Ebay eggs

[Kscott45]

Hello Folks,

I bought some eggs off ebay and thought I would share my experience with you all. I bought some Barnevedler, Black Copper Marans and some Serama, all the eggs were put in the incubator at the same time, so same hatch date, same temperature, same humidity. I just want that to be clear all conditions were the same for all the eggs. And when they arrived they were so cold I thought for sure I wouldn't get any to hatch. Here's a list of what I bought and the results.

9 Barnevelder eggs bought from bellamichella she sent 10 all 10 hatched =100%
7 Barnevelder eggs bought from rockinpaints all 7 hatched = 100%
14 Black copper Marans from hthp2006 3 hatched, 1 nothing, 10 feather but dead in shell
15 Serama's eggs from ginny1230 she sent 18 1 rotten and half empty, 4 died early in development, 13 nothing formed at all.

With the conditions all the same and eggs being shipped during very cold weather, I really wanted to praise bellamichella and rockinpaints for the quality of there hatching eggs. I got 100% hatch from both sellers of Barnevelder eggs, I've wanted Barnevelder for my little backyard barnyard for 2 years and so please that I have 17 healthy chicks and so pleased with both sellers of Barnevelder hatching eggs, that I wanted to share my results with everyone to help anyone after some nice Barnevedler to know a good source for hatching eggs.

I wont dwell on the failed eggs, just sharing my experience, the good and the bad.

Hope this helps anyone in there decision on were to get good hatching eggs and were not to buy.

I do have 20 nice chicks so I'm please.

Thanks for reading.

 

[trailchick]

Kscott, how long did yours remain in transit
& how far did they travel?
How was the packing in the better results?
Congrats to you for those shipped eggs that get
100% hatch!!!

I also just hatched 3 different batches of shipped eggs.
I have 1 more batch expected to hatch next Friday.

All the eggs were in transit for 4 days mostly during pretty mild
winter weather. Since I am 200 miles from Denver, CO they take
1 1/2 days from there to get to me.

10 lav orp ordered- rec'd 12= 2 had rupt'd air cells. 6 hatched, 1 I had to
cull because of severely splayed leg, 5 left healthy.
6 hackle ordered- rec'd 7= 4 hatch healthy

& thrilled with the colors that hatched!

15 lav orp ordered- rec'd 20= 4 have hatched,
11 now 1 day overdue (at least 1 still peeping)

12 ordered, 14 rec'd= 5 rupt'd air cells, 4 did not develop,
5 still viable.

I still will be ordering a couple of more times
since I live a sparcely populated area &
specialized breeds are difficult to obtain
especially if you dont want hatchery
birds.

 

[Jed]

I have a dozen RIR eggs and and a dozen White Leghorn eggs on day 7 in my homemade incubator. I purchased both from the same seller on ebay. I live in northern Indiana and the eggs shipped from Alabama. The eggs were well pack and all but one arrived in perfect condition. I candled yesterday and 6 WL showed obvious development. It was hard to see much in the RIR eggs.

 

[Kscott45]

I live in Illionios, and the eggs came from FL, NC, AL, TX the were 3 days in transit except for the Serama"s they were 5days in transit. I to live in a area were rare breeds are not raised, so shipped eggs are the only option. Chicks that die in the shell just before hatching can be caused by eggs stored to long, and other conditions but for me to get 100% hatch from 2 different sellers and then not so good from the other 2 sellers I both from, at the same time just indicates to me there must be a quality difference in the eggs I received. I just think if we all share are buying info and hatch rates just helps to insure a better chance at getting a higher hatch rate for our dollars spent. I really want some Serama's and they only way were I live is to hatch or have live birds shipped, I have been hatching out my own stock for over 30yrs and enjoy it greatly, and I'm still learning. I open all my eggs that don't produce and 13 of the last serama eggs weren't even fertile. So sharing information on good seller of hatching eggs will just help at a chance for success.

 

[Patchesnposies]

I would say that if you bought ALL of the eggs from the same seller then you would have reason to wonder about the discrepancy in your hatch.

Since they came from various different places, you have no way to know what happened while they were en-route. Maybe one of your "bad" hatches happened because that set of eggs was x-rayed or jostled or sat somewhere too cold. You never know.

Serama's in and of them selves are notoriously difficult to hatch until you figure out YOUR incubator and set up. They typically hatch out a day or even two earlier than large fowl eggs, too. They carry a lethal gene that will also mean a certain percentage of them will die after pipping. They require slightly higher temp through-out and often a bit more humidity at hatch.

I have bought eggs from all over the US and have had everything from 100% hatches to total duds. I have also shipped eggs all over the US and have had folks have perfect hatches to nothing. I didn't do anything different with the eggs during collecting or shipping.

There are so many variables once they leave my house to their destination, and that is the reason most sellers will put a disclaimer saying they cannot guarantee the buyers hatch.

In the past, my policy has been to replace eggs for someone who writes and says they had a zero hatch, because I truly want that person to end up with some of my birds. If they have a zero hatch the second time, I figure it is "user error". lol

At any rate, that is the nature of purchasing eggs. Some hatches are going to be great....and others....not so much.

My two cents!

 

[chicks73]

Kscott45, I am new to this site (this is actually my first post) and have spend the last two days reading trying to find the answer to a question I have and I think you might be able to answer it. I just bought my daughter an incubator for Christmas and we are doing our first hatch. I ordered eggs from a breeder and when I candled them 2/3 of them were bad. 27 eggs to start with and have only 9 left. So my question is how can you tell if an egg was fertile to begin with? I cracked open 4 of the eggs and they didn't look fertile at all. I did not see the blastoderm (bullseye) that you would normally see in a fresh eggs. Can you see this in an incubated egg? I just want to know if the eggs I was sent were ever fertile. I understand that breeder cannot control handling during shipping but it's not fair if they were never fertile to begin with.

 

[Kscott45]

I agree it's not right if they guarantee fertile eggs.If you crack open an egg and there's no white spot on the yolk, it was never fertile to start with, so there's no chance with those eggs to begin with. I have a 150 lumen light I use to candle with and I can't see the blastoderm, so you have to hope the eggs you receive are fertile or at least I high percent are, contact the breed and see if they will offer replacements, 9 out of 27 is not a good rate and they should adjust there roo to hen raito or replace there roo. That's kinda is what my post is about, I understand all the varibles when buying eggs but when they guarantee fertile eggs they should be at least 90% fertile, the breeder I got my serama's from 12/18 were dud's, that didn't give me a very good chance to get a hatch from the start. But the 2 Barnevelder breeders I bought from were both 100%. So my post is just share info on breeders that are on there A game with the management of there flocks and the quality of the eggs they sell. Hope you have better luck in the furture.

 

[2hot2chicken]

Its not just ebay but on here as well. I have ordered eggs and got a mix of 3 breeds from 1 seller. of them 1 breed which I got 4 of and they were completely unfertile and I got 2 eggs out 9 to develop at all. The rest were clear and not fertile upon opening. I pm'd the seller 2 times and they have decided to ignore me. I was not even asking for replacments as I didn't want to pay the shipping again for probably infertile eggs but they could have at leased acknowledged me and an appology woulda been nice. I also had some shipped and due to what I think was very sloppy way of packaging, (they were able to move around a lot in the box), 2 of 12 eggs were broken and the rest had detached air cells so I am sure they got thrashed around in the box. I pm'd the seller and they have yet to get back to me after almost a week. I am just chalking it up as a loss. I have not candled but I am not expecting much from them. The best service I have gotten was some silkie eggs I recently ordered off ebay. The box was dented a bit and had 2 broken eggs and if none of the rest hatch she is willing to replace them for shiping cost for me.
When ordering eggs you will run into it all either old eggs, frozen eggs, infertile eggs, good customer service and bad. Its just the nature of the business unfortunatly. What counts the most is how it gets handled on both ends. Just my 2 cents