Hatch rate of shipped eggs?

[coopist]

I've bought so many shipped eggs, I can't even remember the details on all of them at this point

But I can honestly say that out of all of them, maybe 30 or so shipments, just guessing, I've only had one that produced 0 chicks. It was from a woman two states away who sells Brahma Bantams, and I ordered from her again

, and I got only one chick out of that order. Her eggs seem to be old. I did get a package from across the country that the PO had creamed, utterly. I don't count that one. Seller replaced half the shipment, which was very nice of him. I bought more from him later and have recommended him to a lot of other people. Okay so average hatch rate on shipped eggs, hmm, I'm going to say around 45-50% overall. Like speckledhen, I'm happy if I can get one good pullet out of a batch of shipped eggs. The purpose for me is usually to get a bloodline that I wouldn't otherwise be able to get.

 

[dutchman]

My frist hatch attemp went fairly well. I set 14 eggs from Double R and 8 hatched , thay are about 3 months old and doing fine. On my second try, not so good. I set 12 from Ideal and after candeling on days 7 and 14, seven were clear. And the other 5 died in the shell. When I try again I going to find some CBLB Dutch from a breeder instead of a hatchery.

 

[Struttn1]

I just ordered turkey eggs from two different sources. The first order was for 7 Royal Palm eggs and the second for 6 Bourbon Red eggs. I just candled the 7 Royal Palms and only 2 of the 7 appeared to have developing embryos while out of several eggs from my own flock only 1 was bad. I will be candling the Bourbon eggs in a few days to see how they compare to the poor showing of the Royal Palm eggs.

The best scenairio I can count on is two healthy Royal Palm poults and 4 or 5 of the Bourbons hatching. I expect all my eggs from my flock will hatch since I am getting almost 100% out of my flock this year.

The problem obviously is not the incubators.

 

[Davaroo]

By now youve figure out that there are no guarantees. Everything from the health of the parent stock to mishandling at the Post Office can affect hatchability.
Ive had some eggs with 80% rates of hatch and others with ZERO.
The average? About 60-70%

The thing to do is ask around a forum like this WHO sells the best eggs with the best hatch rates and SURVIVABILITY, then buy those.

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain sounds to me like your eggs are being X-Rayed before flying. Good luck on your new ones by the way where did ya get your red dorking eggs Thanks

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
From a gal named Teri on Ebay... Do a search on "Dorking hatching eggs". She's really nice. Hers are Sand Hill originals..
I'll have to be sure to remind people to wrap the cartons in foil... thanks!

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Thanks Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain I will do a search for her. I found my silver dorkings locally for $2. a doz. I will set them on the 10th was very happy with that. I will order some more silver eggs from a different source so I have a different strain but can't find local Reds. Thanks again

 

[Mrs MIA]

You're welcome! Y'know, the gal with the Red Dorkings is the only one so far that HAS wrapped my eggs in foil - so maybe the airsacs were disrupted too much during shipping? I dunno...

 

[Crunchie]

Quote:
That is not necessarily true. I have had better luck getting packages to California from Georgia(well, NC since my closest P.O. is over the line in NC) in two days than to Missouri or IN STATE to NC! Once I sent eggs to CoreyNC from Culberson NC to Bahama, NC. Took THREE days! Missouri always takes 3-5 days for some reason. I just sent eggs to jeaucamom in CA from that same Culberson, NC P.O. and it took 2 days. That's the norm, actually.

Yep, I've noticed that distance doesn't always matter to the USPS. I just received a set and sent a set of eggs from/to Washington state (I'm in Maryland) and both only took 2 days. I had a package sent to me from VA (what would have been less than a 3 hour drive for me) and it took FIVE days!!! Argh!! I only had one poor lonely chick hatch from those eggs--and it was not the breeder's fault, the eggs were packaged well and I trust her fertility--they just took way too long to get to me.

Overall, I have had good luck with shipped eggs. If you are realistic and don't set your hopes on a 100% hatch rate, you'll do just fine. I think it's realistic to expect about a 30% hatch rate if everything goes well (shipping, incubation, etc.) Then, if you get a better hatch rate, consider it a bonus! My most recent hatch from shipped eggs I got 20 chicks out of 38 eggs, so a little over 50%. I'm thrilled with that! I'd say that 50-60% has been my personal average on shipped eggs.