Hatching eggs bought online unsuccessful - reasonable explanation?

[emwa1988]

Could I get some advice?

I am hatching a batch of 24 eggs​

, 12 Vorwerk, 6 Vorwerk from another source, and 6 White leghorn from another separate source. All were bought online and received promptly in the post.

I candled the eggs today (day 9) and​

the 12 Vorwerks and 6 Leghorn are doing very well, however the 6 Vorwerks from the one source were not so good.

Out of the 6 eggs, 4 had no development. Another had developed a blood ring (which could be for various reasons of course, it happens).​

I'm still quite new to hatching, but last time got a 50% hatch and this time it's looking very good for the other 18 eggs currently incubated alongside these - could be 100% development at this point.

I am trying to understand why my rate of success with this batch from the one seller is so low?

The 4 un-developed eggs (which I am leaving a little longer on the off-chance something happens) seemed quite porous when candled, I have read that porous eggs should not be incubated.

Also, having checked the eggs were not cracked and were packaged well on arrival, I was pretty happy and left my review, but then later realised that they had been packaged upside down, i.e. fat end down. I understand this may likely have been a mistake but wondered if it affected the development.

These 6 eggs looked like they had been washed whereas the others hadn't (on conversation with sellers they always leave unwashed to allow buyer to decide) I did not wash the other eggs but gently dabbed away any obvious marks with water and a clean paper towel.​

So, I contacted the seller, explaining the situation and enquiring about the above points. Their response was this:

Happy to help. Vorwerk eggs often have a slightly mottled appearance (The other Vorwerks I ordered did not). This doesn't change whether the egg has been fertilised or not. A ‘solid shell’ simply has a higher calcium content, which means it will lose less moisture during the incubation process; it also means that the chick may have a struggle to pip and break the shell as it will be harder. We would set both and notice no difference in hatch rate.

Fat end down - We incubate thin side down where possible although I'm not sure it makes a massive difference. I store the eggs thin side down in their poly box prior to shipping, so if they have arrived fat side down, it would only have been for the 24 hrs in transit.​

Eggs are washed with Biolink Liquid Egg Wash as per manufacturers measurements. (She gave her reasons for this which were familiar, I have heard people advocate washing before)

Obviously the tricky part here is what is an acceptable hatch rate given that so many factors are out of either of our control. If you could send me a photo of the candled clear eggs to verify, and are happy to pay postage costs then I can try to arrange some replacement eggs to be sent if you want.​

Now I am a bit disappointed to get only 1 developing egg from a batch of 6 that I paid £14 for. Especially when I know it has nothing to do with me - I have taken a lot of care and the other eggs are doing great. I don't want to pay a fiver for postage on more eggs that may well have the same outcome. I hate to complain and I know we are dealing with unpredictable nature here, but what would you do?

(Sorry it's a long one)

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Shipped eggs are always a gamble. It could have been something the shipper did, something the postal service did, or just dumb luck.