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.
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 
