Egg shipping risk?

[cedarpinefarm]

I’ve never had hatching eggs shipped before. I’m curious to hear y’all’s experience and how many were successfully delivered/hatched.

 

[Kiki]

This varies big time. Tooooo many differences.

I've had 100% hatches with shipped eggs and I've had almost none hatch...only 1 hatched in a batch.

 

[sjango]

Similarly to Kiki, I have had really good experiences with hatched eggs and really bad ones. I would say it is a big gamble. I'd suggest using a good incubator and doing plenty of research before trying. I've had over 90% hatch from shipped eggs before and only 3 out of 24 hatch before. I've even had none successfully hatch from a shipment of 12 eggs. In my experience I have never had 100% hatch rate from shipped eggs. Each time conditions in the incubator were fairly similar. Sometimes your only option is shipped eggs but it is important to keep in mind you may not get the hatch rates you want. It is always better to get local eggs whenever possible or drive to get them if it is feasible to do so.

 

[Kiki]

I highly recommend buying and learning an incubator well before even thinking about buying eggs.

 

[cedarpinefarm]

I have been reading up on incubating for months not sure what else to do before buying eggs.

I highly recommend buying and learning an incubator well before even thinking about buying eggs.

 

[sjango]

I have been reading up on incubating for months not sure what else to do before buying eggs.

I think Kiki means you should try the incubator out with non-shipped eggs at least a couple of times before trying with shipped eggs so you can minimize additional variables that might effect hatch rate.

 

[sjango]

Also, I am by no means against buying shipped eggs. Almost all of my Rapanui chickens were hatched from shipped eggs because that was the best option. Certain breeds are rare and the only breeders you can find are far away. And sometimes you're just looking for genetics from a very specific source.

 

[NNYchick]

I have had the same experience as others mentioned only a few to 60%. My hatches with shipped eggs have been better since using brinsea ovation 56 EX, I think it’s because they are held up right and I can adjust the turning frequency in the beginning.
A few rules i follow for myself is
1) I won’t spend extravagant amount of money on shipped eggs, only the amount I’m on with getting nothing from.
2) find the closest person selling and shipping to me. I have not had luck if shipped from across the country- I’m in NY eggs I purchased from TX didn’t even make it to incubator because the did not arrive intact.
3) do your homework. Read reviews, search name in good egg bad egg type FB groups. Sellers offer no guarantee and once incubated there is no way to verify you got scammed with infertile eggs. It will always be blamed on shipping and most likely is the cause.
3) I don’t let myself get to excited until chicks are actually hatching anything can happen to those embryos between day1-21. I prepare myself for nothing and am excited for a 30% (which is the average) hatch rate.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One time I had 5 out of 5 turkey eggs hatch. Another time I had 1 out of 6 turkey eggs hatch. Same supplier packaged the same way and both through the mail. There are so many variables from how the person shipping them handles and packages them and how they are handled in the mail. If they are not pretty local part of shipping could be on an airplane.

One time I picked up eggs locally but set them in the floorboard of my car. They were shaken up pretty badly on those country dirt roads. I hatched 10 out of 30 eggs. That was totally my fault. If I had put them on the seat instead of the floorboard I'm convinced I would have had a much better hatch.