Hatching shipped eggs tips

[ChanLillie]

I have been buying hatching eggs online, because I live in the middle of no where with hardly any good breeders/hatcheries around.. I fully understand that hatching shipped eggs is a gamble but dang.. I have been having horrible luck.

The first two hatches I bought local..
Set 4 quail eggs only 1 hatched. (Which was an incubator malfunction so I returned it.)
Set 30 guinea fowl and 5 peafowl, hatched 15 guinea and 1 peafowl..

Then with the shipped eggs.. The post office decided to throw my boxes inside of a box on my porch and damaged most of the air cells, but I still have been able to get most to develop.

Set 13 Button Quail-3 hatched and after a few days only 1 is still alive. (Out of the non-hatchers only 1 was not fully developed..)
Set 6 Ayam Cemani eggs- 1 hatched two days ago..

I have a hydrometer inside of my incubators and I have been keeping the temperature and humidity stable but I don't know what else to do.

I have 4 Mandarin Duck eggs that need to go on lock down and I really want to be able to get a few of them to hatch. I started with 8 and the other 4 never developed.

Can anyone give me some tips please!?

 

[Chicken Chat]

Unfortunately, shipped eggs are a gamble, but you know that. I also only deal with shipped eggs because I want specific breeds not available here. I try to find sellers in states that aren't too far from me so they don't have to travel cross country and I seem to have better luck with those mailed on a Saturday, for some reason, they don't get as banged up. I have let the eggs settle 6 hrs and also a full 24 hrs but saw no marked difference in hatch rates. I have also had much better hatches since switching to low humidity incubation several years ago. For the first 18 days I keep it around 35-40% and then crank it up to about 65% for the last three days. I also weigh the eggs each week to make sure they are loosing the correct amount of weight in case I need to make adjustments.

I once had a dozen silkie eggs coming from New York that got held up 2 days by a a freak late spring snow storm. By the time they got to me half had been frozen and were cracked, the air cells were destroyed. I got one to hatch out of that mess and it turned out to be a roo! He was the best roo I ever had, however. He was spoiled rotten because I walked around the house with him all the time as a chick since he was alone.

 

[ChanLillie]

Unfortunately, shipped eggs are a gamble, but you know that. I also only deal with shipped eggs because I want specific breeds not available here. I try to find sellers in states that aren't too far from me so they don't have to travel cross country and I seem to have better luck with those mailed on a Saturday, for some reason, they don't get as banged up. I have let the eggs settle 6 hrs and also a full 24 hrs but saw no marked difference in hatch rates. I have also had much better hatches since switching to low humidity incubation several years ago. For the first 18 days I keep it around 35-40% and then crank it up to about 65% for the last three days. I also weigh the eggs each week to make sure they are loosing the correct amount of weight in case I need to make adjustments.

I once had a dozen silkie eggs coming from New York that got held up 2 days by a a freak late spring snow storm. By the time they got to me half had been frozen and were cracked, the air cells were destroyed. I got one to hatch out of that mess and it turned out to be a roo! He was the best roo I ever had, however. He was spoiled rotten because I walked around the house with him all the time as a chick since he was alone.

What do you usually do during lockdown? I read that some people use egg cartons so that they are not on their sides but still upright whenever they are hatching in case of damaged air cells.

 

[Chicken Chat]

I take out the turners and lay them on their sides with as much of the pointy end down as possible. I got really lucky with this last batch, set a dozen eggs and 11 hatched. The 12th one was fully developed but died before getting into hatch position. That's my best hatch on shipped eggs.

 

[Chicken Chat]

Forgot to ask what kind of incubator you are using?

 

[ChanLillie]

I have a LG and a Farm Innovators.

 

[Chicken Chat]

I've never tried the Farm Innovators one but I had a forced air LG for several years when I first started incubating. I had decent hatches with it (about 80%) but after three years, I started having issues with it maintaining a stable temp so I stopped using it. There is a thread on here somewhere that is dedicated to the LG and a lot of people are having some really good results with them.

 

[ChanLillie]

What do you use now? I plan on getting a cabinet before next season.

 

[Chicken Chat]

I would love a cabinet one but I don't incubate every year or in great numbers, just to maintain my flock numbers. This last hatch, I bought and used an IncuView for the first time. I'm not super happy with the egg turner, it sometimes bunches the eggs up every few days but that's not that big of deal. I hatched 11 out of 12 in that one so very pleased with it. I also have and love my Brisnea Mini Advance EX. Used it for 10 years and it has never let me down. It's full digital with a humidity pump, just set it and forget it basically. I've had 100% hatches in it but it only holds 7 eggs. That's the only downside. That's why I bought the IncuView, I needed it to hold the dozen eggs.

 

[ChanLillie]

Oh yah I definitely need something bigger. I have 3 incubators. I also have a better choices or something which holds 96. So far I haven't had too many issues with it but haven't used it as a hatcher yet.