Emu eggs... off to a bad start. Questions about ebay seller.

[moonjelly]

I won two emu eggs on ebay on Sunday, April 14th. I paid literally a minute after the auction. I expected they would be shipped out on Monday since freshness is so important, but the seller told me on Tuesday that she had shipped them out at Noon then instead.

I called my post office right away and told them to expect a package on Thursday that I wanted held at the post office to avoid the eggs getting beaten up and shaken on a mail delivery haul all day. I gave them the confirmation number and they said no problem. I told them Thursday, because with them being shipped out on Tuesday they would take two days to arrive. They were coming from California, which is right next door to me and I order a lot of stuff online.

By Wednesday night the tracking still hadn't updated, which is highly unusual. It had been well over 24 hours. I was started to suspect the seller did not ship them when they said. I messaged them and they confirmed that it was for sure Tuesday, so I figured they would be here on Thursday like I figured. Well, Thursday came and went and no eggs. The tracking finally updated and it appeared to me there that she sent them Wednesday.

It's Friday now and I guess because I told the post office Thursday and not Friday they did not hold my package for me. It's on the mail truck to be delivered with the normal mail and it's now April 19th. I'm concerned there's no point in even incubating the eggs because of the delay and the fact that they are sitting in a truck all day. I'm the very last mail stop on the route and I get my mail near to 5:00pm.

What are your thoughts? I'd rather just get the money back from the seller, but I don't know if I have enough cause. I do know there is no way she mailed them on Tuesday when they arrived Friday. That is WAY too long for priority mail from California to Arizona.

Also, I have a question about what to do with the eggs when they arrive this afternoon if I do incubate them. Do you leave them sitting on their side for 24 hours before incubating them? And then leave them sitting on their side without rotation in the incubator for another 24 hours? Or what is the procedure? For chicken eggs, I've been told to do that.

Thanks.


(Sorry for posting this in incubation. I realized this is probably better after.)

 

[The Sheriff]

Incubate them any way. It can't hurt.

 

[1muttsfan]

Priority basically means nothing, they give only a "suggested"delivery date, but priority mail can - and regularly does - languish for much longer. I had a box of eggs shipped last week take a total of 6 days for delivery, the last 4 days traveling around northern Michigan if the usps tracking site can be believed. I would go ahead and incubate them.

 

[moonjelly]

The tracking showed it was accepted on Wednesday and not Tuesday, so I believe they were sent when it was accepted. If not, how could it sit from Noon on Tuesday only to be accepted Wednesday evening?

Do you let the eggs sit for 24 hours before placing them in the incubator?

 

[Yoda]

I let mine sit for 12 hours. If I got them at 5pm I would let them sit til the next morning and place them in the bator for 10 am. As for the eggs being shipped, it really dosen't matter that much if the eggs are fresh. Whether it was a Tuesday or Wednesday shipping one day really isn't going to matter that much. Don't always go by the PO as they are not always correct. I was waiting for live birds to arrive and the PO lost the birds. Now on the website it stated that the birds were accepted on one date but they never arrived because some how they were left on the tarmack at the airport. Seems they missed the plane FOR 2 days! Once I did receive the birds I checked online and all the dates were changed as if they birds were shipped the day before I got them. I even sent out packages from the PO and nothing was recorded like what happened to you but once the package was delivered all the info appeared online.

Back to the eggs - I turn mine every 8 hours: 10, 6 and 2am (or before I go to bed), but you do the schedule best for you. I do not leave them sitting in the incubator so once they go in eight hours later they get turned. Last year out of all the eggs I purchased from Ebay, only one egg hatched and it was from a seller out of Hayward, Ca. If this is the seller then incubate your eggs cause you have a good chance of one hatching

I got 2 from her and I went to weigh one and I dropped it. It bounced on the carpet a couple times but did not break it went bad a few days after that. I broke it open and it did have signs of life in it but that ended when I dropped it. The other did hatch for me. The chick unfortunately broke it's leg coming out of the shed and had to be put down

 

[yinepu]

The tracking showed it was accepted on Wednesday and not Tuesday, so I believe they were sent when it was accepted. If not, how could it sit from Noon on Tuesday only to be accepted Wednesday evening?

Do you let the eggs sit for 24 hours before placing them in the incubator?

that one day won't matter.. I have had emu eggs shipped in from Kansas, delivered on the mail truck and still gotten 100% hatch rate on that batch..
fertility doesn't even begin to drop off until day 10 for emu eggs.. it's more importantly HOW they were handled during transit than being missing for one additional day

during cold weather definitely let them come to room temp before setting (24 hours is a good idea depending on what time of day it was when you got them).. for me my mail usually comes around 10:30 until noon.. so I'm not going to wait up to set the eggs before I go to bed.. so I usually recommend 24 hours just to make life a bit easier.

I turn mine 5 times a day.. but I turn all eggs 5 times a day (parrot, chicken, goose, duck and so on)

 

[moonjelly]

Thanks, they are in the incubator and I've started turning them about every 5-6 hours. I weighed them to start, but I wasn't sure if the tray was calculated in the weight on the scale, so I'm going to take it off and do a check later today. One egg is huge compared to the other, about 40 grams more. They are both very very dark eggs. My temp. is set at 96.0 and my humidity is between 17% and 21%.

 

[Kiril749]

I had 4 emu eggs shipped from California to Boston.......then we had a huge blizzard and lost power for 3 days so my eggs sat waiting for it to come back on. Needless to say, today is day 46 and 3 of the 4 eggs are wiggling like crazy so you never know. Good luck!!!

 

[moonjelly]

I've been tracking their weights and they've both been losing, so I guess they're okay! I feel like their losing weight a little too quickly, so I came back to try and figure out how to slow it down to the target.

 

[Grassman 52]

What are you running the temp and humidity at?