Ordered eggs but somethings very wrong. Need advice.

[country]

I bid on & won some hatching eggs from a well-known breeder of beautiful Silkies. I was absolutely thrilled...until the eggs arrived. The eggs came quite a distance but the packing was great so it looked like everything was intact. However, I did notice that 4 of the eggs were very different from the others. The majority were tan colored & nice & smooth as eggs should be. These 4 were like no eggs I've ever seen. The shells were white & very rough, almost chalk like. They seemed a little moist, almost like they had been leaking through the shell but I didn't see any sign of cracking. The packing used was like quilt batting & it was clinging to the 4 oddballs & wouldn't come off.

When I candled everything to check the egg sacs, it was obvious that the 4 white ones had very thin shells & I did detect a crack in one of them. I went ahead & set them, hoping for the best. Well, I went up 2 days ago to candle & see if anything was perking...what a mess. One of the white eggs had burst & was obviously rotten. It looked like it had just broken in half & then kind of erupted like a volcanoe & contaminated several eggs around it. It had only been in the bator for 9 days. I got it out of there, cleaned everything up, & went on with the candling. The other 3 whites were in another tray but when I went to check them, they were stuck to the tray. When I got them unstruck, there was a dried puddle of egg white on their bottoms. They were too far away from the other one to have gotten any spew so these must have been leaking through the shell. One of them was the one that was cracked during shipping but I still couldn't find cracks in the others. I took pictures of the whole mess.

I have questions & need advice.
1. What do you think was wrong with the eggs? Hens lacked calcium or? I read that Bronchitis will cause this & will also cause eggs to not hatch if a hen has it.
2. Have you ever had a FRESH egg explode after only 9 days in the bator?
3. Do you think that the breeder deliberately packed those bad eggs? They were so obviously different from the others that I don't see how it could have been done by mistake...unless she had someone else packing that didn't know anything about eggs.
4. Should I let her know what happened & what is the best way to approach her without being accusatory? If she has others packing eggs for her, I would think she might want to know that they are doing a poor job...before it hurts her reputation. However, I don't really think her operation is large enough to have employees.
5. Should I suggest or hint a replacement of at least the 4 eggs? I know that ordering eggs is very iffy & I would never ask for replacements if the eggs had been damaged in shipping or even if they weren't fertile. However, I can't help but feel that this is a little different. Plus, that exploder may have contaminated a lot of my other eggs, some of which were also ordered.

Please, what would you do if you were in my position?

Sheri/Country

 

[Wifezilla]

A simple "I don't know if you were aware, but 4 of the eggs looked rather odd. I set than anyway...blah blah blah" and see what she says.

 

[silkiechicken]

If you have pics of the "bad" eggs, I'd send those along with pics of the "good" eggs to the breeder and ask if she was aware of the situation. I personally wouldn't have set the thin questionable eggs in the first place. If the shells were damp, they could have gotten infected through the shell and easily exploded within a week.

For now I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, as I know that I have had my brother pack eating eggs for me, only to later find out he'd packed the eggs that had been set aside for hatching. You'd think he'd know not to pack the eggs on the counter in the bowl labeled "hatching" since he's there EVERY day, but stuff happens. Could have been something like that with the breeder too.

 

[becky3086]

Humm, maybe I'm wrong but seem to me the breeder could have told the chalky eggs from the others and to me and egg shouldn't go bad and explode that quickly unless it was bad to begin with. I would see about getting some if not all of my money back.

 

[geareduplyn]

Chalky or porous shelled eggs should never be shipped. Any competent breeder should be aware that they are way too fragile to be shipped and will probably not hatch anyway as they dry down way too fast. I do sometimes set eggs that have come from some of my older breeders where the shell quality has deteriorated, but my sucess rate is very low and they have to be handled with special care. For one of the porous shelled eggs to have exploded at 9 days would be possible because by definition they are more easily contaminated because of the shell quality. Bottom line is she shouldn't have sent them and I would contact her about them.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Any reputable breeder should NOT have sent those eggs and SHOULD refund your money. The odds are good, I am sorry to say, that your entire hatch could now be compromised as a result of the situation. I would not have set those for fear of contamination. I'm so sorry this happened. You do need to contact the seller and try to work something out. Good luck to you on the solving of the situation and on your impending hatch

 

[deerman]

Yes the eggs should have been inspected before shipping.

You should candled at day 7, but would thinks eggs were leaking or burst after 9 days had to be bad when set.

Did you check how large was the air cell ? larger cell older the eggs.

You can check egg age by water float, eggs a week old will lay on the bottem with large end up. 3 weeks old stand on the botten small end only toughing, very old eggs will float.

Some people ship old eggs,best not to ship eggs older than 3 days old.

 

[country]

I'm so sorry for not responding before now, but I've been having isp problems & have spent hours in "telephone hell" trying to get the problem fixed. Dell blames isp, isp blames Dell, yatta, yatta. At the moment, things seem to be working, so if I type fast, maybe I'll get this msg out.

Thank you all so much for the great advice. I kind of figured that those eggs wouldn't hatch, but I never dreamed that one would explode! Good lesson, I guess. I wanted chicks from this breeder so much that I pushed aside what little good sense I have.

I am going to contact the breeder & nicely ask about those eggs & see what she says. I really hope she offers to replace them as I'd still like some chicks from her line of Silkies. That's probably wishful thinking though as the eggs have to travel from the east coast to Calif. & USPS isn't very kind to fragile packages. I've actually had very good hatches from as far away as TN & MO, but after that, the odds drop drastically.

Thanks again. If I can manage to stay connected, I'll post the final results of contact with the seller.

Country

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

A breeder should have never sent those eggs. She knew what she was sending and sent them anyway.

Was the breeder located in Florida by any chance?

 

[country]

Hi Sundown,
Actually, the seller came from your state, NY.

You have Salmon Faverolles? I would love to get some nice quality Favs, standard & bantam both. Do you know of any good breeders in CA or neighboring states?

Thanks,
Sheri