Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[chicksooner]

oh yes!! I have 3 thermometers and 3 hydrometers and the bator has been running for a few days now at a steady temp The plan is to dry hatch, foam incubator, I don't use vent plugs at all. Humidity should be in the 40's once eggs are added, if something is TOO low then I use a small piece of wet sponge to get it up but shouldn't be the case with around 24 eggs, I hope. Stop turning at day 16 for detached air cells.. lockdown day 18 is 65% humidity with wet sponges again.

They were packaged exceptionally well they had individual bubble wrap, packed in a box with newspaper shavings, packed in another box with newspaper shavings and very well marked with orange/black fragile stickers. There was no damage to the box that I could see, and none were actually burst open. The eggs are from a seller from here on BYC, so I didn't use the notice because I could see how well they packaged their eggs.
Edit: they traveled far, from Gerogia to Oregon, left Monday morning arrived at my door Wednesday morning. I only paid $40, and the box looked fine on the outside so I don't know that I would have a claim?
The other egg package is from California, less distance, so I'm hopeful.

ok thanks! I was thinking I would slowly try to raise the temperature in the bathroom using the heat in the main room from the woodstove. right now the bathroom is closed and the bedroom it's in is closed, so no heat going in there! I can get them slowly over several hours to 70 and 80, possibly even 90 degrees before putting them in the bator, getting closer and closer to the fire room. Sounds funny but it works! I'm deathly afraid of the eggs temp rising too quick and sweating, so I might do this over 8? hours to be safe.

no I'm not sure if it goes to 40.. I have a thermometer that will show the record low from the night that I will leave in there to know for sure, hopefully it doesn't get that low and I'm just paranoid.

The eggs aren't washed, but most of them are very clean only one is soiled.
I did think that one aircell looked particularly large, but it was saddled and from my understanding that can basically cause the air to spread out and poke less into the eggwhite, causing it to appear larger on it's surface? and that is why you have to weigh to see weightloss in those? Not sure if I understand that correctly, or not. Also, they were the freshest the seller has since they sell a dozen every week, and they were laid right up until the day they were shipped, but how many days backwards I'm unsure. My guess is 3 because 3 of the eggs look similar in color and shape and maybe came from the same hen. I will try to get a candle pic tonight. I can candle them in-carton in the bathroom after dark without moving them!

edit: I tried to take candle pics but they came out awful, can't see anything, in carton or in my hand (even though the egg is completely illuminated in real life there is nothing on the camera). they are blue eggs.

Good warm up plan. Don't get them too warm before going in. 70 is good.

 

[loveourbirds]

Quote: i love these comments, while true are misleading.

i intentionally let my incubators drop temperature whenever possible. anything above 95* at night for a couple nights a week is fine, as long as it gets to 99.5* in the daytime. it took me a while to figure this out, but if you keep your incubator's temp to perfect; you will have weak chicks. most of the time people blame temperature fluctuations when its actually humidity. when the temperature is 50* or above i open my incubators 15 or so minutes each day. the cold air makes the chicks kick inside the eggs, giving them exercise and eventually helping them break free from the egg (think of it this way, a hen gets up to eat, drink and make fertilizer). now if your incubator's temp drops every night to 95* your hatch will certainly be low.

ive put eggs in the incubator in early spring, 4 days in had a power failure where the incubator's temp dropped to nearly 50* and still had an 60% hatch. at the end of the second week i've had a similar situation, power failure 55* temperature; this hatch was only about 60% - but 80% of the survivors were pullets. ive also had groups drop into the 80's for nearly 24 hours (around day 16) and pull off a 80% hatch, however the last 10% did have bad legs and were culled. (this is fixable, just nearly impossible for us to spend the time needed for fixing it.)

i have never seen a hen setting on eggs using a thermometer, hygrometer, calender or candler. in nature its kind of common for eggs to get as low as 60* for a couple of hours during the setting period, under 60* is when development stops. if development stops long enough, it kills the chick. i have hens setting right now and its 16* outside, im almost willing to bet the eggs under them aren't 99.5 degrees.

edited to add: i wasnt meaning to pick on anyone here. just explaining that some temp. drop is good, you are right; to much drop is detrimental to a hatch.

 

[Kalalyn21]

Some how I just came across this thread, read the first 67 pages. Holy info overload. A lot of great tips. I tried shipped eggs this spring and had horrible hatch rates, 0%. Have eggs arriving next week, feel more confident this time especially after reading here.

 

[mychicks1313]

Need some advice. Our egg was 21 days on Monday and there still is no sign of it hatching. I have found the hen sitting in another nest (not even on any eggs) which caused the fertile egg to be pretty much ice cold. She has done this about 3 times. Is the egg a loss? How long do I leave the egg in there or will the hen know when it is no longer viable?

 

[chicksooner]

i love these comments, while true are misleading.

i intentionally let my incubators drop temperature whenever possible. anything above 95* at night for a couple nights a week is fine, as long as it gets to 99.5* in the daytime. it took me a while to figure this out, but if you keep your incubator's temp to perfect; you will have weak chicks. most of the time people blame temperature fluctuations when its actually humidity. when the temperature is 50* or above i open my incubators 15 or so minutes each day. the cold air makes the chicks kick inside the eggs, giving them exercise and eventually helping them break free from the egg (think of it this way, a hen gets up to eat, drink and make fertilizer). now if your incubator's temp drops every night to 95* your hatch will certainly be low.

ive put eggs in the incubator in early spring, 4 days in had a power failure where the incubator's temp dropped to nearly 50* and still had an 60% hatch. at the end of the second week i've had a similar situation, power failure 55* temperature; this hatch was only about 60% - but 80% of the survivors were pullets. ive also had groups drop into the 80's for nearly 24 hours (around day 16) and pull off a 80% hatch, however the last 10% did have bad legs and were culled. (this is fixable, just nearly impossible for us to spend the time needed for fixing it.)

i have never seen a hen setting on eggs using a thermometer, hygrometer, calender or candler. in nature its kind of common for eggs to get as low as 60* for a couple of hours during the setting period, under 60* is when development stops. if development stops long enough, it kills the chick. i have hens setting right now and its 16* outside, im almost willing to bet the eggs under them aren't 99.5 degrees.

edited to add: i wasnt meaning to pick on anyone here. just explaining that some temp. drop is good, you are right; to much drop is detrimental to a hatch.

There was nothing misleading about it. Fact is if temp drops every night due to temp drops in a room or no sun in windows for days causing the room to be colder a stryo bator will have a hard time holding temp. I know as I use only stryos. Someday I will have a grown up incubator but until then I watch my room temps. My advice was good advice to someone just starting. I have had several hatches where I have fought temps enough to know this. As a new hatcher gains more experience then your advice will be handy for them. I am going to bed now as my snarky side is coming out.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Well, everyone's knowledge is the sum of their experience, right? I know exactly what you mean, loveourbirds. During my last hatch, I hatched in the foam incubator in tandem with a broody silkie. I wasn't sure how many she could cover, so I was conservative and put the extras in the bator. I noticed the same things you're saying - she would get up off the nest every day and let the eggs cool off, sometimes for up to 20 minutes. Seeing that, I figured there was no way my opening the incubator to candle would have a negative impact. In fact, I was opening it way less than she stood up. Another factor is ventilation. Some people have strategies of adding and removing 1 or 2 vent plugs at strategic moments that they swear works for them. Personally I do not use the vent plugs at all for more ventilation.

I think it's less of an issue early in the hatch, and most of the big "warnings" folks give saying do-not-open are about the lockdown period. For example, half my chicks last hatch came out right on time day 21.. the others waited until day 23-24 and I ended up having to assist a couple of them when their zipping didn't progress. One chick actually pipped and never zipped, it's beak was crusted and dried onto the shell, I assume it couldn't move? Possibly because it was overdue. Possibly because 2 of the 3 chicks I assisted were a little malpositioned (head over wing not under), and they were also very large for their eggs, consuming the air cell (day 23). That chick that died beak crusted onto the shell was one of the last pips, and I question whether opening the incubator 12hrs prior to assist other chicks had caused a sudden humidity drop that killed the chick. Or maybe it was destined to die either way? Surely a mother would have gotten up to eat and drink and poo that day. What I mean is, sometimes people defend a point because it is their experience that it will cause death, just like your experience is that it won't. I don't really know if I caused that death, it's still hazy from here. More eggs.. more hatches!!
Edit: I highly value ALL of your experience and advice, no matter how varied, so thank you!!!

The small bathroom I have my eggs resting in isn't insulated very well, it's an old farmhouse and this was a strange add-on room. This is not the room I incubate in. I incubate in my bedroom (much to my husband's joy on hatch day, LOL) where the temp is a steady 75 and 55% humidity. The truth is, I've never measured the temperature in that cold bathroom at night, but it's always FREEZING in the morning! Tonight, I have a thermometer in there that will show me the record low overnight so I'll know. Outside temp is expected to be 30.

I tossed that cracked egg, and I can't get any good candling photos to come out. Even though the egg is illuminated, nothing shows up in the photo. How do you take good candling photos?

 

[familypendragon]

How do you take good candling photos?

My camera has a setting for fireworks that works great!

 

[rbaker0345]

Need some advice. Our egg was 21 days on Monday and there still is no sign of it hatching. I have found the hen sitting in another nest (not even on any eggs) which caused the fertile egg to be pretty much ice cold. She has done this about 3 times. Is the egg a loss? How long do I leave the egg in there or will the hen know when it is no longer viable?

You should candle the egg and look for movement. I use a small maglite and lock myself in the bathroom. But usually, 25 days is the outside of hatching.

 

[rbaker0345]

i love these comments, while true are misleading.

i intentionally let my incubators drop temperature whenever possible. anything above 95* at night for a couple nights a week is fine, as long as it gets to 99.5* in the daytime. it took me a while to figure this out, but if you keep your incubator's temp to perfect; you will have weak chicks. most of the time people blame temperature fluctuations when its actually humidity. when the temperature is 50* or above i open my incubators 15 or so minutes each day. the cold air makes the chicks kick inside the eggs, giving them exercise and eventually helping them break free from the egg (think of it this way, a hen gets up to eat, drink and make fertilizer). now if your incubator's temp drops every night to 95* your hatch will certainly be low.

ive put eggs in the incubator in early spring, 4 days in had a power failure where the incubator's temp dropped to nearly 50* and still had an 60% hatch. at the end of the second week i've had a similar situation, power failure 55* temperature; this hatch was only about 60% - but 80% of the survivors were pullets. ive also had groups drop into the 80's for nearly 24 hours (around day 16) and pull off a 80% hatch, however the last 10% did have bad legs and were culled. (this is fixable, just nearly impossible for us to spend the time needed for fixing it.)

i have never seen a hen setting on eggs using a thermometer, hygrometer, calender or candler. in nature its kind of common for eggs to get as low as 60* for a couple of hours during the setting period, under 60* is when development stops. if development stops long enough, it kills the chick. i have hens setting right now and its 16* outside, im almost willing to bet the eggs under them aren't 99.5 degrees.

edited to add: i wasnt meaning to pick on anyone here. just explaining that some temp. drop is good, you are right; to much drop is detrimental to a hatch.

I had this revelation as well. I noticed that at the beginning of incubation, my hens will get off and on the nest every day to eat and its only really toward the very end that they get serious about not moving and they have great hatch rates with strong chicks, so I just copy my hens and its a lot less stressful. I had a duck have a perfect hatch in December- talk about temp fluctuation.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

oh yes!! I have 3 thermometers and 3 hydrometers and the bator has been running for a few days now at a steady temp The plan is to dry hatch, foam incubator, I don't use vent plugs at all. Humidity should be in the 40's once eggs are added, if something is TOO low then I use a small piece of wet sponge to get it up but shouldn't be the case with around 24 eggs, I hope. Stop turning at day 16 for detached air cells.. lockdown day 18 is 65% humidity with wet sponges again.

Quote:
That really stinks, did the eggs come packaged well? how far had they traveled and how long in the postal system? was the box ok? Sometimes if its a combined price of shipping and eggs you get up to $50. insurance, if they damaged the box,. a few on here have filed through the USPS. Did you use and adjust Ozexpats Notice for egg shippers letter asking for fresh eggs and how you want them packaged? I love his letter its a great tool to use when ordering!

They were packaged exceptionally well they had individual bubble wrap, packed in a box with newspaper shavings, packed in another box with newspaper shavings and very well marked with orange/black fragile stickers. There was no damage to the box that I could see, and none were actually burst open. The eggs are from a seller from here on BYC, so I didn't use the notice because I could see how well they packaged their eggs.
Edit: they traveled far, from Gerogia to Oregon, left Monday morning arrived at my door Wednesday morning. I only paid $40, and the box looked fine on the outside so I don't know that I would have a claim?
The other egg package is from California, less distance, so I'm hopeful.

Quote: ok thanks! I was thinking I would slowly try to raise the temperature in the bathroom using the heat in the main room from the woodstove. right now the bathroom is closed and the bedroom it's in is closed, so no heat going in there! I can get them slowly over several hours to 70 and 80, possibly even 90 degrees before putting them in the bator, getting closer and closer to the fire room. Sounds funny but it works! I'm deathly afraid of the eggs temp rising too quick and sweating, so I might do this over 8? hours to be safe.

Quote: no I'm not sure if it goes to 40.. I have a thermometer that will show the record low from the night that I will leave in there to know for sure, hopefully it doesn't get that low and I'm just paranoid.

The eggs aren't washed, but most of them are very clean only one is soiled.
I did think that one aircell looked particularly large, but it was saddled and from my understanding that can basically cause the air to spread out and poke less into the eggwhite, causing it to appear larger on it's surface? and that is why you have to weigh to see weightloss in those? Not sure if I understand that correctly, or not. Also, they were the freshest the seller has since they sell a dozen every week, and they were laid right up until the day they were shipped, but how many days backwards I'm unsure. My guess is 3 because 3 of the eggs look similar in color and shape and maybe came from the same hen. I will try to get a candle pic tonight. I can candle them in-carton in the bathroom after dark without moving them!

edit: I tried to take candle pics but they came out awful, can't see anything, in carton or in my hand (even though the egg is completely illuminated in real life there is nothing on the camera). they are blue eggs.


I think you have this in the bag, you already read the article and know to keep referring to it, just keep the eggs in the room where u want to incubate and I will assume its at least 65-70 degrees? they shouldnt sweat after acclimation at all. Dont fret on candling, let them alone until set and then sit on your hands then as well! with those air cells less messing with them the better you will be. I dont like to say this but for some reason it has come to mind, make sure you have a backup plan if you loose electric and if you have extra room in the bator add bags of water or bottles so if it goes out it at least has a full bator full of heat to keep it going until you get generators or whatever set up! Have no clue why I am thinking you will loose electric! I dont with it on your though! lol Stick with us and ask away, thats why we are here! plus we have all become good friends in the proccess!! Welcome to the thread!