Just found this thread. We put 18 shipped eggs (mixed eggs from a fellow BYC) in our homemade incubator 2/1. The post office was not nice to the box. The box said hold at PO and they put it out for delivery. So it rode around on a truck all day and then was put on it's side out in the snow on my front porch. I have no idea how long it sat there since I was home in the morning when I wanted to pick it up but had to leave that day and didn't get home until 7.
We let them sit and reach room temp, then set them but didn't turn them for 5 days. Our incubator hasn't been maintaining a very steady temp. It's fluctuating 3 degrees. I'm going to try a different part of the house for the next batch. I candled last night and we have 5 eggs that have good development and 3 unknowns (shells too dark to tell what's in there). If those 5 hatch, I consider that a pretty good hatch rate for our first hatch, and for shipped eggs.
We're going to set some local silkie eggs as soon as these are done.
Here are the eggs we set. We have two of the larger blue ones and three of the small brown ones that are definitely developing. The two olive eggs are dark but too dark to see veins. One of the large brown ones is questionable. I see a dark mass but can't really seen any veins. The small blue ones are clear and the rest had blood rings.
Those are some pretty eggs. I am loving the blues and the olive colors.
I also had to share the first picture of our guineas because I thought it was too cute not too
