Buying Hatching Eggs

[bigblueteach]

Where is the best place to buy fertilized eggs?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

No place, I don’t trust the postal system for hatching eggs. Even the best packages can get damaged by the wrong person

 

[BoundlessLove]

Check locally. Or check FB Marketplace or EBay and put in your zip code and choose your mileage to drive.
I’d drive 100 miles to pick up hatching eggs from a good breeder.

 

[AshVau22]

I use eBay. I read reviews. I just recently ordered 6 Salmon Faverolle eggs. Seller sent 8. All 8 made it to lockdown 7 hatched. One little one didn't make it. I've ordered probably close to 100 eggs this past spring. Seller reviews mean everything. If they don't have between 98-100% positive feedback I don't even bother.

 

[AinaWGSD]

There's no one right answer here and it will differ based on your goals.

Personally I prefer to buy from people I can travel to and pick up in person. Last year I had three hatches from three different sources. One was a "test hatch" to make sure the incubator was working correctly. For that hatch I asked a friend who had a friend with lots of chickens if she had any roosters and drove a little more than 20 miles to pick up eggs from her.

The second hatch was under a broody hen and I was looking for a specific breed, so we drove about 130 miles to pick up eggs from a breeder/small scale hatchery.

The third hatch was another specific breed we were looking for. It took a month or two to find a breeder one state over. We made a weekend of it and visited a friend who lives in that state, about 640 miles round trip.