Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[BlueShadow]

Day 7 in my incubator. All 7 Salmon Faverolle eggs had good blood vessel development. Of the 7 Ameraucana eggs, 1 was clear, 1 was cloudy, and 5 had good blood vessel development. They had lost almost 6% of weight, so I cranked up the humidity.
That cloudy egg, I couldn’t be certain it didn’t have blood vessels developing, but it was a lot darker than everything else. Surely there is nothing good going on in there??? Should I toss it or give it a week?

 

[Cerise1924]

Not going to deny... the only reason I got my Silkie was in the hope of getting a girl to be a broody. Since then I've read conflicting information on how good they are at it... but I still want a few more Silkies!

I got a Silkie for the same reason, and she gave up on a beautiful clutch of developing eggs. I got a Sebright for pure beauty (they are supposedly not broody at all), and she has been sticking to those eggs with utmost devotion, puffing up when anyone gets near. Go figure!

 

[Cerise1924]

Update on two incubators full of shipped eggs:
-I candled at Day 5. 17 of the 29 eggs are showing spectacular, gorgeous spiderwebs!

-There is no difference in development rates between eggs that were put into the autoturner after their big-end-up rest in a cool room, and those that were left unturned for four days in the manual-turn incubator after their rest. So, it seems that not turning for the first several days doesn't help or harm. But I'll wait and see if there is a hatch rate difference.

-5 of the 6 eggs shipped to Oregon from MO are developing, and 5 of the 7 eggs shipped locally from Oregon are developing. So, in mild May weather, the transit distance is not a big factor, it seems. About 50% of the eggs from AZ and TX are looking great, which is the average hatch rate for shipped eggs, I hear.

-Plenty of the eggs with porous shells and wobbly air cells are developing beautifully. I've hatched wonderful chickens from shipped eggs with porous shells, and with loose or saddle-shaped cells, in the past.

BYC friends, I'd be interested to hear if you have any comparisons about hand turning vs auto turning, porous eggs, shipping distances, saddle cells, upright incubation vs horizontal, and so on.

-Cerise

 

[dannygirl1]

Watching others progress with interest, I had 24 shipped copper black maran eggs in a brinsea octagon, auto turner and dry hatch. Candled last Saturday on day 10 , had to toss 8 eggs, no development, rest looking good. Will await hatch day for results as I don’t like to interfere too much , might give a quick candle at lockdown.

 

[NNYchick]

Broody silkies is what lead me down the shipped eggs route. I have 6 Silkie hens- 2 hatched chicks and are raising them, 1 decided she would be a mama too (mind you after she hatched hers and pushed the chicks out of the nest) so she is "helping" raise chicks, and 2 are broody in the nest box hatching air. So I have 1 hen laying me an egg every other day. Cant get enough eggs to fill my small incubator. It is not just silkie hens either that take to the chick raising. I have a confused 17 week old cockerel, he spends most of his day in the nest box hanging out with the broody and even sings the egg song with my hen.

 

[NNYchick]

BYC friends, I'd be interested to hear if you have any comparisons about hand turning vs auto turning, porous eggs, shipping distances, saddle cells, upright incubation vs horizontal, and so on.-Cerise

I am interested too. I have been hand turning and left them vertical in a cut down egg carton because my incubator's auto turner only rolls them horizontally. It is a huge pain to hand turn and I am concerned because I can only do it 3 times a day (before work at 6am, after work at 5pm and before bed at 10pm) worried that is not enough. I am looking into buying a larger incubator and wondering everyone else uses for shipped eggs. I have narrowed it down to Hovabator Genesis, Incuview, or Nuture right 360. Any input would greatly be appreciated. As I am still developing by breeding flock I see more shipped eggs in my future.
Update on my hatch so far 18 eggs on day 10- 3 clear and 3 early quit with wanky air cells and blood rings. The other 12 have good air cells and moving embryos.

 

[Ducklover2]

3 times a day is enough.

 

[Morrigan]

Day 7 in my incubator. All 7 Salmon Faverolle eggs had good blood vessel development. Of the 7 Ameraucana eggs, 1 was clear, 1 was cloudy, and 5 had good blood vessel development. They had lost almost 6% of weight, so I cranked up the humidity.
That cloudy egg, I couldn’t be certain it didn’t have blood vessels developing, but it was a lot darker than everything else. Surely there is nothing good going on in there??? Should I toss it or give it a week?

As long as it doesn't smell funny, I would let it go until Day 10 and check again.

 

[Morrigan]

Broody silkies is what lead me down the shipped eggs route. I have 6 Silkie hens- 2 hatched chicks and are raising them, 1 decided she would be a mama too (mind you after she hatched hers and pushed the chicks out of the nest) so she is "helping" raise chicks, and 2 are broody in the nest box hatching air. So I have 1 hen laying me an egg every other day. Cant get enough eggs to fill my small incubator. It is not just silkie hens either that take to the chick raising. I have a confused 17 week old cockerel, he spends most of his day in the nest box hanging out with the broody and even sings the egg song with my hen.

My rooster sings the egg song along with the hens as well. He sings it really, really LOUDLY, lol.

 

[JohnEugene]

I just got an email from my local post office saying that the eggs I ordered which were shipped only three days ago from Centralia, MO are now at my local post office and will be delivered by this afternoon. They are Old English Game, Regular Grays. I have hatched incubated eggs before, but not in many years. I used to get pretty good results before, about 80% hatch rate. I have a new incubator and I've had it set up for several days. I'm hoping for the best. I will candle the eggs later on today when I get them, to try to determine what condition thy're in. Meanwhile I'm reading everything I can hear on this forum.