How long is too long?

[mix3dbreed]

I bought some eggs on the mainland from a special national breed. It was his 1st time selling to the islands. the postal people also made some mistakes.
So instead of coming by plane it came by ship.
Normally its still a good way and decent time. Problem was package stayed in port for 6 days. Eggs arrrived very well and very taken care of. But since they were layed until i got them it was about 15 days. I waited another 12 hours ( should of been 24) but i had to put them in.


So my question here to the experts can i expect some movements? or they are all spoiled?

Im going to candle them tomorow. Day 7.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

They should be fine. When I collect for hatching I keep them fat end up on kitchen counter for two to three weeks and have very high hatch rates. How the shipping treatment was will have a far greater impact on hatching than a little over two week shelf life.

Personally I'd wait until day 10 to candle. In ten days you know for sure if there is life even with poor light sources. I'm always on the fence with 7 day candling so don't even bother with it anymore. 10 day check and cull clears then a 14ish day double check while looking at air cell growth.

 

[mix3dbreed]

Thats good news for me. The eggs were fertil. He has 7 chickens and he opened a few eggs before colelcting for me and he said theywere all fertile.
The shipping conditions were by ship. Beats going tru x rays , i think. Not sure how temperaturres were on that ship. But the box was very protected with hay. Small pieces of paper and inside eggs cartons. You could fit 3 boces of shoes in there.

But maybe i should wait a day or 2 to candle. Just to make sure.

Thanks again.

 

[mix3dbreed]

They should be fine. When I collect for hatching I keep them fat end up on kitchen counter for two to three weeks and have very high hatch rates. How the shipping treatment was will have a far greater impact on hatching than a little over two week shelf life.

Personally I'd wait until day 10 to candle. In ten days you know for sure if there is life even with poor light sources. I'm always on the fence with 7 day candling so don't even bother with it anymore. 10 day check and cull clears then a 14ish day double check while looking at air cell growth.

Just wanted to give you guys an update. Chicks started to hatch on day 21. This by far has been the latest in all my incubations.

So out of the 24. 6 have hatched and are ok. One had a peek but also som yok, i went to help out but he was stiff. There are a few more maybe in the same way.

So these eggs were well over the normal 10 days and still produced.Not a good %, but if we take into account the time waiting for a ship and delivery, im fine with it.