Thank you n8ivetxn, others have said the same thing to me about the araucana eggs. It appears that I will be ordering pullets and cockerals in my "spring future."I didn't know before I ordered eggs though. I bought one set of eggs on ebay from a breeder and read through her reviews. She had quite nice reviews with several people waiting till hatch to give their review. Several said their eggs hatched. Also, she breeds with a tailed and a rumpless araucana. But I thought if I could at least get a blue egg even if it has a tail I'll be fine. I'll just order a few trios in the spring.
My second set isn't a breeder but they got their chickens from Lanae Cash. Very nice looking little flock. I want a blue, black and white trio and a red and white pair/trio to start with.
Sorry about your $400. You probably could have gotten a nice trio and shipped for that. Sounds like you're doing great developing you're flock. Good luck with you're new arrivals. Don't forget to post some pictures for us.I love to look at araucana pics. Just sit and drool and then promptly go clean my phone. lol
Almost forgot. Do you mind if I ask why you set to 35% for humidity? Just want to learn. Thank you again for your response. Huggs, JuJu
I've wanted Araucanas for a while and I just couldn't wait any longer, so I thought, they can't be that much different than any other eggs....well, I think just shipped eggs in general are a bad start. Yes, I got 2 sets of eggs off ebay, Gary Ramey and Tammy Thomson, both sets were wrapped nicely and had good reviews posted. The other set, I ordered directly from the breeder, Edd Sheppard.
I want some Cash Duckwings!!! I've been meaning to email her, but I thought I'd wait a minute and see how these chicks turn out first....
You're correct, for $400 I could've gotten 4 or 5 really nice birds to start with, oh well, hindsight..... I just couldn't wait, you know how it is
In regards to the lower humidity, after reading posts on the hatching thread, it seemed to me the best way to hatch would be the "dry method" where you start with a low humidity, to help draw down moisture in the eggs. People seem to have much better hatch rates using dry method. You just start out with humidity between 25 - 35% and then bump it up to about 65 or more on day 18....but, in any case, watch the air sac development (when candling) and adjust your humidity as needed...