Day 22 or 23...should I give up?

[mkr]

Yes, I got them in the mail from McMurray. I had lots of friends in MT who raised chickens and swore by McMurray so I figured if I followed the directions they sent I'd be pretty well set. Honestly though, I haven't been super thrilled with the experience in general...some cracked eggs on arrival, inconsistent customer service, and the 'brooder' they sent is a rabbit cage that I've had to totally retro-fit to keep my four little guys from getting stuck in the wire structure. Maybe next time I will try to find eggs locally. I don't know, any other opinions on mail order eggs? The kids love this project, I will do it again.

Plus if no more hatch I will probably be ordering some female chicks to keep. Just got to clear it with the neighbors--I live in DC, but have a very large yard for the city. Any opinions on the best hatchery to order from?

Oh, and I did candle them today. 8 of the 10 look well developed to my (admittedly untrained) eye. 2 of them probably stopped growing midway and I missed it the last time I candled them. Some of them do have weird spots on the shells when you hold the candler up to them. Thoughts?

 

[mkr]

Also, just something hilarious to share so it's not all gloom and unhatched eggs; my four little guys seemed like they needed something to do in the brooder beside peck at each other, so remembering how much they seemed to enjoy kicking the other eggs around, I put two (clean) ping pong balls in with them. Watching them push and chase the balls is ridiculously funny!

 

[Bengalcats1]

Quote:
Did you happen to receive these eggs in the mail? If so, you may be done.

I know there are folks here that have successfully hatched mailed eggs, but I have never received any eggs that hatched. Primarily because the the air sac was scrambled and did not unscramble after sitting. Who knows if they were even fertile.

Ive gotten eggs thru the mail as well as many people and had no probs

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
I would expect that your eggs from McMurray would not have been cracked. That is disappointing. I happen to like McMurray. I have had some disappointments, but they always tried to correct any problems -- that means a lot to me.

In the future, if there is someone local, I would definitely recommend utilizing the source closest to home. I have always supported any classroom or home school group that wants to hatch. I will supply eggs and an incubator. I gave fertile eggs last night for just such a classroom project. Curiously, some schools around here are not allowing chickens to be hatched in the classrooms for "health reasons". Whatever . . . political correctness and ignorance going too far . . .


My suggestion when you want to try this again, post a request here for donated eggs (prefer NPIP certified eggs) and post a request on Craig's List. I'm sure you can get someone to step up, cheerfully!



For fun . . . I've donated rooster sperm! Uh huh, yep, that's right, I said I'd donated rooster sperm. A mother who works in cancer research and a daughter who was working on a science fair project wanted to try external fertilization of an egg. They felt that if they could accomplish this, they could utilize this "technique" to study the fertilization as it happened and the subsequent development of the embryo to make advances in cancer research. The specifics, I don't remember. What I do remember is how fun it was helping them and discussing the possibilities.

They were not successful, but they had difficulty extracting the rooster sperm. They used a technique that is similar to pumping water. (I was not able to help them due to an injury.) So, they had very little sperm to work with to inject in the embryos. With more sperm, they may have had more success. I'd rather like to work with them or anyone else interested to try this again.

What a fascinating conversation you could have with your students . . .