➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[007Sean]

I am so sad. I was looking forward to this hatch from Thieving Otter. I only had 5 hatch, and four of them failed to thrive. The one I have left is bigger than the others were, but is not growing like I expect. Today is day 6 after hatch, and I'm not seeing any feathers yet. It has finally begun to gain weight, going from 8g yesterday to 11g today.

I don't think it's the breeder, since plenty of people have gotten great chicks out of them. The one that passed away today was a black one. I was really hoping to get black from this hatch. I have no idea what the one survivor is going to look like as an adult.

You need to order 4x's the number you ordered! Shipping must have been really hard on them to get that low of a hatch rate.

 

[Nabiki]

You need to order 4x's the number you ordered! Shipping must have been really hard on them to get that low of a hatch rate.

I think the post office up here is pretty bad. I'm subscribed to informed delivery, and sometimes, I just don't get certain pieces of mail. It's almost always been junk mail that I don't care much about, but it's not up to the carrier what to deliver and not. I've also caught on my cameras the mail delivery guy casually tossing my eggs next to my door.

I think I really do need to order 4x the number of eggs that I want to get chicks.

 

[007Sean]

I think the post office up here is pretty bad. I'm subscribed to informed delivery, and sometimes, I just don't get certain pieces of mail. It's almost always been junk mail that I don't care much about, but it's not up to the carrier what to deliver and not. I've also caught on my cameras the mail delivery guy casually tossing my eggs next to my door.

I think I really do need to order 4x the number of eggs that I want to get chicks.

Yeah, I've caught/scolded my post person, dropping my eggs over my front gate....5 ft. ...I don't get many to hatch when that happens...plus the rough treatment it has gone through to get here in the first place!

 

[R2elk]

I think the post office up here is pretty bad. I'm subscribed to informed delivery, and sometimes, I just don't get certain pieces of mail. It's almost always been junk mail that I don't care much about, but it's not up to the carrier what to deliver and not. I've also caught on my cameras the mail delivery guy casually tossing my eggs next to my door.

I think I really do need to order 4x the number of eggs that I want to get chicks.

Have the eggs held for pick up.

 

[Nabiki]

Have the eggs held for pick up.

I don't think it's just my carrier. I think it's the whole town's public workers. I might try that on my next order, though, and see if it makes a difference.

 

[R2elk]

I don't think it's just my carrier. I think it's the whole town's public workers. I might try that on my next order, though, and see if it makes a difference.

They're all bad but less can happen to it sitting there waiting for you than the additional transport and final toss delivering it to you.

Some of the harm is unintentional such as sitting hatching eggs by a heater duct to "keep them warm".

My experience is that eggs that come through a major hub get the most damage.

 

[Nabiki]

They're all bad but less can happen to it sitting there waiting for you than the additional transport and final toss delivering it to you.

Some of the harm is unintentional such as sitting hatching eggs by a heater duct to "keep them warm".

My experience is that eggs that come through a major hub get the most damage.

It certainly won't do any harm to pick them up. If it makes no difference in my hatch rate, then I know the damage is happening elsewhere, but if it increases my hatch rate, then it's absolutely worth it!

 

[CliftonQuail]

Have the eggs held for pick up.

The last batch of eggs that I ordered were marked on all 6 sides of the box to be held for pickup and had my phone number plastered all over it. They still got delivered to my house. Fortunately, I work from home and have a camera watching the approach to my door so I saw him coming. I met him at the door and he handed me the box. Even so, I still only had a 30% hatch rate. Then again, I'm still learning so the low hatch rate was probably on me.

 

[007Sean]

I've had them 'hold for pickup', and regular postal delivery.....for me, it didn't make much difference. The further they have to be ship does make a huge difference, also the packing material used and how they were packaged.

Although, I think 'hold for pickup' is better than having them delivered to your door. For me, that's 30 miles that they will be handled by someone who cares what's in the box.
Also, I prefer that the seller doesn't put anything on the box to indicate that it contains 'live eggs' ....some of the handlers, intentional shake the box to see if they can hear chirpping!

 

[R2elk]

One more item is that hatching eggs can be shipped via UPS or FedEx.

One of the worst things for hatching eggs is to be shipped by air in an unpressurized cargo hold. The changes in pressure due to the changes in altitude can destroy them.

Given the choice, I have hatching eggs shipped by FedEx ground and held for pick up.