to candle the bantam eggs again to verify just what damage there was. The air cells were ruptured as the air floated to the highest part of the egg as it was turned. I'll look to see if the yolk membrane was also broken. In that case I do not think anything would have helped. I had put these eggs under a silkie hen who is a reliable brooder so I am sure any damage was done in shipping.

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nchls school said:

After candling the six eggs four had ruptured yolk membranes; the insides were thoroughly mixed.

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AmyLynn2374 said:

Ya, not much you can do if the yolk is scrambled. Sounds like the packing could have been a bit better or the PO played football with them.  I have steered away from shipped eggs for this very reason. I have awesome hatches with local eggs and my own eggs, and I'm leery about spending money on something that may or may not yield anything. We have plans to get shipped eggs next spring, so we've been sharing a lot of info on what has and haven't worked for those who have done shipped eggs. And how to pack for the best protection.  I have heard that people that ask that the box does not contain any labels or stickers that say there are eggs inside fair better than those with boxes labled as fertile eggs. Makes you wonder....

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nchls school said:

I have often done science projects with the children using eggs. It is not all that hard to pack them so they do not break, but I know of no way that eggs can be packed to stop damage from a sudden jolt. Knowing as I do that the jolt has to be a hard one to ruin eggs just makes me even more dismayed.

The breeder that my wife bought the eggs from even showed pictures of the rooster and hens that the eggs came from; just beautiful. Crud! Maybe next time.

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nchls school said:

We did another science project using eggs today. The kids designed devices to keep an egg from breaking when dropped on a hard tile floor. The eggs were dropped in 8 inch increments; 8, 16, 24,…over and over again. Six students-six eggs were involved. Of the six eggs two made it to 112 inches and not break. Afterwards we carefully cracked open the two eggs-totally scrambled inside.

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AmyLynn2374 said:

We homeschool and at some point I plan to do one of these with my son. I've looked at a few different ways others have done it.

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nchls school said:

I think the best way to do this kind of project is to not have something to go by. It's fun to see what the student's imaginations come up with. One boy made a parachute; something I never foresaw as a possibility.

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LeeSC said:

I feel ya dude! I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to build a coop and get some birds, next thing I know, I have the materials and a whole flock within a week! She is the absolute best!!

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nchls school said:

I candled my Japanese bantam eggs last night and all of then had a broken membrane; very disappointing. It got me to wondering on how hard of a jolt would it take to break the membrane, so this morning I took a dozen eggs of varying size, candled them to make sure they were intact, and tested them. Each egg I held in my hand and gradually shook the egg faster and faster. Shaking did not break any membranes no matter how fast the shaking was as long as there was no jolt. Then I tested jolts; soft, more and more until I jolted the egg as hard as I could using my hand. With each egg it took the hardest jolt to break the membrane. From this experiment I know that, for the membranes to break, our postal workers had to have thrown my eggs onto a pile; or some such.
Reasonable handling would not have broken the membranes and ruined the eggs. I do not think I, or my wife, will be ordering eggs through the mail. Is there a safer way to have them sent?

I still have more Japanese bantam eggs coming; I hope the postal workers are more careful. When they come I'm going to candle them immediately-no point in incubating addled eggs. Maybe next time...

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nchls school said:

Update-The breeder e-mailed awhile back saying he was sending 4 more eggs and asked if we had any luck with the first eggs. My wife told him that every one had been ruined in shipping. Last week a dozen fresh Japanese bantam eggs were delivered instead of four-WOW! No extra cost! I candled them this morning and nine are developing. Two of the eggs were ruined in shipping and only one egg was clear. Apparently we lucked out and got postal people that cared.

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