Rotten Eggs!

[greygoose]

I ordered eggs from a breeder and only a few hatched out of a couple doz. Can you tell if the rotten eggs had even been fertilized? Some had grey goo, but some had yellow goo?

 

[fried green eggs]

Hi &

. Shipped eggs are hard to get a good hatch rate. The shipping can damage air cell so, a chick can not start to develop which would be the yellow goo and the gray goo is probably a chick that started but couldn't progress because of shipping damage. I've had really bad hatch rates on some shipped eggs. Don't blame the breeder because you are dealing with a very fragile thing and subjecting it to the U.S. Postal Servicel and if it survives that, the incubation has to be perfect and even then - there is no guarantees. Sorry and good luck on future hatches.

 

[greygoose]

Thanks for the advice and clearing things up for me!!! We had hatched a couple batches of Guinea eggs that we got from a local breeder to test out our incubator before spending a lot of money on a shipment and had a very successful hatch rate!! That is why we were concerned that maybe we may have been shipped unfertile eggs and thought maybe you could tell if the rotten ones may have been fertilized or not. Now I understand a little better. In the future we will buy local or pick up eggs ourselves.

Thanks again!!!

 

[fried green eggs]

Glad I could help. I have figured out that shiped eggs that do not travel very far will do better. I will let shipped eggs sit on the counter next to my incubator for 12 - 24 hours before they go into the incubator. I set them in the auto-turner with it off and I only turned them once a day for the first week. I learned this works while I was collecting eggs from a couple of my hens. I had to store them in my cool basement until I had enough eggs. I held the first eggs I collected for 7 days. I only turned them once a day and all of the eggs hatched. Giving the eggs time to settle and come to room temp will help with hatch rates but, local eggs will do much better for you. Good Luck.