First eggs on the way

[Penturner]

I just read a message from Sharon (T-Rexxx) that my first dozen eggs are on the way. fingers crossed and saying prayers for really good mail handlers. 1 dozen of those itty bitty Serama eggs that lucky for me they could not squeeze in their Incubator. Sharon looked like a great source of top quality birds having several champions in the flock. So top of the line, delicate and difficult in many ways breed for my first hatch. Is there anything I missed in order to absolutely peg the apprehension for this?
If anyone has any tips please share them.
I have a home made incubator that I have been running for the last two weeks. It have it fairly well dialed in after about 5 days of figuring out how to get it all leveled out with the stat and light in the correct positions. I have been making changes to up right up until yesterday when I added two computer fans. I plan to relocate the stat tonight and then live with what I have. if all else fails I can set the incubator up to one arrangement I already know works.
from everything I have read here is what I plan to do
Temp 99.5 with no more variance than 2 degrees.
Humidity at 30 to 40% for 1st 18 days then bump up to 50 to 60%
I will be hand turning the eggs but will be able to do so without opening the incubator.
My incubator is designed so that any adjustments that need to be made can be done without opening it. Unless an egg needs to be removed or some other issue arises with an egg itself. there should be no need to open the egg chamber for the entire incubation.
Ventilation will be in such a way that the fresh air is at least partially heated and humidified before entering the egg chamber.

My greatest concern is having a device that will hold the eggs. I have never seen these eggs and do not know how big they are. I plan to have the settling time after they arrive in order to get something constructed even if it is just a piece of cardboard with holes small enough to hold the eggs. any advice on this issue is more than welcome.

Thanks all and if you are so inclined say a prayer that the eggs make a safe passage.

 

[ra]

Good luck! I too am waiting for my first set of eggs to incubate! They were sent out yesterday, I picked out giant blue cochins! I pray they make it and I get some hatched out! I have a havo-bator 1602N. No turner, so I will have to hand turn.I homeschool my kids so I am home to keep a close eye on them!
Many Blessings,
Adrianna

 

[Penturner]

ra, keep me posted, we could end up being hatching buddies. I also home schooled all three of my children. they are all graduated now and are actually helping me with my bird projects. It's nice to have a team of people I can give individual projects to and they just take off and get them done. I have as many as 4 adults at home around the clock, I suspect the eggs will not be getting left alone very much.

 

[Penturner]

Well, I am hoping the eggs will arrive toady. I have another package coming from texas that was sent the same day as the eggs and I have tracking on that one. It went through the Reno sorting facility this morning. I have a bit of a weird (lazy) postal carrier that tends to not want to make the second trip to my door for larger packages. I have 3 people at my house to shanghai him today.
I have spent the last couple of days trying to get my incubator up and running. I was making one last shot at getting a set up that I have not worked all the kinks out of just yet. basically it was going to be a box that heated and humidified the air and then pumped it into a separate area for the eggs. any problems other than egg problems would be able to get fixed without opening the compartment with the eggs. it is simply to many little details to get worked out to have ready in time. as soon as I had one problem solved the next would prop up. three separate fans that I could not get all of them to stay running (bad electrical connections). So about 7 o'clock last night I finally abandoned it, set it up with the light bulb thermostat and fan set up that most homemade incubators have, turned it all on and had it setting at a fairly stable 100 degrees in about 25 minutes. after setting all night I checked it this morning and it had drifted down to 99.8 at about 4:30 this morning. last I checked it was at 99.6 and I am hoping it stays there. I do expect to have to watch temps mid afternoon as the sun shines into my shop through glass french doors and can cause the heat in the shop to spike up. in the past I have gotten temp spikes int he incubator of 107 due to the sun shining on it. I have had this set up before without the fans and had the kinks worked out of it. Humidity is at 44%. I expect to shut down the incubator at about 2 o'clock this afternoon and scrub it all out. I will then put it back together and let it stabilize for the eggs. if they arrive today they will be set between 6 and 8 o'clock this afternoon.

 

[Penturner]

Eggs Arrive! about 30 minutes ago. I ordered 12 and they shipped 14. I only had about 10 minutes to look them over, they all appeared to be just fine but I happened to pick one up a second time and felt a rough spot under my finger. looking much closer I could see very fine cracks in the shell. a single impact spider web crack covered one side of the egg. I will have to wait til later to give all the eggs a good going over but I really expect this to be an exception. Nice clean but not washed so there is a fleck here and their to show they really came from a chicken, well packaged and very fast delivery. barely 48 hours from Sharon's PM that they mailed until they where unwrapped in my kitchen. Great weather for them to ride around town in and the incubator has held steady all day.
Tiny eggs though, I am never going to get a decent omelet out of these.

 

[Penturner]

well that was short lived. of 14 eggs, 1 was cracked, 6 definitely have broken air cells, 6 I cannot identify an air cell but cannot find an air bubble floating around either. and only one has what looks like an air cell still intact. Keep in mind I am not that experienced with candling.
I did open the cracked egg. the air bubble was right at the point opened the egg which was on the side of the egg. I poured the albumin and yolk into a bowl and it does show a bulls eye that looks like it is still int he early stages as it has not yet separated into the distinct ring with a center spot but is making it's way there. The air cell was ruptured.

so when it is all said and done I think there is a real hope for only 1 out of 14 eggs. I did contact the seller just to let them know the results but I don't really know what to recommend or am I able to identify anything obvious. The only thing I can even start to look at is the eggs where wrapped in paper towels and placed in an egg carton rather than in bubble wrap. it is the only thing I can think of that might have helped and I would not even say that would have been enough. the box was marked fragile in black marker that i doubt anyone handling it even noticed. you need a large bright orange or red sticker. nobody handling packages all day are reading them. but I also am not sure that would make a difference. I am also looking at trying to purchase live birds and not attempt the mailing eggs thing again. I realize going in that mailing eggs is not reliable enough for any seller to be willing to guarantee they will arrive in one piece. I chose to try it anyway but sort of see it as accepting 50% losses if you where ordering chicks.

I may place another order but think I should put together a description of how i require the eggs be packaged. This is on no way a rant against the seller. i didn't see anything wrong with the way they packed the eggs except they did not use bubble wrap and the usps does not handle packages like they contain eggs. Not sure where to go from here. I am not sure I want to even set these eggs if i will end up with only one chick. I will probably set them all cull at 7 days and make my final decision then. maybe one of them will develop.

Anyone ever had an egg with a ruptured egg cell actually hatch?

 

[Penturner]

As it turned out I got a lot of messages saying to set all those ruptured egg cell eggs. So 13 eggs wen into the incubator 36 hours ago. So far so good. I had to give up all my mad scientist set ups for the bator and go with the tried and true light bulb thermostat and fan that most of the home made incubators use. I have not given up on the experimenting I just can't afford for things to go wrong with eggs in the bator. Humidity is at 47% but I am wondering if I should go with the high side on humidity since at least 6 of the eggs I know have ruptured air cells. this means the membrane is broken and the fluid in the egg is exposed directly to the shell. I may candle one of the broken eggs today just to see how big the air bubble is.