Advice needed: Should I even bother?

[Tigerjane]

Thanks for all the responses! I set the eggs in the incubator late last night, so we'll see soon if healthy chicks were in them or not. And I learned my lesson not to post prices on here - I had just wanted to lay out all the reasons why my expectations weren't being met. As anyone who's ordered from MPC knows, their shipping costs an arm and a leg. I'll update when lockdown's over

 

[sewchick]

Good luck with your hatch. I buy from ebay so I am not much help. I have had very good luck with egg color. I just bought some black copper marans on there...they were almost black. Gorgeous eggs. 6 eggs for 20 bucks. Not a bad deal if a couple hatch. BCM's are hard to hatch for some reason when I buy them online. I have only got one or two chicks out of each batch I buy but when I hatch them myself I get around 90% hatch rate. I buy from sellers here too and have had very good results.

I have chickens that will lay a deformed egg once in awhile. I think that is normal. Sometimes soft eggs. Course that is my fault for not giving them oyster shells. EE's can be any shade of blue/green. Now if you were buying I would look around for one breed at a time and ask for currant pictures of the eggs you will be getting. Was there a picture of the eggs you were buying? If your buying for egg color you would probably need to buy from a higher end breeder. If you buying PURE Ameraucana's and not EE's I WOULD GET A REFUND. Was the listing for EE's?

 

[Tigerjane]

I got these from mypetchicken, and the breeds were listed as Easter Egger (the eggs they sent me are khaki colored), Blue Ameraucana (one is blue, two are very faintly tinted, one is white), and Black Copper Marans ( only one if three is truly dark brown). I'm kicking myself that I didnt go with a private breeder. The consensus seems to be that it's just late in the laying season, and that's why the colors are off. There were egg pictures, but I believe it was a stock photo.

 

[featherz]

Don't stress on the prices, I have seen MUCH MUCH higher per egg prices on here so I don't think you did too badly. I am not confident enough in my skills or incubator to pay much more than a few dollars an egg, but there are people that pay a LOT more than you did. Set am and let everyone know what you get! (And if they all hatch, I am thinking you won't have done too badly)..

 

[cluckcluck42]

Of course you should hatch them!

My Easter Eggers lay pretty light blue eggs, when I first got them they were laying eggs the same colour as the Ameraucana egg you like. Now much later in the season their eggs are quite a bit lighter. Their babies that are 6 months old and laying are laying nicely coloured blue eggs like their moms in the beginning. Truly, don't judge what will come out of the eggs by the colour the eggs are now. Also the BCM egg that is super dark is a very nice egg, don't worry that the others are slightly less dark. Good luck with the hatch! Next time try a local breeder of course.

 

[Tigerjane]

I candled my eggs for the first time last night! I have no prior experience, and I'm not entirely sure what I saw (used a 100W light bulb in a canister in a darkened room, so not the best set-up), but about 1/3 of them were too dark to see anything, it looked like nearly all of the BLRW bantam eggs are clear/porous, and I could make out veining and an eye dot in just one (out of 21 eggs) - the white Blue Ameraucana egg. I gave them all a sniff check, because I don't want to throw them away until after the hatch date, in case I was wrong about what I saw. I'm REALLY hoping it was just poor candling skills and that more hatch. But if not, I'm already looking up different breeders for day old chicks. Not gonna incubate again - too risky!

 

[jettgirl24]

Don't be discouraged, especially with the dark eggs. I candled my Marans at 10 days and couldn't really see much of anything except for the one that wasn't developing which was clear. I just finished candling them today (day 17, one day til lockdown!) and there's something moving in every last one! Woo Hoo! Don't be surprised or disappointed if you have to toss some... 100% hatches are rare, especially with shipped eggs from what I hear. If you grow as addicted to hatching as many of us maybe you should think about trying to find someone local next time. found someone here on BYC that was about an hour away from me and she agreed to meet up instead of shipping. The hour drive was definitely worth it. Out of 12 only one turned out to be infertile and the rest are developing great!

 

[pfmoore17]

Well, you got them now, go for it. They look like nice eggs. Could be late in the cycle so the egg might be paler than usual.
You got a nice mix and the resultant hens will lay cool eggs. Have fun, chin up and have a good hatch.

 

[Kedreeva]

You said something about the EE eggs being khaki.... from what I understand, an EE layer can pretty much be anything that lays and egg that is not white or brown.... I know the term is SUPPOSED to mean a bird that lays a 'blue' egg, but in the end, blue, green, pink, khaki, and olive are all colors that are laid by EE's (although some people like to be special and call their chickens olive eggers if their chickies breed true to that color of egg)... but that's why they are EE's and not araucana or ameraucanas, who are supposed to lay ONLY blue/green/blue-green eggs- and whose eggs SHOULD be fairly blue if they have any sort of quality. The other variations, pink, khaki, olive... those are all variations of the blue mixed with brown or tan egg layers. This mix nixes them from being called araucana or ameraucana, but does not stop their owners from calling them 'easter eggers' and implying they lay a nice colored egg like you imagined. Sucky, but a good lesson learned about egg buying I guess.

I hope that your hatch goes well regardless, and I hope the chicks perform!