Looking for Bielefelder hatching eggs

[pinerchicken]

@pinerchicken I hear you. Tough to find reputable breeders who are meticulous about shipping and even then, there are problems with the USPS. Good luck!

Yes, it's a bit of luck

 

[GlennLee]

@pinerchicken I know you weren't keen on ebay, but it's looking like I have 9 out of 11 Bielefelder ebay eggs that will be heading into lockdown in decent shape. ALL of them had detached air cells at day 7. When candled at day 14 only one was still detached and I'm hopeful it will hatch just fine, as long as I leave it upright. I'm getting to be the queen of hatching detached air cell eggs thanks to the USPS! My first batch of "dac's" had a 90% hatch rate. Now I may be overloaded with Bielefelders. I know you don't want to hear that and if you were closer, I'd share .... Seriously, you may want to consider ebay.... I'll know definitively in another week. The proof is in the hatching, but we're looking good now.

 

[pinerchicken]

I have bought form eBay before. Hatched 5 out of 8 Silver Laced Wyandottes and 4 out of 6 silkies. Wyandottes had saddle air cells.

USPS in CALIFORNIA is just trained to shake up eggs really well.

I am curious how you handle your shipped eggs with detached air cells though. How long do you let it sit before you place them in the incubator? Do you star turning them on day 0 if they have detached cell or do you wait 3 days?

 

[gator75]

We offer hatching eggs of Bielefelders any may other fun breeds

Our communication is clear/quick and we could ship a dozen out to you as soon as April 3rd!

Http://www.alchemistfarm.com

email is the best way to get ahold of us [email protected]

Beautiful website. Next time I need birds, I'll for sure check y'all out.

 

[GlennLee]

@pinerchicken well, I'm still working on what the best protocol is for dealing with detached air cells... this was all new to me - first time hatching shipped eggs.

Here's what happened to the first hatch - they sat for 12 hours in my basement and then were brought up to room temp and put in the incubator like normal on their sides and turned 5x's a day for the first week - BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW THEY HAD DAC's UNTIL THEY WERE CANDLED AT DAY 7. When I finally figured out what was going on, I moved them into a cardboard egg carton (with holes cut out of the bottom) and set them upright, but tilted to one side. I "turned" them 3x's a day by tilting them from the left to the right and then gently rotating a quarter turn. At Day 15, I had 4 with set air cells, 3 still with detached air cells, 3 with saddled air cells (but set), and 1 with a detached air cell AND a saddled air cell. The 4 set eggs were put on their sides to hatch, the dac's were kept upright to hatch (I also stopped turning them on Day 16) and the saddled were put on their sides with the largest portion of the air cell up. Out of 11, I had 10 hatch. Very surprised and relieved!

Now that I know what to expect with shipped eggs, the second hatching has been handled differently from the start and I will see how that impacts this hatch. With the eggs I currently have in the incubator, I let them set 24 hours in the basement, let them warm to room temp and put them all in cardboard egg cartons set upright from the start for the first week.

I didn't turn them for the first two days, then I started turning - tilting left to right w/ a quarter turn - days 3 to 7. When they were candled on Day 7, out of 27 eggs, 17 eggs were developing fine with no dac's and 10 eggs had dac's. Those that were fine were placed on their sides to continue incubation and the dac's remained upright continuing with the same procedure for turning.

By Day 14, of the 10 dac eggs, I only had 1 egg still a dac, 1 is saddled and 1 is questionable as far as development. We are on Day 15 and will be heading into lockdown soon.

I'll keep you posted on the hatching of this group compared to the first group. Especially interested to note the turning vs. not turning or turning less. My gut tells me turning is better than not turning, but Cornell doesn't recommend turning shipped eggs for the first 7 days. That made me a bit nervous based on what I know about development that first week so I compromised with letting them set for 2 days. I feel like I'm doing my own mini-research project here. All in a day's work!