extremely bad experience with gabbard farms hatching eggs!!!

[littlequail21]

i post this not only because i had a Bad experience but because i will Never recommend there company to anyone! a few weeks ago i had a order of One dozen Copper marans hatching eggs $6.95 a egg i ordered a dozen One came broken *wasn't to upset* i had a total of 13 eggs but out of the 12 eggs that had been good only 4 were ever fertile a little upset out of 4 eggs only 2 hatched both with leg problems, now i took my own eggs and also hatched them in the very same incubator so i know this was not a incubator problem this morning one was already dead am trying to help the other one As this happened i sent a letter to gabbard farms on their facebook page and a few hours later i noticed they didn't reply or message me or help or even comment but they delete my post.

Because i did not save the first letter to gabbard farms here is another one and i will try my best to remember how the first one went. only reason i don't have the first one is because Gabbard farms deleted it.

Gabbard farms
am extremely disappointed in your Marans hatching eggs i ordered one dozen and out of the 13 eggs you sent one was broken and only 4 were fertile out of the 4 eggs only two chicks hatched both with leg problems *this was not a Incubator problem since i hatched out eggs of my own in that same Incubator and they hatched out great* one is already dead this morning and the other one am trying to fix it. i understand its beyond your control once you ship out eggs But when i paid $6.95 a egg i expected a better service and when you have more complaints then happy customers *on your Facebook page alone* it just makes your company look bad will Never order from your company again and i will never recommend your company to anyone​

 

[EweSheep]

I am not surprised. Too many people getting burned.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I disapprove of people sending out bad hatching eggs, but I also suspect that your expectations were too high.

The post office is brutal on eggs. No mater how well they are packaged, the post office manages to break some and scramble others. I figure that if you get half of your shipped eggs to hatch, you've had brilliant good luck. It is not unusual to get only 1-2 of the eggs to hatch. Or even none.

Hatching your own eggs at home is not the same as hatching shipped eggs. Your own eggs have not been put through the careless treatment of the post office, nor the wide swings in temperature during shipping. Not starting to grow can have other causes besides the eggs not being fertile.

Hatching eggs are a very expensive gamble. Buying hatching eggs is only for when you can not buy locally and you can't find any other source of valuable birds that you absolutely must have. When you order hatching eggs, you must understand that you are not guaranteed to end up with chicks and you might just be flushing your money down the toilet.

If you buy hatching eggs and end up with a nice hatch, you have been very lucky and the rest of us will celebrate with you.

 

[sandspoultry]

Hatching eggs shipped thru the mail is a crap shoot at best. Their are just to many factors once the eggs leave the seller. We ship alot of eggs and have also bought alot of eggs over the years. I can ship two boxes of eggs on the same day from the same pen of birds and one person gets a good hatch the other not? As a seller I have zero control of the shipping process. We we buy eggs if I get 50% hatch that is about average.

One comment in the OP's post was "not fertile". The only way to tell if an egg is fertile or not is to crack it open and look for the "bulls eye". An egg can be fertile and fail to develop for all kinds of reasons. I understand that not every egg layed is fertile but as long as the seller is spot checking by either cracking some eggs open or incubating then that is all they can do.

If it's any help to you a few things/ tricks we have learned about shipped eggs.

1) Shipping to different altitudes reduces the hatch. We are near sea level and if we ship to the rocky mountain states they always have a lower hatch.

2) Never buy hatching eggs in the heat of the summer, spring is best. Often fall eggs are from birds that have been laying all summer, plus the days are getting shorter and the birds are less fertile - see below.

3) The best hatches come from first year layers or birds that have just molted and started laying again. Birds that have been laying for awhile tend to be less hatchable when shipped.

Hope that helps some.

 

[MnMPoultry]

I have to second the luck of the draw theory. A lot of variables exist for shipped eggs. I have had zero hatch from a batch of eggs from one person and 90% from another person in the same incubator set at the same time. Mostly, they will start to develop and then quit, the only time I doubt fertility on shipped eggs is if I have 0% development.

 

[WaterFowl209]

I think shipped eggs have the worst hatch rate on all the eggs I ever ordered it seems only half of what I ever get make it,perhaps the company needs to better pack them for shipping,it can be very disappointing to lose eggs especially when they are so expensive,it really is like a lottery when incubating shipped eggs

 

[cmfarm]

It may be that they just had a rough time being shipped. I sent some eggs in a swap once on here. I was having 100% fertility here at home but none of the 6 eggs developed for the person I shipped them to.

 

[EweSheep]

As long as I have been on BYC, Gabbards has not been good to alot of people, too many of them are getting NOTHING, even a second batch being sent........not a good track record. Not only that, the mispresentation of the breed or getting the wrong breed or the Ameraucanas ended up as EE's........so on and on. If you look at the past posts, you can see what you are getting. I've got problematic birds that I have hatched that never happened to my other hatchings of the same breed from different breeders. AND yes, she has problems with fertility in her birds........ I was one of her happy customers until I got an infertile roo from her, as goreous he was, but so infertile, no chicks out of the hens...sperm count was almost next to nothing. It could be the breed itself as well, however, he was deemed to be fertile at the time before she shipped him out. The chicks I've hatched out, ended up culled out totally.......wrong crests, crooked toes and crooked back on one.......I was sick about it after watching them developed and had to eliminate ALL of them. From then on, I stick with reliable breeders which they would inform me about the problems but working on weed it out of the line, etc. improve the crests, etc. etc. That is a work in progress. AND she mentioned about having several farms.............something was odd..........

Yes, it is a problem with USPS tossing boxes around, nothing new.

If you want just a variety, not for show, Gabbard can fill the bill for you. Be prepare to spend much more. She also under contract with MPC......... as far as I know.

 

[dawntildust]

I just had the same bad experience with garbbard farm..received 72 eggs...after the 7th day we threw out over 3/4 of them.. hatched only 5 I think the way they are shipped is one of the problems, one sheet of bubble wrap isn't enough...I bought from ebay and all three sellers shipped eggs wrapped in bubble wrap plus the box was filled with b-wrap...and the boxes were NOT marked with eggs...they said that when the boxes are marked "egg" the boxes they sent were damaged in shipping. Maybe sellers could consider this.