Incubating Eggs before Shipping

[gloryblue]

Last spring I recieved shipping eggs, all were marked as to day collected as well as what hen they were from too...not that remarkable, right? Only two eggs which were pulled from under a hen with adopted week old chicks who was discovered was laying again, and had these last two eggs under her and the adopted chicks showed any development at all...only one of those two eggs ended up hatching...out of 2 dozen eggs...I believe this chick only hatched after the USPS shipping and large displaced aircells of all the other shipped eggs, as well as mostly scrambled condition of yolks too...because this one egg had started incubation before the shipping.


I haven't yet tried this out scientifically,, this pre-incubation before shipping experiment, but want to, and do hope still someone will join in and expand on this worthy experiment. Or those that started this thread....it sure would be appreciated to read the shared results. ..or...lol if none did any further testing, maybe now some would like to do so this spring?

I'd really like to exchange eggs with someone who is breeding along the same lines with fibromelonistic birds though as most fibro breeds eggs I understand do not ship well so if incubating first helps?, That would help dramatically improve these especially.

DDD is working with fibro birds too...I'd love to exchange eggs incubated first with her project birds.
I'm hoping others will join in too.

 

[HugHess]

Last spring I recieved shipping eggs, all were marked as to day collected as well as what hen they were from too...not that remarkable, right? Only two eggs which were pulled from under a hen with adopted week old chicks who was discovered was laying again, and had these last two eggs under her and the adopted chicks showed any development at all...only one of those two eggs ended up hatching...out of 2 dozen eggs...I believe this chick only hatched after the USPS shipping and large displaced aircells of all the other shipped eggs, as well as mostly scrambled condition of yolks too...because this one egg had started incubation before the shipping.


I haven't yet tried this out scientifically,, this pre-incubation before shipping experiment, but want to, and do hope still someone will join in and expand on this worthy experiment. Or those that started this thread....it sure would be appreciated to read the shared results. ..or...lol if none did any further testing, maybe now some would like to do so this spring?

I'd really like to exchange eggs with someone who is breeding along the same lines with fibromelonistic birds though as most fibro breeds eggs I understand do not ship well so if incubating first helps?, That would help dramatically improve these especially.

DDD is working with fibro birds too...I'd love to exchange eggs incubated first with her project birds.
I'm hoping others will join in too.

Hi Glory...

Have you swapped any eggs yet?

My first batch of Cemani 'project' babies...

My next batch...

Hope all is well GB! God bless.

 

[lazy gardener]

Am following with interest. My first thought would be that eggs in early incubation would not work, b/c the vascular systems are so fragile (IMO). But, I did read a study, and of course can't find it now, where they would start incubating a batch of eggs, and get them to the point where they could cull the ones that weren't developing. They would then chill all of the good eggs from this batch, and hold them while starting a second batch. Batch #2 was then candled, and culled accordingly. Then, the 2 groups were combined, resulting in an incubator that was now filled to capacity with eggs that had developed well to this point. The eggs continued on to hatch well at the same time. Any one else remember reading this study, and know where to find it? So, maybe?

 

[cjwaldon]

I've got incubator space, I can try this. Anyone want to do it with me and compare notes?

 

[HugHess]

I hear the part on chilling the eggs, but can anyone expound on the part where they tell you to what temp you want them before shipping? I would love to see this study too.

 

[chickster5003]

It's very possible but here's the secret instead of incubating @ 99.5 before shipping, it should be more like 94-95 this allows the germinal disk to expand but the veins should not form before shipping.

 

[cjwaldon]

Would the same affect be achieved by incubating a shorter time at normal temps instead of full three days at lower temps?

Does anyone know what temp they should be cooled to? Or stored at? Or is it more important to cool quickly then allow to hold at room temp until continuing with incubation?

 

[WalnutHill]

Here's an article on pre-incubation long term storage:


http://www.pasreform.com/academy/fr...s-new-procedures-in-hatching-egg-storage.html

 

[HugHess]

Dupe post 'cause WalnutHill beat me to the send button!

 

[lazy gardener]

Incredible article. Kind of makes me think this mimics what happens in the nest when a broody is collecting a clutch of eggs to incubate. The more I learn, the more I know that I don't know.