Letting shipped eggs rest

[alsykes2000]

I’ve been hatching a lot of shipped eggs lately and it seems every breeder tells me something different, some say the most important thing is to “let eggs rest 24 hours before setting them”, and I got a clutch in today and the breeders hatching guide said “set them immediately but don’t turn them until day 3”. The last batch I hatched, I let them rest 60 hours because I was going to be out of town at the 21 day mark. The eggs came from Massachusetts to Texas and my hatch rate was 70%, which is awesome for shipped marans eggs. It made me wonder if the extra resting time was good for the eggs considering the altitude, climate etc, acclimate not just to the temperature but to my environment. I’ve had terrible hatch rates when setting eggs right away. I’ve also had terrible hatch rates when I tried dry hatching. I’m probably overanalyzing, when there seems to be many factors that are beyond my control before I even receive the eggs. Does anyone find more success with extra resting time? I am planning to let these eggs rest at least 48 hours, I think.

 

[alsykes2000]

I want to add that I use a brinsea ex ovation 28 fully automatic for hatching, and that has really improved my hatch rate so much over my previous 2 incubators (farm innovators and later nurture right 360 - not a fan).

 

[mcdze]

like you said, so many factors out of your control ... i think its a minor factor personally, every time ive bought shipped eggs i unpacked them and put them in the incubator already running lol ... last batch was just a dozen but they all hatched - on day 16 haha .. yes, in the summer in a hot delivery truck chances are they are already 'incubating' ... best tip i can give on shipped eggs is try to order them as close as possible, somehow i dont see eggs ordered from bumfuxt egypt that wind up in the stratosphere in the cargo hold of a plane being in an ideal situation ..

 

[MoeHog]

I’ve been hatching a lot of shipped eggs lately and it seems every breeder tells me something different, some say the most important thing is to “let eggs rest 24 hours before setting them”, and I got a clutch in today and the breeders hatching guide said “set them immediately but don’t turn them until day 3”. The last batch I hatched, I let them rest 60 hours because I was going to be out of town at the 21 day mark. The eggs came from Massachusetts to Texas and my hatch rate was 70%, which is awesome for shipped marans eggs. It made me wonder if the extra resting time was good for the eggs considering the altitude, climate etc, acclimate not just to the temperature but to my environment. I’ve had terrible hatch rates when setting eggs right away. I’ve also had terrible hatch rates when I tried dry hatching. I’m probably overanalyzing, when there seems to be many factors that are beyond my control before I even receive the eggs. Does anyone find more success with extra resting time? I am planning to let these eggs rest at least 48 hours, I think.

I have kept my fertile eggs in a egg crate while gathering the rest of the eggs till I had 24 eggs total, I sprayed the eggs with a mix of half 3% proxide and half water ( no tap water).
Place the eggs pointy side down in the crate, lean the crate of eggs on a ledge, such as a 2x4 board upright and swap ends of the crate of eggs twice daily so that the membrane doesn't stick.
My incubator ran for 1 day with water to make sure my temperature and humidity was stabel.
Day 2 while letting the eggs rest I sprayed half 3% poroxide and half water onto my egg turner and ran the incubator for the day to disinfect the incubating machine.
Day 3 I set the eggs and began the hatch for 7-8 days then candled them.
At this point of candling I could see that 24 eggs had been fertile and found signs of movement in all eggs.
Day 14 opened back up the incubator re-candeld to find all eggs have shown signs of life/ movement.
On the 18th day I took out the top layer of the egg turner, placed the eggs back into the incubator, opened vent all the way, filled up the entire bottom of incubator with luke warm water, unplugged the motor that turns the eggs.
Left the eggs on lockdown with a towl over the machine but not covering the vent hole till day 21, didn't lose not one single chick, Success!