"Settling" Shipped Eggs: Necessary? With Auto-Turner?

ooh!  I'm waiting for the answer too!   Getting my first batch of shipped eggs (hopefully today) and was curious about this myself.

I'm anxious to hear what others think.  I found a breeder of "show quality" Ameraucanas and paid dearly for the eggs to be shipped to me.  I let the eggs sit for 12 hours before incubating them, then waited 21 days to...nothing!  Not a single egg hatched.  I'm so disappointed! 

I am wondering where in the world can I find show-quality birds?

I don't know if this is helpful but...

Recently on another thread someone had posted there was a study done with shipped eggs. They let them "settle" for 24 hours and then placed them in the auto-tuner TURNED OFF, but set so the eggs sat perfectly upright in the incubator. Essentially the study found if you let them sit for the first 5-7 days in the incubator but not moving in the auto-turner (or egg carton), you will have a better hatch rate from shipped eggs. This "stillness" gives the air cells a better chance of re-establishing themselves in the proper position.

I tried that with the hatch I have now, but call it conditioning...I just couldn't let the eggs sit still for more than two days. I know! The study concluded better hatch rates -- up to 70% hatch rate I believe, but I still worried about the embryo sticking (although how does that happen when everything inside the egg is wet and slick?) or the embryo not developing properly from being in one position.

Here is the other thing. The auto-tuner is constantly ticking which means there is minute but constant movement of the contents of the egg. And if you have a forced-air, the whir of the motor also contributes vibration...

I think with shipped eggs there are so many factors you can't control from how the eggs were handled or what conditions they experience before they reach you, to the nutrition the parents received which contributes strongly to egg fertility and embryo viability.

Some people don't let the eggs settle at all as a practice. I suppose they must get something to hatch if they continue to do that. It can't hurt...or does it?!   Hahahah.

(Edited to fix the hatch rate percentage. It was 70 not 50)

wow! it seems you have put a lot of thought into this thing! i cant wait to see how many hatch! i will be watching this thread good luck to you and babies! i too, just got hatching eggs yesterday and kind of did the same thing, just not as technical... have you contacted the usps to make an official complaint about the way the eggs where treated?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by curranchickens 


I have never hatched before in my life. I ordered eggs here on byc. I ordered 6 blue wheaten amerucanas, 6 salmon favorelles and 6 golden cuckuu marans. I knew it was a risk but I needed eggs and really wanted these breeds. The eggs were delayed at the PO. They were collected on the 14 th and I received them on the 19th. When I received them, I was devestated. First of all, I found them laying sideways on my son's atv out in the front yard.... Nice place for a mail man to leave a package very clearly marked FRAGILE not once but 2x on EACH side of the box in black sharpie marker in large letters with the words "live hatching eggs" on the top. The box was tied in a see through tinted grey garbage bag that I think was put on by the PO. Inside the bage, the box was smashed up.
I ran inside and candles the eggs. I could not see anything in the maran eggs and pretty much nothing in the salmon faverolles eggs (light brown) but in some of them i could faintly see a bubble running down the side. I could see into the blue wheaten amerucana eggs very well and saw that every egg had a detached air sac that rolled around the entire egg from one end to the other.
I started reading and based on many threads came up with a plan! I placed the eggs in the room in an egg carton for 12 hours so they could acclimate to room temp and not go into shock. I then put the in the egg turner straight up and down (took me hours of running it to just happen to catch the turner in the right position so I could turn it off) and unplugged. I am going to let the eggs sit without turning for 7 days. I am running the incubator at 30 to 35% humidity. I am not candling as tempted as I am until day 7 (I am on day 3). If any of them make it to lockdown, I will hatch upright in a cut down egg carton.
Based on everything I have read this seems to be the hail Mary way of trying to hatch these eggs. We will see.