How hard is it to hatch BLRW?

[erijn5]

We candle the fat end of the egg, and if there is no movement we check the pointed end to see if it is clear too. 3/4 of them were unfertile, nothing tried to happen in them..may be 4 or so had fully developed but quit or died on shell..

The weather was like high 60's-70's.. I have ordered eggs for the past 4yrs via ebay-BYC.. I hatched, Blue Jersey Giants, Cookoo Marans, RIW, last yr...yr before was SLW, GLW, Turkens, Frizzles...

Same bator, same turner, everything is working fine..I'm just really frustrated with these..so disappointed!!

For ALL the money I put in eggs I could have bought live chicks...I'm just like

come on give me a break eggs?

 

[Doctim]

I feel your pain.

I have had good hatch rates on my BLRWs from my flock. I have had a horrible hatch rate on just about all my shipped eggs.

I have had 2 orders of 6+ MF cochins and a 6+ blue lemon cochin clutch that I got zip from. All were shipped about 1000miles via USPS. I had a 40% hatch rate on some sussex I had shipped from here in Texas (about 300 Miles) and a 30% hatch rate on some from Arkansas (250 miles).

The last shipment of eggs I received yesterday was 2 dozen+. They came from the eastern coast. They were well packed in bubble wrap and in cartons. The cartons were well packed in shredded paper. The box was received intact with no damage. They guy did a really good job packing them. When I opened the box they were DESTROYED! Most of them were broken and the ones not broken were cracked. Out of 26 shipped I received 5 intact. They must have dropped then from the plane! Now what do you think the chances are of those 5 hatching? The air cells are scrambled!!!!

Yes, I set them anyway. I also set the cracked ones that were not leaking. Maybe I'll be blessed?

Tim

 

[erijn5]

I would have to say that your luck was worse than mine..sooo sorry!

It is kinda sad, it makes you wonder if there are the usps people out there that just don't shake the boxes just for fun...booo! A couple of yrs ago I think people had more respect for things, that my opinion anyway!

In the same bator as of right now ALL of the Americana;s have hatched and not a single BLRW has pipped, the Am. pipped last night and hatched out today...still waiting on some action though! We did candle when we took them off the turners and placed them in the cartons, they were moving so I am not going to do anything but wait...They were all set the same day, same time....I just throwing my hands up and pacing...

Come on and show me what you got chickys hatch hatch hatch!!!

Until then

Thanks for all the info, hope your hatch turns out with what you got!

 

[ksf59]

I don't think that they are any harder to hatchmetime I do wonder about teh fertilty in some of the flocks. I bought blrw eggs from 3 differnt breeders and only 1 breeders had any develope and then 3 out 12 hatched. Most or th epeeps have pretty small flocks and while they havce good hathc rates with there own eggs, the stress of shipping may have a negative impact on some extremly line bred flock. I have the same issue with barnevelders. all though this had better luck form a couple of breeders. Still same problem of cross beak and crokked toes. when thier hacthe mates from my own breeding is fine. so eitrher thier birds are to line bred, thier nutritional progarm is not quite up to snuff, or the stress of shipping has a negative impact, or more likely a combination of all three. My egg purcahses have min pretty minimumal this year, but we did have some birds that I did get to hatch last year, and by crossing lines hope to improve fertility, and correct confimational faults. The probelm with small flocks is that the breeding stcok may be very highly related, patricularly with rare breeds, and that can have a profound negative impact on the eggs, and chicks.

 

[Katy]

It's more about them being shipped than the breed. With my own BLRW eggs my hatches are close to 100% most of the time.

I got my start several years ago with shipped eggs. I didn't have good hatch rates either. If I had to start over I'd start with good quality chicks from a breeder....they'd be cheaper in the long run.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
Studies have shown that Rosecomb Roosters have lower fertility when compared to straight or pea combed breeds
http://www.rosecomb.com/federation/articles/infertility.html
So, yes, this could be a factor.

Shipping eggs can be problematic as well. Some may fair well and others completely scrambled. The boxes are machined and may be dropped off conveyor belts into bins etc... I think it is unfair to assume that the humans are drop-kicking the goods on purpose.

I just have had to pull 16 eggs that were being incubated from a single breeder that are clear (0% hatch). There were 2 blood rings, one showing early development and the rest are clear. Many air cells are detached. I did a lengthy consultation with a poultry pathologist (double doctorate) and they receive shipped eggs all the time with 90% hatch rates. They get theirs via overnight Fedex and they are not bubble wrapped. We are strongly suspicious that the bubble-wrapping that is common with shippers seals the eggs and prevents oxygen diffusion causing death at the blastoderm stage--the eggs fail to develop and are clear. I will probably start a thread at some point with the recommendations. Her bottom line recommendation: cough up the dough for overnight shipping and be careful of the packaging method.

 

[erijn5]

Sorry about your luck that sound awful too.. But also the info you gave was very handy..Hopefully all in all I will at least be able to get a few out of all these so I can at least start a flock and then HOPEFULLY be able to incubate my own next yr..and get better results..