Hatch rates for 'postal eggs'

[Rothy_058]

I bought a couple of dozen mixed Japanese Pharaoh quail eggs from an EBay seller. I set the eggs in the incubator after letting them settle for 24 hours and on day 15 the eggs were locked down and the humidity in the incubator was raised to 65%... On day 17 a couple of chicks arrived....on day 18 another 9 hatched but since then not a sausage...

It's now day 20 and starting to look as if I'm going to end up with 11 chicks from 24 eggs... The ones that did hatch are lovely and are doing brilliantly and I'm well chuffed with them. I did, however, expect that I would end up with a larger brood from 24 eggs.

Just a few weeks ago we set 12 of our own quail eggs that had been kept in the fridge for a week to collect enough to fill the incubator and we had 9 healthy chicks from the 12. Out of the three failures one actually did hatch with some assistance but we 'assisted' to early and sadly the chick bled to death..

But, coming back to my point, I just wondered if maybe I shouldn't have been disappointed with 11 healthy chicks from 24 eggs...bearing in mind that these eggs had been through the postal system?

Thoughts / comments, anyone?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

50% is considered a good hatch with shipped eggs. You should always hatch more from your own eggs if the fertility is good.

 

[sourland]

Generally, near 50 % hatch rate on shipped eggs is pretty good. It's all about how the eggs were packed, and how they were handled in transit.

 

[sourland]

@BirdsBeesTrees - great minds on the same track.

 

[Peachychicken1]

50% is considered a good hatch with shipped eggs. You should always hatch more from your own eggs if the fertility is good.

So araucana eggs...wonder how many I need ..probably get only 25 % to hatch..since 25 % do die anyway

 

[awmosby]

Half isn't bad. From my last batch of shipped eggs only 12 hatched out of 60--and then one died within the first week. Now I'm cooking another 72 shipped from much closer, so we'll see how these turn out.

 

[mdees88]

I wouldn't be too disappointed with 11/24. 50% is generally regarded as a good hatch from what you read on here. I think it has a lot to do with how it's packaged, how it's handled/processed through the shipment, and WHO you're getting them from (are they shipping eggs laid the same day or saving eggs for a week before shipping).

Out of 327 shipped quail eggs I have hatched I have averaged a 74% hatch rate on total eggs set and a 93% hatch rate on viable eggs at lockdown (not counting the interfiles).

I've had the best results with Myshire Farm and Orchard Hill Poultry. Orchard Hill's Jumbos are bigger than JMF jumbos.... as much as I like JMF, doing business with them stinks. They take forever to get shipments out and they messed my order up, quality birds though.

 

[Ghosty]

I got 24 game chicken eggs shipped. I only got 6 chicks out of it (25%) and 2 needed assistance, but the guy that did the hatching doesn't assist, so they died. Out of the 4 remaining, 3 of them just up and died after they were fully feathered, and the last was taken by a hawk. I'm not doing shipped eggs again unless it is something I really, really want.

 

[Knighstar679]

All my eggs I have hatched have been shipped. My first was 3/9, my second was 8/12 with 4 assisted, my third was 5 out of ten. This year I have incubated two sets of Black East Indies and got 3 out of 7 I the first one died in 24 hours. My second set 0/7. 2 made it to lockdown but died during it.

Currently I am working on two more sets Australian Spotted of 10 which are on day 5/6 and 4 are developing. My other set is 8 Welsh Harlequin I just got today and have to see how that goes. These last two sets seem to have pretty bad air cells. Hopefully this will stabilize as they develop. Really bad postal handle in at least one of these.

 

[Rothy_058]

Thanks to you all....it's great to get so many replies. What I see repeated again and again is that 50% isn't so bad at all for shipped eggs.

Here's a few pics of my 'babies' ...