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

[sumi]

Boiling hot water? How much do you need?

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

OMG you serious its like solid ice!!! HE HE HE blow tourches eh??

big ol blow torch all ya need lol

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Boiling hot water? How much do you need?

YOUR NOT SERIOUS SUMI!! lol its ROCK SOLID THICK FROZEN hot water will just make a bigger ice rink.... did you ever go outside in the bitter cold and throw a cup of hot water in the air?? it turns to snow instantly!! (pretty cool to do I may admit) oh also cool...... is soaking a few dollar store bags of cotton balls in water and sticking them on a friends car in the middle of winter!!! PRICELESS!!

 

[Sparkypatriot15]

YOUR NOT SERIOUS SUMI!! lol its ROCK SOLID THICK FROZEN hot water will just make a bigger ice rink....  did you ever go outside in the bitter cold and throw a cup of hot water in the air??  it turns to snow instantly!! (pretty cool to do I may admit)  oh also cool...... is soaking a few dollar store bags of cotton balls in water and sticking them on a friends car in the middle of winter!!!  PRICELESS!!

you serious?? Can ground be that frozen?? Does hot water turn to snow when you throw it in the air??? That's awesome!!! I wish I could do that in Georgia!!! :O

 

[karenbrat1]

Not sure what all has been covered before, but here are some tips I got from an experienced breeder and egg shipper.

BTW, there is no way to give special handling to packages going through the mail. Marking them Fragile, Eggs, Top Load Only, etc does you no good. Everything goes into large shipping containers for loading onto trucks and airplanes with other packages of all weights and sizes thrown on top willy-nilly. Then each processing plant they go through they are dumped out onto conveyors and can drop from one level to another, again with other packages landing on top of them. And don't blast just USPS for this, I have watched documentaries on TV showing the exact same thing happening in FedEx and UPS facilities. I bought some used GQF cabinets a couple years ago which had to go UPS as they were too heavy for USPS, and when I was discussing with UPS how to have them packed I was told by them to expect those drops along the route. So make sure you pack those eggs very, very well; good enough to withstand having a box of Brittanicas dropped on them because that could very well happen. The best hatch I ever got from shipped eggs was some sent in a shipping box along with live chickens, that box got better handling because of the live cargo.

Get a GOOD incubator. Believe me I learned this the hard way myself. You're spending a LOT of money on hatching eggs, probably a minimum of $40/dz including shipping. Don't put them in a cheap hard-to-regulate styrobator, do yourself a favor and wait til you can afford a Brinsea Octagon 20 at the very least. (The only thing you will ever regret about buying the 20 is that you didn't spend a little more and get the 40!) And start the incubator several days before the eggs come so you can tweak temp and humidity in advance.

Candling -- my fave method is a strong little flashlight like a MagLite or my new favorite, the TechLite Lumen Master (got at Costco); either before dawn or after dark in a dark room, or me'n'the eggs shut into a dark closet

1. Carefully unpack eggs and set large end up in an egg carton, in the room where they will be incubating, and leave them undisturbed 24 hours to come to room temp and allow any floating air cells to stabilize. If you see hairline cracks you can paint the cracks with two coats of cheap (i.e. thin and runny) clear nail polish.

2. Incubate the eggs in cartons (with holes cut in the cup bottoms for air flow) or egg trays, large end up, WITHOUT TURNING, for the first week. This allows the air cell to stabilize more and gives the embryo a chance to strengthen.

3. Begin turning 45 degrees side to side but still have the eggs large end up in holders, rather than on their sides. This keeps the air cell at the top of the egg. The Brinsea Octagons and most cabinet incubators do that by tilting the whole shelf the eggs are on. If you must do it manually, you will have to prop up one side of the carton or incubator to 45 degrees, and then the other side.

4. Leave the eggs upright in their hole-in-the-bottom egg cartons for hatching.

Good luck!

 

[Sparkypatriot15]

Not sure what all has been covered before, but here are some tips I got from an experienced breeder and egg shipper.

BTW, there is no way to give special handling to packages going through the mail.  Marking them Fragile, Eggs, Top Load Only, etc does you no good.  Everything goes into large shipping containers for loading onto trucks and airplanes with other packages of all weights and sizes thrown on top willy-nilly.  Then each processing plant they go through they are dumped out onto conveyors and can drop from one level to another, again with other packages landing on top of them.  And don't blast just USPS for this, I have watched documentaries on TV showing the exact same thing happening in FedEx and UPS facilities.  I bought some used GQF cabinets a couple years ago which had to go UPS as they were too heavy for USPS, and when I was discussing with UPS how to have them packed I was told by them to expect those drops along the route.  So make sure you pack those eggs very, very well; good enough to withstand having a box of Brittanicas dropped on them because that could very well happen.  The best hatch I ever got from shipped eggs was some sent in a shipping box along with live chickens, that box got better handling because of the live cargo.

Get a GOOD incubator.  Believe me I learned this the hard way myself.  You're spending a LOT of money on hatching eggs, probably a minimum of $40/dz including shipping.  Don't put them in a cheap hard-to-regulate styrobator, do yourself a favor and wait til you can afford a Brinsea Octagon 20 at the very least.  (The only thing you will ever regret about buying the 20 is that you didn't spend a little more and get the 40!)   And start the incubator several days before the eggs come so you can tweak temp and humidity in advance.

Candling -- my fave method is a strong little flashlight like a MagLite or my new favorite, the TechLite Lumen Master (got at Costco); either before dawn or after dark in a dark room, or me'n'the eggs shut into a dark closet

1.  Carefully unpack eggs and set large end up in an egg carton, in the room where they will be incubating, and leave them undisturbed 24 hours to come to room temp and allow any floating air cells to stabilize.  If you see hairline cracks you can paint the cracks with two coats of cheap (i.e. thin and runny) clear nail polish.

2.  Incubate the eggs in cartons (with holes cut in the cup bottoms for air flow) or egg trays, large end up, WITHOUT TURNING, for the first week.  This allows the air cell to stabilize more and gives the embryo a chance to strengthen.

3.  Begin turning 45 degrees side to side but still have the eggs large end up in holders, rather than on their sides.  This keeps the air cell at the top of the egg.  The Brinsea Octagons and most cabinet incubators do that by tilting the whole shelf the eggs are on.  If you must do it manually, you will have to prop up one side of the carton or incubator to 45 degrees, and then the other side.

4.  Leave the eggs upright in their hole-in-the-bottom egg cartons for hatching.

Good luck!

Wow thanks!!! That's really helpful!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

 

[Sparkypatriot15]

Hey everyone, I was planning on starting another incubation next week. I ordered 24 eggs from a local farm. Does anyone want to hatch-along with me?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Not sure what all has been covered before, but here are some tips I got from an experienced breeder and egg shipper.

BTW, there is no way to give special handling to packages going through the mail. Marking them Fragile, Eggs, Top Load Only, etc does you no good. Everything goes into large shipping containers for loading onto trucks and airplanes with other packages of all weights and sizes thrown on top willy-nilly. Then each processing plant they go through they are dumped out onto conveyors and can drop from one level to another, again with other packages landing on top of them. And don't blast just USPS for this, I have watched documentaries on TV showing the exact same thing happening in FedEx and UPS facilities. I bought some used GQF cabinets a couple years ago which had to go UPS as they were too heavy for USPS, and when I was discussing with UPS how to have them packed I was told by them to expect those drops along the route. So make sure you pack those eggs very, very well; good enough to withstand having a box of Brittanicas dropped on them because that could very well happen. The best hatch I ever got from shipped eggs was some sent in a shipping box along with live chickens, that box got better handling because of the live cargo.

Get a GOOD incubator. Believe me I learned this the hard way myself. You're spending a LOT of money on hatching eggs, probably a minimum of $40/dz including shipping. Don't put them in a cheap hard-to-regulate styrobator, do yourself a favor and wait til you can afford a Brinsea Octagon 20 at the very least. (The only thing you will ever regret about buying the 20 is that you didn't spend a little more and get the 40!) And start the incubator several days before the eggs come so you can tweak temp and humidity in advance.

Candling -- my fave method is a strong little flashlight like a MagLite or my new favorite, the TechLite Lumen Master (got at Costco); either before dawn or after dark in a dark room, or me'n'the eggs shut into a dark closet

1. Carefully unpack eggs and set large end up in an egg carton, in the room where they will be incubating, and leave them undisturbed 24 hours to come to room temp and allow any floating air cells to stabilize. If you see hairline cracks you can paint the cracks with two coats of cheap (i.e. thin and runny) clear nail polish.

2. Incubate the eggs in cartons (with holes cut in the cup bottoms for air flow) or egg trays, large end up, WITHOUT TURNING, for the first week. This allows the air cell to stabilize more and gives the embryo a chance to strengthen.

3. Begin turning 45 degrees side to side but still have the eggs large end up in holders, rather than on their sides. This keeps the air cell at the top of the egg. The Brinsea Octagons and most cabinet incubators do that by tilting the whole shelf the eggs are on. If you must do it manually, you will have to prop up one side of the carton or incubator to 45 degrees, and then the other side.

4. Leave the eggs upright in their hole-in-the-bottom egg cartons for hatching.

Good luck!

 

[Fuzzybird]

Quote: I never knew that!!