So, today I set 15 eggs from Papa's Poultry. 5 Lavender Maran, and 8 assorted Orpington mixes. Now the wait begins. 
I've always hatched my "own" eggs from my backyard flock before, but I wanted some new blood in the flock, and I couldn't find a seller I liked within driving distance. I settled on Papas Poultry because they had orpington and marans, and they were only 400 miles away, so I thought that would be less shipping stress.
I got them yesterday and unpacked them. They were really, really well packed and there were no broken or cracked eggs. Yay! I candled them and to be honest, it was rough. Four of the air sacs were quite large, which makes me think the might be old eggs. (3 of the eggs were free-bees, so I really can't complain). A couple more were detached. One yolk looked scrambled. I couldn't even find the air sacs on others. The maran eggs remain a deeply shrouded mystery, except that one was very porous.
Whelp, I knew I was taking some chances, so after letting them settle over night, I put them in the incubator this afternoon, point side down. My plan is not turn on the auto-turner until day 3, so they can settle some more. Then, I'm going to wait until day 5
before candling them. I don't want to introduce any more movement into these poor eggs then I have to. The humidity is set for 40, but it tends to bounce around between the high 30s to low 40s.
If I get 6 to hatch I will be THRILLED! Here is my set-up. I'll keep you posted. Any "hatching shipped eggs" stories would be greatly appreciated, as I'm going stir crazy right now!
I've always hatched my "own" eggs from my backyard flock before, but I wanted some new blood in the flock, and I couldn't find a seller I liked within driving distance. I settled on Papas Poultry because they had orpington and marans, and they were only 400 miles away, so I thought that would be less shipping stress.
I got them yesterday and unpacked them. They were really, really well packed and there were no broken or cracked eggs. Yay! I candled them and to be honest, it was rough. Four of the air sacs were quite large, which makes me think the might be old eggs. (3 of the eggs were free-bees, so I really can't complain). A couple more were detached. One yolk looked scrambled. I couldn't even find the air sacs on others. The maran eggs remain a deeply shrouded mystery, except that one was very porous.
Whelp, I knew I was taking some chances, so after letting them settle over night, I put them in the incubator this afternoon, point side down. My plan is not turn on the auto-turner until day 3, so they can settle some more. Then, I'm going to wait until day 5
before candling them. I don't want to introduce any more movement into these poor eggs then I have to. The humidity is set for 40, but it tends to bounce around between the high 30s to low 40s. If I get 6 to hatch I will be THRILLED! Here is my set-up. I'll keep you posted. Any "hatching shipped eggs" stories would be greatly appreciated, as I'm going stir crazy right now!
I was suppose to be offline an hour ago!
