Getting hatching eggs in winter...

[IggiMom]

I think I might try to hatch out some eggs, or perhaps I will just get baby chickies, in February. I want to get some that will start to lay in summer, when the older birds start to molt.

Has anyone gotten chicks or hatching eggs in Jan.-Feb? I am in West Virginia, and so far, the weather has been VERY cold, but of course, it might break after a while.

I hope.

I just wondered if I would be able to get chicks or viable eggs in these cold months. What has been your experience? I think I want some good egg layers, like for example, RIR's.

Thanks.

Catherine

 

[Ban seabhag]

Catherine, I am in Alaska and have received and hatched eggs in winter. Most of these eggs have come from the lower 48. Most shippers pack well with the weather in mind. My main trouble has been from rough handling, but on the whole I have been impressed with the quality of shipped eggs. I have had very few cracked ones. The hatch rate is more like 40% for shippped eggs , but yours would probably be better, if your found a source fairly close to you.

 

[Karrie13]

I have just set 46 shipped Silkie eggs and I am in Minnesota. Not nearly as cold as Alaska though

! Mine were shipped from Georgia and Florida both were marked very well and my post office handled them with kid gloves. Of course they didn't get the same treatment during shipment. I have some that look like the yolks may be scrambled and some with detached air cells. I set them anyway to see what happens.

 

[IggiMom]

Thanks, guys, for the encouragement. Ok, I will start looking for some nice production red eggs!

It will be fun to hatch them out anyway, a sign of spring when winter is getting tiresome. Which it already is.

Although I feel like a bit of a wuss saying this to someone in Alaska.

Catherine

 

[Ban seabhag]

Quote:
I have a friend in Minnesota and he said it was colder there than here just now. 28 degrees today (that's above 0)

I have the last eggs for the incubator today

I usually have a few with air cell issues from handling, but very few broken ones and only one time, when the mail truck was stopped for hours on the highway due to an accident ( it had to turn back to the P.O. it originated, the highway was closed for 20 hrs.) Did I ever have what might have been freeze damage. It was pretty cold right then.