Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Colly1470]

Sorry for the horrible lighting! I'll get better pics in the morning. They are seriously adorable. I can't deal with their fluffiness

Yay babies!!

 

[Morrigan]

Day 10 Update

I can see now why people don't like hatching shipped eggs. I candled again today and had to dump 3 more orpington eggs.

The first two were the maybe's I had ID at day 6. There was no denying it this time -- they were early quitters. Here is a shot of one of them. Classic blood ring plus bonus of saddle-shaped air sac on this one. Eggtopsy showed virtually no development. They had probably quit well before my day 6 candling.

The next one to be dumped was the last of the Lemon orpingtons -- the ones I most wanted to hatch. I didn't see any further progression of the "dot" I had seen before and there was a pretty evident blood ring. Eggtopsy showed that a little embryo had indeed started, but it looked like it died around day 7 or so, based on its size. It was weirdly positioned, laying against the air sac itself, and had some brown gunk around it. I assume the embryo had died and floated to the top.

So, that leaves just 4 out of 10 of the orpington eggs left -- the big reason I picked this vendor was for orpingtons, so I am really disappointed. And, at least one of the remaining orpington has a huge, saddled air sac. I nudge the humidity a big up when I saw how large it was (now at 42%).

It looked that the little thing might still be alive however. I should note that all the eggs have been rested and incubated in an upright position (they get turned by being rocked back and forth).

Here is another, better looking egg for comparison.

I still have all 5 of the maran eggs, and I am uncertain if that is because they are doing better, or that with the dark shells I can't see what's happening so ignorance is bliss. Here is one of the marans:

I've had 3 prior incubator hatches. Prior to this one, I had never seen a blood ring on an egg before. Other than giving the bator a sniff test each day, I think I'm done candling until lock-down. I removed the obvious no-gos and, now, I just have to wait and see now. Maybe a couple will hatch.

I'm not sure I'm done trying to hatch shipped eggs, but I will try a different vendor next time. Losing 6 of 10 orpington eggs by day 10 is a bit depressing.

 

[Kiki]

how do you manage to be on backyard chickens so much? seems like you are always posting advice and stuff (which is excellent)

I am a professional!

 

[Kiki]

Day 10 Update

I can see now why people don't like hatching shipped eggs. I candled again today and had to dump 3 more orpington eggs.

The first two were the maybe's I had ID at day 6. There was no denying it this time -- they were early quitters. Here is a shot of one of them. Classic blood ring plus bonus of saddle-shaped air sac on this one. Eggtopsy showed virtually no development. They had probably quit well before my day 6 candling.

View attachment 1397060

The next one to be dumped was the last of the Lemon orpingtons -- the ones I most wanted to hatch. I didn't see any further progression of the "dot" I had seen before and there was a pretty evident blood ring. Eggtopsy showed that a little embryo had indeed started, but it looked like it died around day 7 or so, based on its size. It was weirdly positioned, laying against the air sac itself, and had some brown gunk around it. I assume the embryo had died and floated to the top.

So, that leaves just 4 out of 10 of the orpington eggs left -- the big reason I picked this vendor was for orpingtons, so I am really disappointed. And, at least one of the remaining orpington has a huge, saddled air sac. I nudge the humidity a big up when I saw how large it was (now at 42%).

View attachment 1397071

It looked that the little thing might still be alive however. I should note that all the eggs have been rested and incubated in an upright position (they get turned by being rocked back and forth).

Here is another, better looking egg for comparison.

View attachment 1397077

I still have all 5 of the maran eggs, and I am uncertain if that is because they are doing better, or that with the dark shells I can't see what's happening so ignorance is bliss. Here is one of the marans:

View attachment 1397088

I've had 3 prior incubator hatches. Prior to this one, I had never seen a blood ring on an egg before. Other than giving the bator a sniff test each day, I think I'm done candling until lock-down. I removed the obvious no-gos and, now, I just have to wait and see now. Maybe a couple will hatch.

I'm not sure I'm done trying to hatch shipped eggs, but I will try a different vendor next time. Losing 6 of 10 orpington eggs by day 10 is a bit depressing.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

7 out of 11 have hatched!!! & 2 more are pipped will post pictures soon! I think Barnevelders may be my favorite so far!

Congrats

 

[Colly1470]

My 3 have made it to day 27. Should be internal pips any time now (I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning haha). They wiggle their eggs around like crazy when I chat at them, which I think is sweet. I figure talking to plants helps them thrive better.....maybe it'll do the same for goslings in eggs lol.

 

[Josefina]

I'm hatching shipped eggs for the second time! First time was two years ago hatching 7 calico Cochin eggs I bought from My Pet Chicken. 2 were still clear after a week so I took them out, but the other 5 hatched! I love my broody hens! I tend to think they were part of why I got such an amazing hatch rate.

This year I'm hatching another 7 eggs--3 mottled Cochin and 4 mille fleur D'uccle (bought from the same place). Today is 20 days, and hatching is in progress already!! 1 D'uccle hatched early this morning and is drying off. 2 more D'uccles have pipped!! I'm pretty sure the fourth D'uccle is a day 10ish quitter, and I'm going to pull it after the rest hatch and do an eggtopsy to satisfy my curiosity. 2 of the Cochin eggs are cheeping up a storm to mama hen, but don't have external pips yet. The third Cochin is quiet but I'm fairly sure I heard some pecking sounds coming from it, so hopefully it will make it out okay. (I've left the eggs alone the past couple days, but when I candled on day 17 one Cochin had a definite saddle air sac, and genius me didn't mark that egg so I'm not sure if it's the quiet one. )

All in all, I've so far had excellent luck with hatching shipped eggs. Far better than I anticipated when I got my Cochin eggs two years ago!

 

[Mommaj89]

Sitting at 75% hatch!! The last two might be quitters, gonna give them a couple days, I had a straggler with my Lavendar Ameraucanas so maybe these will be too. But 75% is the best I've had so far all from shipped eggs . After I hatch a few from my hens I may be done unless I can sell a few then I'll get some silver dorking eggs

 

[Turion1973]

I'm glad you got one, at least. From my experience, 50% hatch rate for shipped eggs is about average, and that seems to be the general consensus from what I read, as well. However, it's not that I always get 50% of the eggs (3 out of 6, for example to hatch healthy chicks). Sometimes, I'll get is a hatch like the one you had (1 out of 6), and then with a different batch of eggs from a different breeder, I'll get 5 out of 6 to hatch. It all works out to about 50% over time. There are just so many variables: fertility, jostling in shipping, bacteria, hairline cracks, temperature fluctuations in shipping, and so on...

We candled the day we got the eggs after leaving them with the big part of the egg upright for 12 hours and I wasn't very encouraged with what I saw. I mail man does a good job of delivering fragile packages but prior to delivery not so sure.

 

[Zinjifrah]

Day 20: 2 out of 13 pipped. One of which is Tiny!