Buying Hatching Eggs?

[Birdman18]

Quote:
So theirs no way of ensuring they dont get scanned so many times?

 

[Lensters]

There seems to be a lot of factors on the hatchability of shipped eggs. Some breeds/lines travel better than others. What PO and postal distribution centers they go through makes a big difference. As does the weather in the parts of the country that they are traveling through.

My advice is only buy eggs if you can't get chicks, don't spend more than you can afford to lose and don't buy on impulse. Most big breeders can ship chicks, most fly by night people don't want to bother with the NPIP certification so only ship eggs (said the hatchery owner still awaiting his NPIP certificate). People shipping eggs are usually breeding hatchery stock or cull birds (this is happening big time with Marans right now). So it all boils down to, do your homework, know what you are getting and what it is worth. This includes a little knowledge of the breed standard if you want something more than a "yard ornament" (I have nothing against yard ornaments, I own a couple of them and have a couple more coming later this summer). The people that advertise a lot have to pay for the advertising out of their sales so figure that in as a "convenience cost". The best breeders have all the orders they can handle without advertising so you have to spend some time searching them out and being patient while you wait your turn.

 

[evonne]

i live in las vegas,
with eggs coming in to me, i'm 0/40+ .....
but jan or feb i sent eggs to florida, she put 28 in the incubator, and hatched 27....
all the eggs were within 4 days, in fact some of them had been laid within an hour of being packed up....
the usps took 4 days to get the eggs to her... and the weird part is, it took them a day and a half to get them from the main to her in what mapquest said was a 4 hr drive... lol... but she had a great hatch rate on those...
as far as the scans, they're talking about scanning the tracking bar on the label... how many hubs does it go through to get from point a to point b..... most of the sorting process is automated now.. someone tosses boxes onto a conveyor they get scanned and sorted and dropped anywhere from 12" to 4'-5' off the conveyor belt and into a bin that then gets rolled into somewhere else to repeat the process...
a big city to a big city is not going to have as many stops in the middle as a small town to the big city to the otehr big sity to a medium town then out to the small town...

i think health of the parent chickens plays a big role too... a healthier chicken will lay a healthier egg....

like they said, don't expect much, and don't spend money you can't afford to lose.... i would not try to have $50 BCM eggs shipped... i already know somewhere along the way boxes are just getting too juggled.... i'm lucky that all the ones i tried to have sent were parts of trades and swaps so all i paid was shipping...

check craig's list and see if anyone is selling hatching eggs, or chicks.. ifhtey have chicks, they might be willing to sell you hatching eggs if you want the hatching experience.. also, post an ad of your own saying you're looking for eggs... maybe someone who's browsing for a horseshoer will see it and go "oh.... i have some eggs i can sell"...
check the listings for any town you'd be willing to drive to also... say you would be willing to spend a total of $30 for eggs and shipping.. you could spend that same money in gas to drive an hour or 2 and have eggs you can be reasonably sure don't have shaken chick syndrome..
there's usually bulletin boards at the feed stores too....

good luck finding your eggs and getting them into the bator safe and sound...