How much do shipped eggs actually affect the hatch rate?

[black_cat]

I cannot find any cream legbar eggs that are near me. I've heard really bad things about shipping eggs- does it really drastically lower your hatch rate? If I was going to hatch 15, would I instead want to do 20 to make up for it?

 

[pvchicken1]

Shipping eggs do affect the hatch rate of the eggs. Hatching rates very from 0% - 100%, it is like gambling. I would order 30 eggs and assume that 15 would hatch.

 

[black_cat]

If I'd be using the NR 360 incubator which takes 22 eggs, would I want to fill it?

 

[MGG]

If I'd be using the NR 360 incubator which takes 22 eggs, would I want to fill it?

Probably. I ordered 14 eggs last week and only 9 are developing. And I don't expect that all 9 will hatch. But I hope so. These eggs traveled over 1500 miles.

 

[cmobley]

I ordered 24 lavender eggs from meyer they sent 26. 3 were broke in shipping out of 23 set 16 made it to lockdown 13 outta 16 hatched and are still doing great. I tried ebay eggs a few years ago 0 outta 12 hatched.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

As a previous poster wrote - Results can vary from 0% to 100%. Variables include:

Age, quality, health & diet of the breeding stock (not really related to shipping but poor quality eggs have a higher risk to start with).
Age of the eggs (older eggs carry higher risks)
Quality of packaging (packaging needs to obviously ward against physical damage but also against excess heat or cold or moisture changes)
Time of travel (The longer the travel the higher the risk)
Handling (Rough handling increases risk)

If you get all of these conditions at the most beneficial end of the scale you CAN get a 100% hatch rate (speaking from personal experience - shipped eggs on a 5 day delivery).

But.. if you get some or all of these conditions at the poorer end of the scale then yup you can either get a 0% hatch rate and/or faults in the chicks related to development issues.