Buying hatching eggs, how many unfertilized is normal?

[Rockporters]

I bought a dozen hatching eggs from someone on Craigslist. $20, and 100% were fertilized.

I bought 2 dozen (received 28) from a show/breeder. $100, and only 56% were fertilized. With 2 quitters, I only have 16 out of 28 eggs going into lockdown this weekend.

When buying hatching eggs, approximately how many fertilized eggs should I expect to receive per dozen? I’d like to have a better idea of how many I should buy next time. Thanks!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Are you basing fertility on whether they started to develop? Were they shipped?

 

[Rockporters]

Are you basing fertility on whether they started to develop? Were they shipped?

Yes, I guess I was basing it on whether they stayed clear or had development. 16 of the eggs were picked up in person (11 developed, 2 of those recently quit), 12 of the eggs were shipped (7 developed)

 

[SunHwaKwon]

With shipped eggs you can't use that as an indicator, really. The egg could be scrambled or x-rayed or otherwise damaged to where it can't develop even though it was fertile. With shipped eggs, I generally buy 4x the number of chicks I'm hoping for, hoping for a 50% hatch rate with 50% of those (usually fewer) being females.

 

[Rockporters]

With shipped eggs you can't use that as an indicator, really. The egg could be scrambled or x-rayed or otherwise damaged to where it can't develop even though it was fertile. With shipped eggs, I generally buy 4x the number of chicks I'm hoping for, hoping for a 50% hatch rate with 50% of those (usually fewer) being females.

Good to know. I had hoped to pick up all the eggs, but they ended up needing a few extra days to collect the second dozen. So, I was only able to pick up the 16 in person.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

That's a tricky question. I ordered 6 Ayam Cemanis from someone they sent 6 and only 2 were fertile, one ended up being an early quitter so I got 1 chick. But... I ordered 10 eggs of 2 breeds they sent a couple extra and I had 9 hatch out of each so 20+ eggs and 18 babies hatch. Its really one of those things where you look for positive feedback from customers and don't count your chickens before they hatch.