Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Josefina]

Isn't it the sweetest, seeing mama and babies? I can't believe my Sebright turned out to be a stalwart broody and devoted mother. She used to get bossed by the bigger hens, but now that she's protecting baby, she just has to look sideways at the big ladies, and they scatter to all ends of the coop so the tiny Orp chick can get first pick of the feed.

I'm sure she'd raise another clutch for me, but she doesn't have the square inch capacity of an Orpington!

Smart that you got some extra Orps.

I have a tiny little Old English Game bantam hen who is a dedicated (and ferocious) broody. The problem is, even when she wasn't broody she would have nothing to do with the boys, so her eggs never hatched. I finally took pity on her and got a couple eggs from my friend who had bantam Cochins (this was 3 1/2 years ago). By the time they were two months old poor Banty Girl was smaller than her chicks!

 

[Josefina]

Gorgeous hens!!! That second one... Oh my. She may be one of the most beautiful things ever! I want one... Who looks just like her!!!

Awww, thanks! She is lovely. She and the other mama hen are from some calico/mille fleur Cochin eggs I bought two years ago. The shipped egg chicks are now raising shipped egg chicks! hehe

 

[Colly1470]

Say it with me....I do NOT need more chicks, I do NOT need more chicks. ARRRRRGH




Oh but I want them!!

But they need you.

 

[Morrigan]

The last little Svart made it! Day 24, and it is resting with a few little buddies. I moved most of the chicks to the second brooder, so this little baby wouldn’t get stampeded.

Hope she’s ok when I get home from work.
View attachment 1415319

How is she doing?

 

[Cerise1924]

How is she doing?

Doing well! Smaller than the other Svart, and acting more "babyish" - flapping wings, sleeping more, not standing super tall - but she just hatched this morning, and the others are a day or two or three older.

Thanks for asking!

 

[Cerise1924]

To add on to the chickspam; two weeks old now.

#1, 46g - View attachment 1415603 (Crybaby)
#2, 29g - View attachment 1415605 (Tiny)
#3, 49g - View attachment 1415604 (Blueroo)

Final names still pending. Crybaby is the one who's constantly screaming for attention, Tiny is... well, tiny, and Blueroo briefly started crowing at six days old.

They are all really pretty.

 

[Cerise1924]

I have a tiny little Old English Game bantam hen who is a dedicated (and ferocious) broody. The problem is, even when she wasn't broody she would have nothing to do with the boys, so her eggs never hatched. I finally took pity on her and got a couple eggs from my friend who had bantam Cochins (this was 3 1/2 years ago). By the time they were two months old poor Banty Girl was smaller than her chicks!
View attachment 1415733

Cute!!

 

[Cerise1924]

Day 23 and Hatch Summary

Well, it's over. I pulled the last egg this morning, water candled, and then confirmed it was dead when I egg-topsied it. It looked like it had a leg stuck over it's head and was facing away from the large saddled air sac. With it's malposition, I don't think it had the strength to make an external pip. Always sad to see, but I don't think there was much I could have done to save it, had I known. The final totals:

12 Eggs ordered -- 8 assorted orpington; 4 lavender marans

15 eggs arrived intact-- 10 assorted orpingtons; 4 lavender maran and 1 mystery maran.

6 Eggs made it to lockdown -- 2 orpington; 3 lavender and 1 mystery.

5 Eggs Hatched -- 1 orpington, all 4 of the remaining marans.

A 33% hatch rate, which seems to be in the normal range for shipped eggs. The only thing that was disappointing was how poor the hatch rate was for the orpingtons vs. the marans. That leads me to believe that at least some of the failures may have been attributable to the quality of the orpington stock, rather than shipping or my incubation practices.

Would I do it again? Yes. It was great to be able to get varieties not available at my local feed store, or without having to order large quantities of chicks. The biggest drawback is that hatch rate can vary so much, that it is tough for planning purposes to know how many to order. It's also hard to see so many incubation failures.

Would I use Papas again? It depends. The disappointing orp. hatch rate was offset by how great the marans did and how striking all the chicks are in appearance. If the chicks grow up to be hardy and beautiful chickens, I would use him again, although I would make a point of asking about the age of the eggs.

I think your analysis and review of the hatching is really important. This has been a learning experience for all of us, as much as an emotional experience.

Here's my own summary of my hatches:
May Hatching - Papa's Poultry shipped eggs
-Ordered 4 eggs
-Received 6 eggs, with unusually large air cells -- 3 Cream Legbar, 2 Lemon Orpington, 1 Jubilee Orpington
-5 never showed development, or were early quitters
--Only one egg made it to "lockdown" (under a broody at that point), and it did hatch.
That's a 16 % hatch rate, which is rather abysmal.

Would I order from Papa's again? Not likely, unless someone else let me know they recently got good eggs that were developing well, and it was a breed/colour I couldn't get elsewhere. That being said, the birds I have hatched from his eggs have been great!

June Hatch
-Set 29 eggs from 4 eBay sellers (4 breeds) in two incubators
-13 chicks made it to lockdown
-In the higher temp, autoturning incubator, 5 of the 6 chicks hatched
-In the lower temp, hand turned incubator, only 3 of the 7 chicks hatched, and one hatched on Day 24, after help
-8 chicks hatched from 29 eggs set, which is 27%. Pretty low, even for shipped eggs.
-This was skewed by the Legbar-Olandsk cross, because only one of those 10 eggs hatched.

What I did learn from this is that laying the shipped eggs on their side and putting them into the autoturner on Day 1 (after the requisite end-up rest for a day after arrival), did not give the eggs any disadvantage. They did better than the eggs that I set big end up and avoided turning for the first four days.

Will I order shipped eggs again? Yes! Will I try to get a broody to hatch for me? Yes!
If my broody is too tiny to hatch more than a couple of eggs, will I incubate? Yes
Am I grateful for this experience with this great hatch-a-long group? Big yes!!

Love seeing all the chickies. I may order more eggs in a few weeks. Would love to hatch with you again.

 

[Cerise1924]

fur-mum said: ↑
Say it with me....I do NOT need more chicks, I do NOT need more chicks. ARRRRRGH

Oh but I want them!!

But they need you.

 

[Cerise1924]

I recently learned about the Pavlovskaya chicken. This is what I want next, maybe!
"A Russian myth describes the origin of this exotic breed as an illicit tryst between a chicken and grouse."
I didn't know any world mythology was based on illicit chicken trysts.