Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[aliciaplus3]

Best of luck!
I think when doing shipped eggs it's best to order from someone as close as possible, I broke that rule this last time, and I don't think any of the Buckeyes in the bator now are going to make it. I am not holding my breath for the 8 left out of my assorted eggs that are in lockdown now.... sigh

 

[ohgoodnessguineas]

I'm so sorry you had a rotten experience with shipped eggs. I had a very positive experience on eBay. Paid reasonably for one dozen guinea eggs, got 14 and 13 hatched. Packaging was excellent. I am sharing a link to the eBay user I bought from.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-12-ext...761352?hash=item3d710e3448:g:ewYAAOSwl4Va12mL

Best of luck next time.

Thanks so much!!! I'll probably need this from the looks of it!!

 

[RainForestBird]

Hi,
I noticed your incubator is the same one I bought on Ebay from a Chinese seller that shipped from a warehouse in New Jersey. I did not have good luck with this incubator either, in fact my experience with it almost made me give up on incubating eggs altogether. I switched back to my old hovabator and my hatch rate improved greatly. I only hatched a couple of chicks with the clear plastic top incubator which is not suited for larger chicken eggs and even some smaller eggs fall out of the turner every time it turns.

I have eggs on day 4. It's my first time with shipped eggs. 12 are French Black Copper Marans eggs and 12 are white leghorn eggs. I live in Illinois. The Leghorn eggs came from Louisiana and the Marans eggs from Missouri, but both were ordered on the same day and both arrived two days after ordering. Last night it was storming and the power went out for around an hour, but I think they stayed warm enough. I shined a light on some of the leghorn eggs in the dark without taking them from the incubator or touching them at all and I think I could see a blood ring on one already, though I can't be sure because it's way early in incubation and it was nothing close to a proper candling.

Wish me luck!

View attachment 1515258

 

[LaurEliz]

Hi,
I noticed your incubator is the same one I bought on Ebay from a Chinese seller that shipped from a warehouse in New Jersey. I did not have good luck with this incubator either, in fact my experience with it almost made me give up on incubating eggs altogether. I switched back to my old hovabator and my hatch rate improved greatly. I only hatched a couple of chicks with the clear plastic top incubator which is not suited for larger chicken eggs and even some smaller eggs fall out of the turner every time it turns.

I have hatched in this one before and had a pretty good hatching rate. I do agree that it isn't the best though. I have a hard time getting the top to close completely sometimes. I do have plans on investing in another one though because I have noticed the flaws in this one.
Thanks for your input, and I'll definitely look into the hovabator!

 

[Morrigan]

I have eggs on day 4. It's my first time with shipped eggs. 12 are French Black Copper Marans eggs and 12 are white leghorn eggs. I live in Illinois. The Leghorn eggs came from Louisiana and the Marans eggs from Missouri, but both were ordered on the same day and both arrived two days after ordering. Last night it was storming and the power went out for around an hour, but I think they stayed warm enough. I shined a light on some of the leghorn eggs in the dark without taking them from the incubator or touching them at all and I think I could see a blood ring on one already, though I can't be sure because it's way early in incubation and it was nothing close to a proper candling.

Wish me luck!

View attachment 1515258

Good luck! They are so pretty.

 

[RainForestBird]

The plastic top is really bad it keeps popping open, then the temperature is not evenly distributed based on the readings I got with a digital thermometer probe I put at different points in the incubator. The Hovabator is not great, I had a better hatch rate with the cheap plastic incubators with the yellow top, but they only lasted for a few hatches and then couldn't hold an even temp and humidity. I think the plastic ones are better for duck eggs because they are more humid. I reported the flawed plastic top to the seller on Ebay and then to Ebay but I see they are still being sold, for more money than they were before. I asked for a refund eventually and got it because I just couldn't get it to work, especially with standard size chicken eggs. I'm glad your experience wasn't as bad as mine. I feel I wasted more than three times the money (for shipped eggs) that I originally put into the incubator and I was not a happy camper!

I have hatched in this one before and had a pretty good hatching rate. I do agree that it isn't the best though. I have a hard time getting the top to close completely sometimes. I do have plans on investing in another one though because I have noticed the flaws in this one.
Thanks for your input, and I'll definitely look into the hovabator!

 

[LaurEliz]

The plastic top is really bad it keeps popping open, then the temperature is not evenly distributed based on the readings I got with a digital thermometer probe I put at different points in the incubator. The Hovabator is not great, I had a better hatch rate with the cheap plastic incubators with the yellow top, but they only lasted for a few hatches and then couldn't hold an even temp and humidity. I think the plastic ones are better for duck eggs because they are more humid. I reported the flawed plastic top to the seller on Ebay and then to Ebay but I see they are still being sold, for more money than they were before. I asked for a refund eventually and got it because I just couldn't get it to work, especially with standard size chicken eggs. I'm glad your experience wasn't as bad as mine. I feel I wasted more than three times the money (for shipped eggs) that I originally put into the incubator and I was not a happy camper!

I also have noticed that the temperature is not evenly distributed. I move their positions around in the rack occasionally to try and combat that. I remember when I first got it the directions were in fairly poorly translated English and I had to do my own research and kind of guess about what to do with some of it. I was very uncertain for the first few days when I used it. Now I can see perfect development in some of my white eggs and maybe traces of development in some of my lighter marans. Hopefully it'll continue going well.

I'm glad you ended up getting your refund. It's such a bad time when you pay for shipped eggs, the quick shipping, and spend all the time on taking care of them and get a bad hatch.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Ok I am calling it.... I managed to hatch 1 ameraucana and 1 red star out of 24 shipped eggs... I will try to get pics tomorrow.... I am 99% sure the red star is a cockrel. Witch is ok I was looking for a good rooster to add egg production to my later flock so not a loss
Lol

 

[aliciaplus3]

Here are the 2 babies and a turkey

 

[Rebel58]

Well here goes...... my Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and Mille Fleur d'Uccle went into lockdown yesterday morning and this morning I had one external pip already. Hopefully when I get home from work I will have a new hatch or two. 12 shipped and 11 viable on day 14. Here's a pic of my one and only silkie that survived and hatched. It's name is Frizzie. So now my 2 month old silkie, Fergie will have a buddy.