Buying Hatching eggs through the mail

[jerryf]

If I buy 12 hatching eggs and have them mailed to me, can I expect fair success on hatching some chicks? Do you have good luck most of the time, ois it worth it or a disappointment?

Thanks
Jerry

 

[gabrielle1976]

It really depends on a lot of things like how close they are will they be proccesed once shipped on one truck then deliverd or will they travel cross country. Is it hot out side if its super hot it effects the eggs so does freezeing temps. Did the person who packed up the eggs pick fresh clean eggs and package them extreamly well or are they old eggs or did they just get tossed in a box with some newspaper or shaveings. Then there is the fertility of there chickens and the temps and humdity and everything in your bator.
I had one button quail hatch out of 50 + eggs I never get great results but I usually get 25% as an rough avrage. If you want 6 chicks I would shoot for 18 or so eggs at least. Maybe you will have better luck then I have had.

 

[Barko]

I am doing my first batch of shipped eggs now. My shipper packaged them great. It looked like post office handled them well. Box was in very good shape, box was marked fragil hatching eggs all over the box. I let them set for 24 hours before putting in Bator. I am at day 11. Oh I ordered 12 eggs also, received 14. I candled at day 7, had 5 eggs that are developing, 2 eggs had blood rings,1 egg looked like a day 3 quitter. I think a lot has to depend on how the post office handles your eggs. There are lots of threads on post office handling, most are not good.

crossing fingers the rest make it. What I have read is if you have mail order eggs you will be lucky to get 50%, so I would say 25% is a good number.

 

[Danielle2017]

My first time I had 15 button quail eggs. They were packed great, no problems with the post office or anything. I ended up with 10 hatching and no problems. (the other five - 2 looked like they were not fertile, 2 were early quitters, and the last one didnt make it out of the shell but fully formed). I now have duck eggs in the incubator. I had 6 shipped to me. The post office crushed the box! Two were cracked so I had to toss them. The other four went into the incubator. One didnt develop, and the other three go on lock down tomorrow night. They are all growing great. Hopefully all three will hatch!! I also had four peafowl eggs shipped to me this week. All four made it perfect without being damaged in the mail. I will candle those this weekend. Hopefully they are all doing good!
So in all, my experience with shipped eggs has been what you would expect. It's a gamble, but I feel like that's the chance you take.

 

[Marty1876]

I buy many hatching eggs.

If they wrap each egg individually, and then package individually, and pack well cushioned on all sides, and in between each egg, shipped pointy end down, the results were always much higher, even with shipping. I've sometimes had 90% hatch rates. However, if they just wrap each egg in a napkin, and put it into an egg carton and stick it in a box, your gonna lose eggs en route, and probably suffer some scrambling, because the eggs can move. Also, poorly packed eggs are subject to greater temperature fluctuation, which also lowers things. I've had 0 eggs of 6 hatch, or 1 of 18, or 22 of 24, it really depends.

This is the right way to get eggs if you want rare varieties, or special birds. If you have good incubating techniques (they are listed here at BYC - go read the Hatch Day is Today history, and learn a great deal), an accurate thermometer, and a way to measure humidity, you'll be fine. In the end, its up to you to make every viable egg hatch. I will definitely keep hatching, as for me it is more cost effective. We have many birds, but I prefer small amounts of each breed. Excepting my duck egg production flocks (which provide the hatching eggs for themselves) I rely on shipped eggs for my 4H kids.