Eggs did not hatch

[Equilibrium]

I purchased some eggs from someone whom I believe is ethical. The eggs were sent to me individually wrapped and they were then separated by more bubble wrap and air bags and it was evident the person spent a lot of time lovingly packing the eggs before shipping them to me. The outside of the box was clearly marked live chicken eggs, don't x-ray, this side up, fragile, perishable, protect from heat/cold on all 4 sides. When I opened the box, we were very careful unwrapping each beautiful little egg. The woman who sold them to me sent me 2 extra eggs which was very kind. My little voice tells me this is not the type of person who would have sent me infertile eggs. It's been 25 days, nothing hatched from her eggs but interestingly enough, 6 out of 8 eggs hatched from eggs given to me by a neighbor and two of those eggs were stuck to the egg turner, I found out they were stuck to the turner when I went to remove it on day 18 and.... and those 2 eggs still hatched. One I was able to free up with a few drops of oil but a chip came out of it so I put it back in the incubator hoping for the best and the other never did detach so I put the whole egg turner on a heating pad next to a wet sponge and the chick hatched and literally rolled out of the egg onto a kitchen towel. The chicks are perfectly fine.
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I don't think there's anything wrong with my incubator or how I used it. It doesn't have a fan but I was able to maintain the temps at 99.5 from start to finish save 2 power outages of about an hour each where the temps dropped to 94ish in the incubator before our power went back on. I doubt that would have had any effect on the eggs. Something happened to these eggs on the way from her farm to me. I went to the PO and showed them photos of the eggs when I received them and the box they came in. I got the deer in the headlamps stare. Can anyone tell me what they think happened? I'm going to order from this woman again because I do not believe she is at fault but if there's anything more that could be done to ensure something doesn't happen to the eggs in transit, I'd sure be thankful if someone could tell me what it is. Just grasping for straws I guess.

 

[scbatz33]

First off.....still air incubator should maintain a temp of 101 or so at the top of the eggs for correct incubation.

Secondly, lots of things happen during shipping that can cause eggs not to develop. Or to stop once they start.

I would contact the breeder tell her what happened. Sometimes breeders will offer to replace very bad hatches with new eggs for the cost of shipping or even free.

I have had 0 hatches from shipped eggs. It happens. Better luck next time.

BTW, did you candle at any point?

 

[Equilibrium]

No.... I didn't candle her eggs. I don't have a candler. I did find a thread on making one and will do so. I did call her for help.... with the way she packed those eggs I offered to pay for replacement eggs and the shipping. She did nothing wrong IMHO.... I wouldn't feel comfortable accepting a replacement for the cost of shipping under these circumstances. She seemed to feel they might have been x-rayed. I guess anytime we rely on the USPS.... we're taking our chances that a package is going to get x-rayed which is a bloody shame. You'd think the folk handling these boxes would respect the labeling on 4 sides of a box but I guess not.
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Thank you so much for the comment about the temps. I have a Little Giant incubator and followed the directions that came with the unit. There was no mention of placing the thermometers at the top of the eggs and no mention of increasing the temps to 101 if the fan wasn't purchased with the unit. I'm so lucky that 6 out of the other 8 eggs hatched considering I didn't know to increase the temps when using the unit without a fan.

 

[scbatz33]

you can make a candler super easy. I use a strong flash light from an auto parts store with cardboard over the lamp and duct tape.

My camera isn't so good, but in a dark room you can see veining and all!

 

[Equilibrium]

You've got to be a woman like me..... only another woman would abuse... er uh.... use duct tape like that.

I tried making one with an oatmeal box and we ended up cutting the hole too big. I asked around for a metal coffee can but..... the coffee drinkers say they only come in plastic nowadays which sorta sucks. I'm waiting until we need more oatmeal to try again only this time.... I'll be the one to cut the hole not some hairy legged teenager. That last photo of the egg is really great. Do you have any more like that at different phases of development? I'm going to do this again. I'm going to buy more eggs from the original gal I bought from and I put up a wanted request here to see if I could find someone selling more of the kind of eggs we want. We'll see how it goes for round II when I kick up the temps a notch.

 

[naakte]

for candling i use a coffee can with a black sock

this is a 4 day embryo

this is my LG with a pc fan installed i used 4 beads to hold the fan away from the bator wall

Donna in branson

 

[scbatz33]

You can get metal coffee cans, but it's the cheap coffee(and cheap being a relative term. $7.99 for something you run water through and throw away isn't cheap in my book!)

I actually have one under my sink. Master Chef at walmart comes in a can. It's like $6 bucks. You could buy it give the coffee away. I don't drink coffee- DH does so I save the cans.

And duct tape fixes everything!

 

[naakte]

i did use black tape at first, but found a black sock worked best

 

[scbatz33]

My camera won't take such a clear shot.

 

[justtoni44]

You did not say anything about humidity?or did I miss it.........