Help with what went wrong

[Nksg75]

Hi, I ordered tolbunt polish hatching eggs from eBay. About 30 came and all but 5 were completely broken with yolks covering the intact eggs. I had to rinse the others yolks off of most of them.They were developing as normal till about 16 or 17 days and then nothing . Just a black blob and some red veins. I looked and looked for any signs of life and even tried the water test. And no signs of life.
I did put them in lockdown just in case, however when on day 20 I did not hear a thing, and didn't have much faith that they were even alive to start lockdown, I pulled them, candled them, then decided yep, they are dead. I opened them up and they were late embryo death, and i am trying To figure out why. Temp steady all the time and humidity a bit lower 25-35%(learned on first incubation that I had humidity way too high during day 1-18, and I live in a very humid part of Texas anyway)
Would you look at the pics I have below and please let me know your thoughts.

I opened this one first and made sure that it was indeed dead, then got distracted and came back 15 min later, and I think that is why the covering looks so dry.

I had in ziplock, and I did pull the head up a bit to see what it would have looked like.
Does the chick look a bit large too have such a large yolk sack? The egg was a normal size, same as the others.

Also why do the blood vessels look so red and fresh on all of them?
I thought they would be a bit faded.

Here is the second one that looks like it died earlier. Not sure when though. (Possible around day 13)
Does it look like infection on some of the yolk?

Any help appreciated.

 

[kuchchicks]

My concern would be when you rinsed the eggs off. I understand that if they were really, really covered that leaving the yolk on could also cause a problem, but washing could wash the the bloom off of the egg which could open them up for bacteria entering the egg. Depending on how much yolk, dirt, etc is on the egg I usually leave it be. I have tried to "flake" off debris but have never washed or rinsed the eggs.

This is a hard loss for you I know. I have been there myself. Shipped eggs are sometimes tough. I have had people do a great job really wrapping and protecting the eggs for shipping - you can tell they really took their time. But I have also had others that look like they really did the bare minimum. Those were the ones that I received with broken/cracked eggs and low hatch rate. Did you contact your seller and let them know that you had broken eggs? I would contact them and also let them know what the result of your hatch was. You may not get any response or may be told "oh well, I have no control over what happens once they leave my house", but most "good" egg sellers that I have dealt with are really good about replacing broken eggs or eggs that result in a bad/low hatch. Recently I hatched some Maran eggs. I started with 10 eggs, 1 was found to be broken, 1 when I candled it before starting appeared to have something inside already (when it was later opened there was an embryo that must have started/stopped prior to me getting it), 5 clears, and 3 made it to lock down. Of those 3, 2 hatched. The seller contacted me to find out how my hatch went and when she found out my result she offered me replacement eggs for my next batch. I also had a farmer a couple of months ago that sold me a dozen silkie eggs - only 1 hatched. He too offered to replace my eggs. I am looking to start selling my fertile eggs next spring. I have already decided that I am going to replace eggs if anyone ever tells me that they have an issue. The biggest reason for me is because I do believe that most people are honest and I want them to enjoy this process as much as I do. Now obviously if someone keeps telling you time and time again that their eggs are broken or not developing then maybe you have to say enough. But I think a good breeder would want a purchaser to be happy and feel they got what they bargained for.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Nksg75]

Thank you for the response. The eggs were completely covered in yolk from the other smashed eggs. I was concerned about bacteria from the yolk and the egg not being able to breath with all that yolk blocking the pores.

I think the person had good intentions, just wasn't that great at packaging.
The ebayer I bought from replaced the first 15 eggs with another 15 Because of the usps. I did ask the second time around to place in an egg carton then bubble wrap. The first set he or she just bubble wrapped them, and it was so bad the ants were already inside the box when I got it.
These eggs in the pic were some of the ones from the first set.
One thing that was different, was that the first two egg shipments I ever got were labeled live embryo, fragile, this side up etc.. And they were in cartons.
Then he or she sent another set for free and did as I had asked and placed in a carton in bubble wrap. USPS must have had a baseball game with that box because it was smashed completely and the box itself was horribly dented!!
Yes I know the risk of shipped eggs, however this is my 3rd time ordering and having eggs shipped. The others were pretty good(not too many broken).
Unfortunately for me these are the eggs I truly wanted to hatch for my daughter! She has wanted a Tolbunt polish chick forever!! Ahh, well!! Live and learn.