Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Morrigan]

Interesting article. Keeping a mite-free, safe nesting box seems like a pretty necessary practice regardless of whether you want broodys!

My little flock is doing great. I'm now 90% sure that the little Black "Leftover" Maran is a rooster. His legs and comb are bigger and, the final piece of bad news came today today -- when he was standing in the sun, I could see a hint of red feathering on his shoulders.

I was really hoping that one would be a hen. If it's a nice tempered rooster, I'm going to have to make a difficult choice about whether to replace Duke. Duke has a great temperament, but he's 5 now, and although he makes pretty babies, he also carries a genetic flaw that doesn't allow even one generation of line breeding. But, as always, I let myself get too attached.

 

[Morrigan]

View attachment 1436950 View attachment 1436933 My little guineas have grown so quick since this thread began. My little peacock, Weston and my roo, Thad have become buddies. They were all put in the temporary coop in my garage till the outside one is finished this weekend. The garage coop which can't be seen in the photo is equipped with brooder heater and nesting boxes. Growing up together as fuzzbutts has helped them get along. No one knows they are different!! In the video, twin bad boys have begun hanging around lately so the electric fence needs put up before I feel comfortable letting my little ones in the new coop.

I hear with bears, you are supposed to bait the electric fence with a strip of meat or something so they contact it with their mouths.

 

[Morrigan]

I am getting ready to set my Second ship set of eggs in an incubator. One set is coming from Texas, the other set is coming from Maryland, to New York. I am hoping for not so scrambled of eggs.

Though I guess i lucked out with my first set having only one that was scrambled, but i wanted to have over 12 of my breed as it seems hatch rates on shipped eggs can be pretty low. I will have 18 in total of my breed, figuring that at least one is going to get scrambled in shipping that should leave 16 to set. If i am lucky because this will be my first time really trying to incubate eggs I may see between 4-8 make it to lockdown.

Does all that sound about right on dealing with shipped eggs?

It seems like between 25 and 50 % hatch rate are numbers I hear getting thrown around lot. But, I've also heard of near 100% and 0% hatching as well. It depends a lot how how nicely the postal services treats your eggs, weather conditions during shipment, as well as the soundness of the eggs themselves. I hope you get lucky!

 

[Knighstar679]

It seems like between 25 and 50 % hatch rate are numbers I hear getting thrown around lot. But, I've also heard of near 100% and 0% hatching as well. It depends a lot how how nicely the postal services treats your eggs, weather conditions during shipment, as well as the soundness of the eggs themselves. I hope you get lucky!

Thank you Morrigan. I am not sure if i would have been lucky on the first set i got shipped or not, as I mistakingly ended up over heating the eggs and they basicly cooked in shell. I was very sad when i cracked them open and saw that the egg was hard like a partically boiled egg.

I am being super careful with the incubator i am going to use this time. I am zone testing temps and watching it like a hawk to see how the temps go. So far this cheep incubator i got looks like it will work but I am getting a homemade one ready just in case.

 

[Rebel58]

I hear with bears, you are supposed to bait the electric fence with a strip of meat or something so they contact it with their mouths.

Thanks Morrigan! That's an awesome idea!

 

[Jayellebee]

Do you guys notice your shipped eggs having more trouble hatching? Like having them malpositioned or having to assist? This is my first hatch, I started with 7 eggs (one from my own duck, 6 shipped). Only 1 of my shipped eggs hatched on its own and she’s doing great. I had another that had refused to hatch, but was chirping a ton, I assisted and found out he was malpositioned. We got him out and he did okay for a few days and started to crash. I think he may have had a heart condition. We lost him last night.
I did an eggtopsy on another shipped egg that was moving until about day 24 and the duckling was deformed.
Just curious if you see these issues more in shipped eggs that are jumbled rather than eggs laid by your own hens/ducks.

 

[Knighstar679]

Do you guys notice your shipped eggs having more trouble hatching? Like having them malpositioned or having to assist? This is my first hatch, I started with 7 eggs (one from my own duck, 6 shipped). Only 1 of my shipped eggs hatched on its own and she’s doing great. I had another that had refused to hatch, but was chirping a ton, I assisted and found out he was malpositioned. We got him out and he did okay for a few days and started to crash. I think he may have had a heart condition. We lost him last night.
I did an eggtopsy on another shipped egg that was moving until about day 24 and the duckling was deformed.
Just curious if you see these issues more in shipped eggs that are jumbled rather than eggs laid by your own hens/ducks.

Oh that’s scary as I am really hoping for a good clean hatch when my shipped eggs get here. I am totally new to this so I am already planning on loosing several. I am not sure if I could assist.

 

[Morrigan]

I think the shipping process can result in malpositions, due to the air sacs getting messed up. Of the 6 eggs that made it to lockdown, two had huge, saddled air sacs. One of those pipped, but I think the air sac constricted it, and it couldn't move in the egg to zip. I assisted it near the end, and the chick is doing great. The chick in the other saddled airs never pipped, either internally or externally, and died in shell. It was facing away from the air sac and had a leg over it's head. Again, I think the huge air sac left too small a space for the chick to get itself into the right position.

 

[Rebel58]

One thing I noticed that was different on my shipped guinea eggs was the packaging in the box. 13 eggs in a medium priority mail box. Each egg was wrapped with a damp paper towel and then nestled between crunched up news paper. When I first saw this I thought well these won't hatch. Remember from my first post, I had 12 out of 13 hatch, one was infertile.
Ok, so here is my theory. It has a lot to do with physics. If you typically receive eggs in bubble wrap and packed so tight that nothing will move; think logically here now.....the only thing that will move with the force of any impact will be the embryo and air sac.
Now with the packaging I received, semi-loose crunched newspaper and damp paper towel. I believe upon any force or impact, the still somewhat moveable newspaper will act as a shock absorber and absorb the energy from impact leaving much less energy to reach the eggs.
Thoughts from anyone else here????

 

[Knighstar679]

I just got my first shipment of eggs from Texas. They look good on candling and were packed great. They candled good too. The packing was good in my thoughts as each egg was bubble wrapped but put into packing peanuts so that the impact of any movements seem to be able to be absorbed during shipping. The air sacs didn't look too bad but i am still going to let them rest a day or so. Though it did look like they did some development during shipping, not sure how long i should wait before putting them in an incubator.
Thoughts on that???

I certainly agree with you Rebel some movement needs to happen or all that moves is whats in the egg.