Question on shipped eggs, help me understand this

[shelleyd2008]

I know that everyone says that shipped eggs don't hatch as well as eggs that are picked up or 'home grown'. So explain to me how it affects them if you can. I get shipped eggs a lot, not as often as I used to, it is so dis-heartening to have eggs start developing and quit. I often have close to 100% development on shipped eggs, only to end up with 1 or 2 chicks hatch. Case in point: Most recently I received 10 shipped chicken eggs. Only 2 did not develop, all others at least started. I lost a few the first week, a few the second week, then a few the third week. I have 1 chick hatched and another that is pipped internally, but no external pip yet. These were due today, so hopefully the other one doesn't give up. These eggs came from NC to KY.
Another recent shipment came from TN to KY, 16 eggs sent. I don't recall exactly how many started developing, but I know I had 10 that were moved to the hatcher. These eggs were not exactly dark, but difficult to see through. Out of the 10 eggs that were put into the hatcher, only 3 hatched.
Another shipment, this time pheasant eggs. I had 2 sets sent, one of 12 and one of 8. The one of 12 only had 3 start developing, 2 of which are in the hatcher. The shipment of 8 had 6 start developing, 3 of which are in the hatcher. Due tomorrow, no pips yet, though there are some internal pips. I know after candling in the first and second weeks that I had a total of 9 eggs. I candled again before putting them in the hatcher and had 5 total left. So 4 quit within the last week. One set was sent from NC (shipment of 8) the other from FL (shipment of 12, poorly packaged).
Another shipment had 18 eggs sent. These came from OH. Super dark marans eggs, difficult to candle. I could tell which were clear when I moved them to the hatcher, but other than that I don't know how developed any were. 14 'good' eggs were put into the hatcher, 10 hatched.

So explain to me how shipping can affect them to the extent that they quit at different points of development? I would think that shipping would either make them develop or not, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I know it could be something I am doing, but I seriously doubt that I am messing up this badly. I have good hatches on other types of birds (ducks, quail), just not on shipped chicken eggs. Pheasants are new to me, I've only had any once before, out of 2 eggs sent 1 hatched.

If anyone can enlighten me, it would be greatly appreciated. Any tips that you might offer to increase my hatch rates on shipped chicken eggs would be helpful. My incubators are a 1588 and a 1583, so neither has much in the way of temperature variations. I hatch mixed batches (chickens, guineas, quail, ducks) all at the same time, so the humidity is usually around 45-50% during incubation. Thanks

 

[duckyfromoz]

I did a bit of research into it last years when I was trying to hatch a lot of shipped eggs and wish I had bookmarked all the sites I had found as some information was pretty hard to find. I was looking into the effect that a detached air cell had on viability , Just like you I was having eggs quit at every stage of incubation- and yet my home grown eggs in the bator at the same time did great.

One thing I did do was mark on the egg where the aircell was when they went into the bator- tracing any movement in it as well. I found that there were a few eggs that had loose bits in the air cell right up until those eggs went into the hatcher- The ducklings never pipped in those eggs. My thoughts was that the surface area of the membrane was so great that the ducklings were pushing up to break though the membrane but it had too much give and they were unable to break through.

As far as eggs quitting before that point... If you imagine what force of a bump an egg in transit would need for the membrane to detach - think what that is doing to the rest of the egg. I often wondered - If the outer of the yolk became compromised in any way- could death occur in the developing chick late in the incubation when it starts to absorbs the yolk.

Look foward to reading other peoples thoughts and experiences too.

 

[Gypsy07]

I'll be keeping an eye on this post. I've just started hatching shipped eggs and from my first lot of ten eggs, all were fertile, 8 made it right up to lockdown, but only two hatched. I've just set another dozen two days ago and am wondering if there's anything I can do to increase their chances...

My first ten, most of the air cells were all over the place. Not totally detached, but unevenly shaped and stretching down the sides of the eggs. I wish I had outlined all the aircells in pencil on the shell so I knew if the two hatched chicks came from the few eggs with more 'normal' looking air cells. Ducky's suggestion about the detached membrane being too stretchy to break through sounds very possible, but I don't think there would be anything you could do about it.

I spoke to the seller of my shipped eggs, and he said that trauma during shipping would mean that the eggs just wouldn't develop at all, so if I had 10/10 fertile at 9 days, any subsequent problems were down to incubation problems. I don't have enough hatching experience to disagree with that from my own statistics, but people on here said that that wasn't correct.

My incubator is the type that the eggs lay on their sides and get rolled back and forwards, so if the air cell is detached, it tends to end up in the middle of the length of the egg come lockdown time. I'm wondering if the incubators where you put the eggs in pointy end down and they get rocked back and forth in a cradle would be better, as the air cell at least would stay at the top/fat end of the egg?

The only other thing I was thinking is that 45-50% humidity sounds a bit on the high side to me. I thought 35%, 40% max. for chicken eggs was the ideal humidity...

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
The incubators actually say you should have 45-55% during incubation, so it's fine. I usually run it on the high side of that because of the quail, guineas, and ducks. You're probably just used to reading on here, where most people use dry incubation

 

[poltroon]

This is an interesting question to me also. I'm wondering how much of the issue is g-forces and how much is temperature. If we had a better idea of the specific issues, it would probably be possible to create a packing strategy that would ensure better results.

Hmm, this actually could be a great science fair project for someone. Take home produced eggs, pack them up various ways, and simulate the rigors of travel. Some would get jostling, some temperature. You'd hold back some as controls.

 

[mamawolf544]

This is a very interesting topic, and leave it to Shelley to keep track.

I have had 100% hatch from shipped eggs and all live to be big happy birds.
I have had 18/20 develope only 2 hatch and then they died within 2 days.
I have never been able to hatch a peacock and I have tried 3 times.
I have bought allot of shipped eggs over rhe years and I am always

if I get 3 out of a dozen, Anymore than that is a bonus.


So I will

and learn.

 

[chickee]

My last hatch was my first attempt at shipped eggs. They were shipped So. California to Northern California. I thought because they weren't traveling to far that my chances of a good hatch were favorable. First, the breeder held the eggs a couple of days, then sent them so they sat at the post office over the weekend

She seemed to pack them well in sawdust in an egg carton but the eggs looked dry. All but one of 18 eggs made it through the first week. second week one blood ring. 16 eggs made it to lockdown. I noticed at lockdown that many of the eggs air sacs were too big!(too dry from packing?) Of the 16 eggs 9 hatched. 50% not bad for shipped eggs. One chick shrink wrapped but hatched on its own and the first chick to pip, pipped low and took 31 hrs to zip, and when he hatched he was upsidedown with his feet sticking up in the air!

I can't believe he made it out! I have eggs being shipped to me this week from Oklahoma and Illinois to California and I'm so nervous about what condition they will arrive in and how well my hatch will turn out this time!?

I hope others will chime in with some good advice/experience with shipped eggs to help us out!

 

[Redcatcher]

I have set hundreds of eggs that were shipped and have nearly 100% hatch to none at all and everything in between. Other than cracked shells, ruptured, loose, or tremulous air cells is the worst problem. Virtually all of the fertile eggs I set with bad air cells developed an embryo. What generally happens is that the air cell on the side of the egg interferes with the growth of the embryo and it dies. I am setting a dozen eggs right now that all arrived with loose air cells, large end up and hope for the best. I am using a clear plastic egg "carton" made to acommodate jumbo eggs so there is enough space around the eggs for them to breathe.

 

[ChickyLaura]

Geez, Louise! I thought it was me. I'm glad (well, not glad) to hear that I'm not the only one with this problem. I've always had poor hatch rates with shipped eggs. Everyone else posts that they're getting great hatch rates. So this year I was determined to have a good hatch, so my bators have been plugged in nonstop. I blamed my LG but honestly it holds temps great. I bought fertile Wyandotte eggs at the auction and would you believe I had 11/12 hatch?!? I seriously couldn't believe it! I now have several eggs on lockdown, but I don't think that I'll have much luck with these because I did a staggered hatch, and I don't think I want to do that again. I think what helped with the great hatch I had was 1) an automatic egg turner 2) non-shipped eggs 3) and I increased the humidity.

I seem to have much much better develpment with eggs that aren't shipped. The good hatch I had was text-book perfect except for one clear egg.

 

[debilorrah]

Just know that you are not alone. I am not sure what it is that causes the late quitting either, but I still get it to a degree with my own eggs.