My first Hatch; Shipped eggs versus local eggs

[bbqsfarm]

So I have my first eggs in the incubator, Bobwhites.

I mail ordered 30. 10 were not fertile or something happened in shipping. I candled at day 8. No veins just yolks I tossed those pretty simple. Left 20

I picked up 20 from a guy down the road. Now he did not collect just left them in the pen and told me to show up on Sat am and gather them. I noticed he had more males then females. 19 were fertile when I candled on day eight. Originally these were dirty so I opted to wash them (free) did not want to contaminate the others. I did a light wipe with clorox wipe that I ran under very warm water to dilute. I still have viable growing eggs.

When I candled on day eight I thought I had a bunch of blood rings but decided to mark them as bad a hang on another couple days. (I saw this suggestion in a post) I am sooooo glad I did that; when I rechecked them I was wrong on a few of them.

I have 9 eggs for sure on the shipped that I saw movement and confident they are alive a growing. I have 6 that were still undecided. Granted this is my first attempt and I had some humidity issues at first. So wishing I had more but ok with that I guess. (This was a coast to coast shipment)

On my eggs from down the road I have 12 that I am confident about and 2 not sure. (I am excited as he has never been able to successfully hatch any).

So for a first time I think I am doing OK. It is so hard to be patient. I will candle 1 more time, what would be the next best day? Think my lock down day would be May 2nd. (Day 20 right?)

Was is the average on shipped eggs? Of course the ones I want can never be found in my area..........

 

[ColleenC]

I've just hatched quail for the first time, and I had a 50% hatch rate from the eggs I got through the mail (7 of 14 hatched). I don't know if that's normal though! Someone more experienced at incubating may have done a better job of getting more of them through. I cracked open 4 of the 7 that didn't hatch and none of them had any embryo development.

 

[Mwilliams32931]

I had a 50% hatch rate with my very first batch. I bought them off of ebay. I am hoping "fingers crossed" to get some eggs from my aunt this weekend and set another batch next week. I am waiting on an order of button quails that will be shipped Monday so I am interested to see if my hatch rate will improve now that I have been thru it.

 

[TwoCrows]

They say if you can get a 50% hatch rate from shipped eggs, you are doing fantastic! So it sounds like you are on track. As long as you let shipped eggs rest to get the air bubbles out of them and allow the eggs to come to room temp, then there isn't much trouble with shipped eggs. Too many folks want to immediately start incubating shipped eggs. They do need to settle before setting.

Day 20 is lock down for Bobwhite eggs. You might want to candle on day 18 or 19. I wouldn't candle after that as you don't want to open the incubator after lock down. Good luck!