Buying eggs for hatching off of ebay! Do or Don't?

[Jungleexplorer]

Please do not give the MAD BOMBER any hints.... If I were Mail people thats the first box I would X_RAY.....cva34

So, how are egg shippers supposed to keep their eggs from being killed by X-Rays when you think they should not put a warning on the box? What is your solution?

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Okay. I am getting ready to put another batch of eggs in my incubator. My incubator is heated to 99.6 degrees with no water in it and is setting at 1% humidity right now. What is the minimum level of humidity it should be at?

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Found this article and I think this guy is right on about humidity. What to you think?

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Dry_incubation/

 

[cva34]

So, how are egg shippers supposed to keep their eggs from being killed by X-Rays when you think they should not put a warning on the box? What is your solution?

I do not have a solution only A Problem!!! But I know shippers that do not write anyhing for that reason
My personal experience is if the package says nothing its generally in great shape ..If it says FRAGILE or something to that effect its Beat to UP.Its like a signal for them to Beat it...cva34

 

[aveca]

mine get smashed up no matter what i write..wrote nothing on a huge box going to an art show 2 years ago thinking it was something they couldnt possibly break....well they broke it...the show commitee had to call me and ship it back in the peices that they receive it in...

there was one lady in here a while ago that had stickers made up for her boxes, they had a picture of a baby chicken and do not xray live embryo hatching eggs.handle gently..there will alwys be that guy who will drop kick that box , and no one will be held accountable, but it at least looked like the sender made every effort..my vet actually told me write do not xray when i shipped eggs around.they used to hatch rare endangered parrots and other rare fowl ect..some of the eggs traveled in metal cases that looked something like a breif case to prevent smashing for long distance that was how they labled them.especially since they were going through customs and lot of air ports...ours make a breif trip but in some spots they do xray..depending, she said it will kill them, lot of them might start..them quit, it was her suggestion.so that was what we do..

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Update! Well, after 60 eggs (bought off ebay from seven different sellers), $300 and two months; here are the results. .......(drumb roll)..... SEVEN CHICKS! That's $42 a chick.

I think it safe to say that buying eggs off ebay is risky business at best. I did everything humanly possible and followed every rule of hatching to a T. Out of 46, from seven sellers, 6 eggs from one seller hatched (out of 12) and 1 egg from another seller (out of 10). Eggs from three sellers did not even start to develop and only one or two eggs from the remaining two sellers started to develop.

After intense research, experience from people on this forum and excuses offered by the sellers I have narrowed the cause of this massive failure down to these few reasons.

1. Lazy stags.
2. Sterile Stags.
3. Racist Stags (likes some hens better then others).
4. Hens too young.
5. Hens too old.
6. Hens too fast for Stag.
7. Malnourished hens.
8. Eggs were washed.
9. Eggs were too old.
10. Eggs not stored properly.
11. Eggs were x-rayed.
12. Eggs were got too cold during shipping.
13. Eggs got to hot during shipping.
14. Eggs were dropped during shipping.
15. USPS used box for soccer practice because it was marked "Fragile".
16 Eggs were not healthy to begin with.

I am sure there are more, but you get the point. The bottom line is that there are many things that can ruin the eggs before you even get them. No body since the history of artificial incubation has devoted the time an resources to their eggs that I did. My advice is; DON"T BUY EGGS FROM EBAY!!!!

 

[Chicken Coach]

I buy and sell eggs on ebay .I get 50% to 60% hatch and so do most of the people i sell to.But my eggs are never over 5 days old.I do the same thing to let them set for 24 hours and i don't turn them for the first 3 or 4 days.Some people only have a pair or a trio of chickens so the eggs are old by the time you get them.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I am sorry, but everyone of the sellers I bought from claim the same thing. They all have a 100% feedback rating because they demand that you leave feedback as soon as you get the eggs. I contacted the five sellers that had a ZERO hatch rate and they all blamed it on USPS. Being an hatching egg seller on eBay is like being a weather man, you can be wrong 100% of the time and still keep your job, because "Who can predict the weather".

Everyone of the sellers I bought from claimed "Good Hatch Rates", but five of the seven had a zero hatch rate and the 6th only had 1 out of ten. Only one of the sellers had a 50% hatch rate with 6 eggs out of 12 hatching. So you can make all the claims you want in defense of eBay hatching egg sellers, but unless you let buyers leave you feedback AFTER the eggs have hatched, there is no way for you to know what your average hatch rate is. I mean, do you contact your buyers after a month to find out what their hatch rate is? I bet you don't. So how can you make the claim that you made that people that buy your eggs off ebay have a 50 to 60% hatch rate? It is a totally unfounded claim that you have no way to back up. You only say that because you don't want people to stop buying eggs off ebay.

All I know, is I spent $300 on 60 eggs, spent two months and untold time and resources and got 7 chicks. I am very upset! I will never again buy another egg off ebay and that will be my recommendation to any who ask.

 

[cashdl]

I contact all my buyers to find out what their hatch rate is. I also request that buyers email me with their first candeling results. I used to sell on ebay and have a waiting list now so don't need to. I think it would be incredibly unfair to ask someone to wait untill the eggs hatch to leave feed back. I buy eggs off ebay and would not wait to leave feedback because the seller has no control over how I hatch the eggs.

Most people have those little styrofoam incubators that have temp and humidity spikes like crazy. I know because I have four of them and hatched out of them for 5 years. They have to be watched like a naughty toddler at a backyard pool. I now hatch with a cabinet incubator and a cabinet hatcher, I cannot believe the hatching improvement I now see.

I have to say I think most of your comments are valid. Ebay offers sellers anonymity which allows them to ship old eggs, package badly, or plain just not care. Also because you can only leave feedback when the eggs arrive, you are only commenting on their packaging job. Also if you leave a comment, posted in the question section of their ad and say something like don't buy from these people their eggs never developed, the seller has the option of not posting your comment to their ad so no one sees it anyway.

So basically the feedback on ebay is unfair if the seller didn't do their job properly, and the feedback if given later could be unfair if the buyer didn't do their job properly.

Lanae

 

[SierraView]

Shipped eggs are a gamble no matter where you buy. Win some lose lots. I love the gamble with shipped eggs they are exciting. When I get a good hatch rate on shipped eggs its like winning at the casino. I have a jackpot waiting to hatch later this week. Every single egg from Lark Rise olive eggs is growing good, if they don't hatch it's my fault.