I'm bout fed up with ebay buyers!! Update... It just gets better!

[speckledhen]

The problem is often buyers who are ignorant of incubation or fertilization and the influence that rough handling has on those fertile eggs. An egg can be fertile and never begin development--this buyer obviously does not know this or chooses to ignore it and hopes to get something for nothing.

You can tell if an undeveloped egg was fertilized with reasonable certainty after incubating, but it's quite difficult as the yolk becomes very "loose" and unstable if incubated for awhile. If you manage to lay that yolk in a bowl and examine it, which requires tapping around the circumference with a knife rather than tapping the egg on the counter, often the bullseye is quite apparent, even if it did not even begin to develop that you can discern with the naked eye. I know this for a fact and it was illustrated by the incompatibility of my Light Brahma hen and Blue Orp rooster. Her eggs were fertilized--cracked open numerous ones after person after person never had hers develop. I even incubated several batches of her eggs, five each time, and not one developed though she was mated often and the yolk showed definite fertility. Chemistry wasn't right or whatever.

Physical distance has little to do with shipped eggs--it's how fast that egg arrives at its destination and how roughly it was handled along the way. I have had many California folks have wonderful luck with my eggs shipped from GA, as long as they arrived in the two to three day period they should have. If they took 4 days or longer, they were handled more and didn't do as well. I've had eggs shipped in-state take three days to arrive and they didn't do as well as the ones that arrived overnight as they should have at that distance.

 

[BlueBirdChick]

Or the egg just doesnt develop there are alot of out here that realize that it does happen. I dont blame the sellers at all for what happened. . Not all buyers are oblivious to this and aren't trying to get something for free.

It goes both ways,there are people out there that sell just because they wanna make a quick buck, there are people out there who buy wanting to cause problems.
And there are people out there who are the real deal and want other people to have hatching eggs and have them develop and what not. And there are buyers out there who arent mean and dont want to cause problems.

I am one of those . Alot of buyers know that hey my eggs my not develop. I dont know why those one eggs didnt develop at all I cracked them and I didnt see a thing. Not being ignorant .


Personally I think us good buyers shouldnt buy anymore if were gonna get the blame of bad buyers.
Alot of people do actually take the time and sit down to read all about chickens, or have had raised chickens before. and thats not fair to automatically label people all the same its not cool at all. I read all about chickens , incubating, hatching before I tried it.

Not once did I blame a seller about my eggs not hatching not everyone blames the seller, cause we understand...

 

[muddstopper]

I pretty much limit the amount of eggs i sell so that I can incubate a few of each batch I am shipping. I usually sell 12 and pack 15. The reason for shipping 15 is that is the number that seems to best fit my packageing in a medium flat rate box. The first eggs I ever shipped, I packed in a foam egg crate and wrapped in bubble wrap. I place the carton in the middle of the box and then stuffed sawdust around the carton, top, bottom and all the side. I shipped 12 eggs, 3 or 4 broke and I think 3 or 4 are all that hatched. I changed my packing and sent 15 replacement eggs. None of which broke. I have sold several boxes of eggs since and havent had any break, KOW. I figure since they arent arriveing broke, I have done my job. I sent one batch several wks ago in which they had zero hatch. I had put 16 of that same wks eggs in my incubator and hatched 15 of 16. Go figure, the eggs all came from the same birds gathered the same wk and I kept the oldest, shipping the freshest. None where broken during shipping so therefore shipping would most likely be the problem. I just sent the buyer 15 more eggs which they have recieved with zero breakage. I am hopeing they have better luck with this batch than the first batch, but really, if none hatch this time, could I have done anything differently to insure them a good bunch of hatchable eggs?

Here is how I pack my eggs.

Aluminum foil backed bubble wrap lines the box

Each egg individually wrapped in small bubble, bubble wrap.

Then placed in grouped of 5 and wrapped in another sheet of bubble wrap.

Bottom of box then has layer of saw dust added

3 rolls of eggs placed inside box

Top is covered with more sawdust and using fingers to pack around each egg roll to fill any voids

Aluminum foil bubble wrap folded down over top and box taped shut.

The last box I shipped I didnt use the sawdust, but instead used the bigger bubble, bubblewrap and those eggs arrive with zero breakage

 

[kathyinmo]

I don't think I will ever sell eggs on ebay ...... I know, "never say never"...... but this is just sad! I am sorry you have had this bad experience.

About packaging .... I prefer my eggs sent in an egg carton, not loose in a bubblewrap package. That is my preference. I have had my best hatches this way. Each egg wrapped in 1/2 papertowel and placed in an egg carton, using 2 bottom egg carton pieces (one on top and one on bottom of the 12 eggs), then the carton taped firmly closed. The first time I received eggs like this I was reluctant. I hatched 16 of 18. I have had many since then, and always (ALWAYS) get the best hatches from this kind of packaging. I think it has something to do with the eggs being, "upright," instead of down on the sides wobbling around.

Just my experience.

 

[chrisarvor]

This year i have spent loads of money on eggs from the UK to Bulgaria to get me started
and have had little success but some hatched
I had to go back to the UK 3 months ago and i had eggs delivered to my address where we stayed and put them in my suitcase to go home with
I got 30% hatch which for me was exceptional ,same flight same distance but maybe they dont get thrown around as much

So the post office must abuse the parcels.
And its not a long time before i get the eggs 3 days after they post in the UK 7 at most
except when they get missent as it says on packaging to Ottawa Canada and Haiti ??????????? Do those name look like BULGARIA

Keep trying

 

[rockinpaints]

I probably ordered over $1000 worth of eggs this year. Sometimes a zero hatch rate and sometimes I would get 10 out of 12. It absolutely depends on how they are handled by the postal service.

We did a little experiment with our own eggs to see if it was just the giggling while the truck was in motion. We drove a dozen eggs around for 3 days (bumpy roads, heat shuffled from front seat to back) in an F250 diesel truck. The eggs were in an egg carton not bubble wrap. We incubated those eggs the following week and 3/4 of those eggs hatched.

I like to do little experiments so I know what will damage the eggs - I incubated eggs I had refrigerated for a couple weeks once to see what the cold would do to them, 3 out of 4 of those hatched!

I would not recommend this though....... We do store our collected eggs in a wine cooler (55 to 60 degrees) until they are incubated or shipped.

I'm not sure why we go through all this trouble, I have seen one of my mom's bantam hen lay 10 eggs in the barn - took her about 2 weeks - in 90+ degrees - then set on them - getting off daily to come out and visit for a little while - and ALL 10 Hatched!

go figure!

 

[rockinpaints]

I almost forgot my whole point! My thoughts are if you want chicks order chicks if you can get them. Most all reputable breeders will guarantee their chicks to arrive alive.
The reason we order eggs is,

1: the chicks we want are not available from that breeder and we still want them or
2: it is cheaper (we think, usually...... sometimes..... Actually when you pay $280 a dozen and get ZERO

er Yep, I did that.....)
3: Variety

The bottom line is it is ALWAYS a risk to order eggs. Hatching eggs on a good day is less than a perfect science. Am I going to quit ordering hatching eggs Heck NO (hope my husband doesn't see this!

)

 

[NicoleRM]

Has anyone noted better hatch rates when paying extra for Express shipping over Priority with the USPS? I know from shipping other animals that the Express shipments are actually sorted and handled by real humans instead of machines more often than not. I'd be happy to pay $15-20 extra for shipping if I knew it would get me a better hatch rate!

 

[Blubrd]

You guys should consider www.bidbird.com . They need more hatching egg auctions on there anyway. And the buyers are more likely going to be more knowledgeable about birds than your average e-bayer. If you haven't yet, check it out.

 

[BunnyMomma]

No matter what business or hobby you are engaging in, obnoxious people are lurking everywhere!

I have a bakery and I have met some real nutjobs. Thankfully most people know that feedback ratings include a few nutjobs for most businesses. I had a woman order a very large, beautifully decorated cake from me last year.
She called me wanting a refund because the cake was supposedly dry. I shared the cake levelings with my DH and a friend and the cake was sooo good.

Not dry at all. Still, I told her she should wrap the cake in a plastic bag, and bring it to me the next day and I would refund her money, no questions asked. You should know, I make delicious, original recipe cakes and have never had any complaints for years. She did not bring the cake back. I am certain that they ate it. Then she had the nerve to call back and ask for a refund without the cake.

She then threatened to ruin my reputation in this town.

I simply told her that my policy stated that she must return the uneaten cake with no more than 10% missing, in it's original container, for any refund.
I told her that one, obnoxious customer would not have a chance to ruin me, and that I would contact an attorney if she slandered me in any way.

Some people are just a pain!