I give up

[akpeeps]

Well, I'm zero for two on Lavender Silkie eggs. I had 0 out of 8 develop in August.
This time I had 11 in the bator. Day 12, nothing in ten of them and a blood ring in the 11th. Has anyone else had such rotten luck with shipped eggs??

 

[akpeeps]

BTW, I put a few eggs from my girls in earlier in the week to check my bator and they all have veins starting to show at day four.

 

[Judy]

I got one chick out of 10 shipped and very well packaged eggs. I think if you look at other threads in this section, you will find this is a very common experience.

 

[Sissy]

yes it happens
I got 1 silkie out of a doz.shipped eggs well packed.
but I am trying again. I have 14 more in the bator to hatch
about the 10 of this month.

 

[Cherlyn]

I have heard that silkies can be tough to hatch due to their vaulted skulls. I have not tried to hatch them yet. Have you tried any other breed? Maybe you could buy day-olds?

~Cherlyn

 

[cbader]

We bought a dozen of Polish and Houdon eggs off of Ebay. They have been in for 7days and we have 6 of them developing. Now, they came from a private breeder and all of the people that has bought from her said they had a 50 to 60% hatch rate. Are you getting them from the same place? I don't think it would be the vaulted crown, at least I hope not. Good luck next time.

 

[mandelyn]

I always try to mix and match the eggs, 6 from here, 6 from there.. and I always ended up with a decent hatch rate. One time I bought 75 quail eggs... I didn't want 75 quail... but I figured not many would hatch. 67 did, had to cull 3 for splayed legs that weren't straightening out.

But I won't buy more than a dozen from any one seller at a time, and I'll look to get them all on the same day so the hatch date is the same. I candle once every 7 days (twice during the incubation, not on day 21)

There's so many variables with the viablility of the eggs. Did the rooster do his job right? Then did the farmer collect quickly? Did the farmer then store them at the right temp? Did the farmer ensure they hit the mail system quick? Did the USPS do their job? What was the weather like? Did they arrive before the 10 days after laying was up? Did they settle before going to the hatcher? Was the temp steady? Humidity? Were they turned twice a day every day? Did the farmer even do a test hatch to ensure these shipped eggs were viable before shipping? I'm sure there's more, but there's any number of things that could have gone wrong along the eggs long journey to hatch day.

 

[AHappychick]

I bought a few lav silkie eggs from auctions and ended up with one chick after 3 attempted hatches. I have eggs shipped and have good hatches most of the time so I am starting to think it might have been somethng wrong with the eggs to start with. PS that one chick is gray not lav and the eggs were over a 100 dollars

 

[walkswithdog]

Shipped eggs will always be a gamble. Okay call it a total CRAP SHOOT even. I've had from zero hatches to 100% and everything in between.

Shipping messes up eggs - whether it's heat, unpressurized cargo holds and moisture loss, postal gorillas, getting lost, or postal accidents.

Add seller's that YOU DO NOT know - and that's more risk.

Add breeds that are themselves fragile, or less fertile - for instance, seramas or the vaulted or rarer silkies and more risk.

You can eliminate some by dealing with breeders with great references. You do get better at compensating for shipping problems over time. At candling and catching and addressing air cell problems, seeing a more dehydrated egg, those kinds of things.

It is a gamble. It's a workable gamble in the long run. But you will get zeros and ones, and everything in between zero and 100 eventually. It does have a pretty high price tag on it - doesn't it? But it works out in the long run.

 

[Mahonri]

Don't ever give up.