Incubation fail

[JDCampbell73]

My little family and I are currently living with my parents.
My dad and my daughter jumped the gun and ordered a set of hatching eggs- unbeknownst to me. And then of course, my dad went away on a business trip for 2 weeks, leaving me to figure out what I was doing.
we get the eggs and it was a mess! 6 broken out of the dozen. So sad. But I let the others rest and then set them on the 8th. I candled them a few days ago and it looks like we only have 1 viable embryo out of the 6. So here are my questions:

Do I toss the other 5 and leave i only the one? I know they’ll get rotten but is it a problem having only 1 egg in the incubator?

I can’t find any farm supply’s nearby that have and chicks coming and can’t find any only that will ship me 1 or 2 chicks around the same time. Anybody here expecting chicks on/Near the 29th who will ship to California?

Or do you have any other advice?

 

[Rammy]

Can you take pics of the eggs when candling to show what they look like?
Most farm stores wont get chicks in til March or April because of the weather.
Shipped eggs are a gamble. Ive tried hatching them and had only like 2 to 3 hatch out of a dozen and thats cinsidered good. Good luck with your hatch.

 

[ThunderHillChick]

Oh No, that is awful!
In my search for blue egg layers the last couple weeks. I ran across a site called

chickens for backyards.com

they will sell you as few as 3. They had a number of breeds. They weren’t cheap though. Well some of the more common ones weren’t bad, other more “rare” ones were $11-21 per day old chick. Which is crazy (I think)

sorry about your eggs. I also had a number of shipped eggs come in and a lot weren’t good. It’s the luck of the draw this time of year I think. Most of the eggs from my own flockweren’t any good either.

 

[LynnaePB]

As far as finding other chicks I know there are pretty much always chicks available through craigslist around here. Maybe you could find some locally yourself there if you haven't checked already.

If you have a pretty reliable incubator it shouldn't hurt to have just one egg in there.

I agree shipped eggs are tough! With 6 arriving broken out of twelve it's not at all surprising most didn't make it. Even with all arriving intact I've gotten some pretty low hatch rates from some shipped eggs (my average is decent but there are just a lot of things that can go wrong with shipping that can really hurt the embryos). I hope your little one pulls through for you, once my shipped eggs make it past day 19 their chances of hatching successfully go up drastically (as long as I'm willing to assist, I get a lot needing assists with shipped eggs).

I know hands on isn't for everyone but if you're open to it this is a very good article on assisting. Utilizing this assisting method has really upped my hatch rates with shipped eggs that make it past day 19. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[Kelsabels23]

I have fertile eggs I'd be happy to send your way. Roo is an Ameraucana and hens are a variety of different types (easter eggers-blue & green layers, barred rock, australorp, rhode island red, buff orpington, leghorn). Happy to send 6+ with a few colored if you prefer, can send out tomorrow. We are currently hatching out, due to hatch on the 5th of February and my daughter is so excited. If allowed to ship to CA, I'd be happy to send out some day old chicks. Anything to help the excitement of another little girl.

 

[JDCampbell73]

Oh No, that is awful!
In my search for blue egg layers the last couple weeks. I ran across a site called

chickens for backyards.com

they will sell you as few as 3. They had a number of breeds. They weren’t cheap though. Well some of the more common ones weren’t bad, other more “rare” ones were $11-21 per day old chick. Which is crazy (I think)

sorry about your eggs. I also had a number of shipped eggs come in and a lot weren’t good. It’s the luck of the draw this time of year I think. Most of the eggs from my own flockweren’t any good either.

Thank! I looked them up and their ship dates are a little too far out

I have fertile eggs I'd be happy to send your way. Roo is an Ameraucana and hens are a variety of different types (easter eggers-blue & green layers, barred rock, australorp, rhode island red, buff orpington, leghorn). Happy to send 6+ with a few colored if you prefer, can send out tomorrow. We are currently hatching out, due to hatch on the 5th of February and my daughter is so excited. If allowed to ship to CA, I'd be happy to send out some day old chicks. Anything to help the excitement of another little girl.

thank you so much for your offer!! I was able to find someone nearby with a hatch set around the same day, so hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a whole brood full.

 

[ThunderHillChick]

Thank! I looked them up and their ship dates are a little too far out

thank you so much for your offer!! I was able to find someone nearby with a hatch set around the same day, so hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a whole brood full.

Oh I am So glad you found some!!

I was freaking out sat morning when I thought only one was hatching! Thankfully I got three so I can postpone my chick order a couple weeks