How old can eggs be while still haveing a strong chance of hatching?

[cochins1088]

I plan on ordering more eggs from a breeder but she only has 4 hens of the vareity that I want. I want to be able to get as many eggs as posilbe so I was thinking of asking her to send everything that she collects from them in a week. Then there would be 2 day shipping and they would need to set for a day which would make the oldest eggs 10 days old before setting. Is that too old, especially for shipped eggs? I plan on including some of another variety as well but I want as many as posible from the other vareity. Would I be wasteing eggs if I knew that they would be 10 days old and shipped before setting, or would they still have a strong posibilty of hatching? These aren't cheap so I don't want to ask for her to collect for 7 days if the oldest ones don't have much of a chance of hatching anyways, what do you guys think?

Thanks.

 

[fried green eggs]

From what I have seen most think that by day 10 your hatch rate will drop by close to 50 %. I think you would be better off spacing them 3 weeks apart. They would still be close enough in size to brood together and you would up your chance of getting more chicks. If she collected eggs for 4 days and shipped overnight and them 16 days later collected or 4 days - you would get new eggs to let sit for a day just as first batch is hatching and by next day you could start the new batch.

 

[cochins1088]

I would like to do that, but it's the price of shipping that kills me. It's $50 for 12+ eggs and $65 for 24+ eggs. So if I were to do that, then it would be $100 for 24 eggs vs. $65 for 24 eggs. I guess that I'll probably risk it, does anyone have a good idea on how fast the hatching percentage really does go down?

 

[kizanne]

I would like to do that, but it's the price of shipping that kills me. It's $50 for 12+ eggs and $65 for 24+ eggs. So if I were to do that, then it would be $100 for 24 eggs vs. $65 for 24 eggs. I guess that I'll probably risk it, does anyone have a good idea on how fast the hatching percentage really does go down?

They charge $50 shipping? Are they over-nighting it or just ripping you off? Priority to almost the farthest point in the country is $12 and comes with a free box. I does take me close to an hour to cut bubble tape and wrap them good and pack but still...

 

[cochins1088]

It's not $50 for shipping, it's $50 total. I was just saying based on the price difference it would cost me $65 to order 24+ eggs at once vs if I ordered 2 batches of 12+ eggs which would be $100.

 

[kizanne]

That is still a big difference. $35. I wish I knew the answer to your questions but sadly I don't

 

[maryhysong]

I plan on ordering more eggs from a breeder but she only has 4 hens of the vareity that I want. I want to be able to get as many eggs as posilbe so I was thinking of asking her to send everything that she collects from them in a week. Then there would be 2 day shipping and they would need to set for a day which would make the oldest eggs 10 days old before setting. Is that too old, especially for shipped eggs? I plan on including some of another variety as well but I want as many as posible from the other vareity. Would I be wasteing eggs if I knew that they would be 10 days old and shipped before setting, or would they still have a strong posibilty of hatching? These aren't cheap so I don't want to ask for her to collect for 7 days if the oldest ones don't have much of a chance of hatching anyways, what do you guys think?

Thanks.

Everything from the USDA says chicken eggs should be no older than 7 days when set because after that "hatchability declines" but I couldn't find any studies or anything showing how quickly they decline. I would imagine that the way it would work would be at 8 days it might drop just a bit, then each day after that the % that would hatch would drop until so many days later it would be zero. If it were me I would go for it. If the breeder was so inclined, perhaps have them lightly mark the date collected on each egg in pencil. One other thing to consider. while shipping all the eggs in one box saves you postage money, if that one box gets a rough trip it will scramble all your eggs. At least if shipped in two boxes you have a chance of one box getting better handling. Of course there is no such thing as an easy trip for any package these days!

 

[cochins1088]

The first time I ordered from her, the eggs were a mess. Out of 14 eggs, 10 had ruptured air sacs and the rest were severely dislocated even after a day of sitting. Also one was cracked, but she was nice enough to send me another batch free as none of them developed. Out of that free batch, I only got 3 developing because of the shape the eggs were in. She did an amazing job packaging though including a sticker saying how much we appreciate our postal men. The eggs were snuggly wrapped in bubble wrap and surounded with newpaper. Because of how they ended up last time, she said she would double box them this time and do the best she could for packaging. Also, the other 2 batches of eggs had every date written on them without me asking. I will risk it, I know they can still hatch as I've heard others that have sucessfully hatched eggs as old as 3 weeks, but I know the odds will be more against them. I'm hoping it won't affect them too much. Thanks!

 

[maryhysong]

that is nice she wrote the dates on them without asking. If I were selling eggs I think I would do the same, mostly just to show how fresh they are. I do write the dates on my own eggs when I'm collecting for hatching but usually only collect for 7 days. But I have some more eggs coming to set around the 22 so I might start collecting my own now and dating them then see how age affects them.

 

[cochins1088]

I just saw you on the NYD hatchalong, hahaha. I'd love to join, but I think that these eggs will arrive too early and my hens haven't been laying at all lately. I'm considering trying the lights so that I can get a few eggs, but it just seems like a waste of electricity and I don't want to disrupt their natural cycle.

Anyways, thanks for the help! And if you do do that experiement, I'd love to hear the results.