"Settling" Shipped Eggs: Necessary? With Auto-Turner?

[curranchickens]

LOL... I am not allowed to be a nervous wreck. I was though! I had a very hard time coming to the decision to even order eggs. I got my first chickens last summer and they just started laying a month ago. I started collecting eggs to hatch and ordered two incubators. I filled the one up with my eggs and then ordered hatching eggs for the other. I figured that I was not sure if my eggs would even hatch since my cockerel is sooo young and my girls have only laid eggs for a few weeks before I started collecting them for hatching. So, I wanted the hatching eggs to fall back on since I would be fairly certain that they were at least fertile. I wanted to set them on the same day but since my hatching eggs were so late then I had not choice but to start my eggs on a Friday and start my hatching eggs on a Monday.

Anyway, before I paid for my eggs, I asked a million questions... I paid then I emailed several times in the wait for them to arrive, especially when they did not arrive on Friday or Saturday as expected. Then when the arrived, I flipped out because of the detached air cells and emailed again... She emailed back and very politely said, "you have huge amounts of anxiety over these eggs" "chill" "just enjoy your eggs and wait to see what happens" LOL.. I read it and was like, SHE IS SO RIGHT! I stopped worrying... especially since I had lost all hope that they would hatch anyway. I researched, came up with this plan and decided to leave it in God's hands. If I have babies, I have babies!

Happily, in the other incubator, I am on day 7 (oh it is after midnight so day 8

) of my hatch with my own eggs... I just candled tonight. I set 26, 3 were clear and I removed them, 1 had a blood ring and I removed it, 2 I can not tell and 21 all have veins!!!!! I this is my first ever hatch so I have never candled before. I see veins but they are more towards the top of the egg instead of the middle like alot of the pics I see everywhere... I hope that is ok. I am just so excited to see anything!!!

Now I am figuring that if my eggs fail, maybe my shipped eggs will survive and if my eggs are successful then it will soften the blow when my shipped eggs fail.

If I have God on my side, I will hatch out 21 Lavender Orpingtons (my eggs), 7 Salmon Faverolles (shipped), 6 Golden Cuckoo Marans and 6 Blue Wheaten Amerucanas!!!! (But would be happy with a boy and girl of each breed of shipped egg and a few of my own lavender orpingtons....

:

Sounds good to me...but I'm not the OP!

At least we can all be nervous wrecks together!!

 

[NYRIR]

Curranchickens

Man, that's gonna be some hatch if you can do it!! I would LOVE some lavender Orps....

As for the "you've got too much anxiety over these eggs".....LOL.....

Yeah, I probably do too....

Hey, let's do something totally unheard of.....we can be calm,cool,collected hatching buddies....

And just see what we get!

I have been thinking along those lines as well and trying to remind myself....they're just eggs!! I will do my best to give them a shot at life....if that fails, I'll order more chicks....

I get so bad though, for example, tonight....I'm at work (11-7) and DH is home...sleeping. I have an incubator on lockdown due Sunday...I last had my DD check it before she went to bed....I will call my DH at 4 am to have him check it....

LOL....and these are local (well,45 minutes away) Sumatra/EE CROSS eggs!! But they lay OLIVE EGGS !!! See the importance???

I need help.

 

[curranchickens]

It is going to be an amazing hatch if it hatches! I have been looking for exactly what breeds I want to work with and if I can get these eggs to hatch then I will be on my way to a dream flock!

I could not handle not being here 24-7! I am a stay at home mom so I do not have to work around a work schedule. My only issue is that my entire family (my family, my brother and his family, sister and her family and parents) all have reservations at a resort for spring break. I am supposed to be there on vacation with my family when my chicks go into lockdown and hatch! NO! Luckily, the resort is only 3 miles from my doorstep... I will be sneaking (and I do mean sneaking) away the entire time to get here and check on my incubators!

I love my lavender orps. Lets see what happens with this hatch and make sure fertility is good and I will mail you some eggs for the cost of shipping if you would like. I have never mailed before. It will be an experiment of it's own. I will use you as a test run for packing and shipping. They will be free so really no stress!

Curranchickens

Man, that's gonna be some hatch if you can do it!! I would LOVE some lavender Orps....

As for the "you've got too much anxiety over these eggs".....LOL.....

Yeah, I probably do too....

Hey, let's do something totally unheard of.....we can be calm,cool,collected hatching buddies....

And just see what we get!

I have been thinking along those lines as well and trying to remind myself....they're just eggs!! I will do my best to give them a shot at life....if that fails, I'll order more chicks....

I get so bad though, for example, tonight....I'm at work (11-7) and DH is home...sleeping. I have an incubator on lockdown due Sunday...I last had my DD check it before she went to bed....I will call my DH at 4 am to have him check it....

LOL....and these are local (well,45 minutes away) Sumatra/EE CROSS eggs!! But they lay OLIVE EGGS !!! See the importance???

I need help.

 

[NYRIR]

It is going to be an amazing hatch if it hatches! I have been looking for exactly what breeds I want to work with and if I can get these eggs to hatch then I will be on my way to a dream flock!

I could not handle not being here 24-7! I am a stay at home mom so I do not have to work around a work schedule. My only issue is that my entire family (my family, my brother and his family, sister and her family and parents) all have reservations at a resort for spring break. I am supposed to be there on vacation with my family when my chicks go into lockdown and hatch! NO! Luckily, the resort is only 3 miles from my doorstep... I will be sneaking (and I do mean sneaking) away the entire time to get here and check on my incubators!

I love my lavender orps. Lets see what happens with this hatch and make sure fertility is good and I will mail you some eggs for the cost of shipping if you would like. I have never mailed before. It will be an experiment of it's own. I will use you as a test run for packing and shipping. They will be free so really no stress!




Quote:

Ok! Sounds like a plan to me!!! I would love to have some Lavender Orps to add to my flock! I will definitely be your "test" run!

Yes, I would be sneaking home too!! I don't know if I could go back.....

I came home this morning to my incubator that's due to hatch on Sunday...and humidity was down to 53%...ugh....and DH called me at 3 30 am and it was in the 60's....bad thing is, I have a pip in the Sumatra/EE cross olive egg!! I hope it didn't dry out!!

 

[chkinut]

I wish you the best of luck.I just have finished hatching out 1 little White Silkie out of 34.I am so sick on my stomach.I opened some of them and they had made it all the way and stopped dead.Not breathing,just as pretty as can be.Then some stopped before they ever got started good.Some was just yolk,,,

The little White Silkie is so lonesome.But I try to hold him as much as I can.So I know he will be a pet and spoiled,but that is ok too.The next ones I get will be alive ,and when they get big enough I will hatch some of them or let the Moms hatch them.they are such great Moms.

the same thing happened to me a couple years ago! one hatched out of 14 eggs. i little white pullet. i even sent her egg in for DNA testing to see her sex since i knew it takes forever to sex silkies. and i can't keep roosters. i went to petsmart and bought a dog carrier, the kind you wear like a front pack. and i also bought a carrier that looked kinda like a purse. i spoiled her and had her with me a lot. then the time came where i integrated her with my other girls, who were all very young and about her age. the LF girls and my lil' Sweet Pea got along great! at first. then the LF girls snapped one day and hated Sweet Pea, so i gave her away to a friend who has a farm. Sweet Pea is very happy to this day, she even has a boy friend and has become a mother (more than once). but i miss her. so i'm hatching more, hoping i will do better, have at least 2 hens, keep them in a separate coop, and see what happens. if all goes well, i may never use my incubator again (unless i want to hatch out a lot of eggs). sweet pea also was my 1st time hatching...so maybe i'll do better. i also didn't let the eggs settle for anymore than 4 hours. i was too impatient back then.

 

[aveca]

wow! thanks aveca! well then, that leads me to kinda the same question Chickmashnoon had....except that question was for one day. but my question is if you go longer, say a week, with out turning the eggs, will it hurt local eggs? or should i plan on turning the local eggs?

you are sure welcome..this really does work...vet told me years ago that in the first 7 days with shipped eggs the embryo is little more than a few cells and veining but as that embryo grows they begin to makes waste product and that needs to be circulated by moving the egg ... it is different than the turningn an undamaged egg can start day one like right from your own barn...but shipped egg air cells that need healing time should get it...you will hatch a much larger percentage of shipped eggs this way..just keep an eye on air cell...you will be so suprised at they look like they never had a problem...she doesnt stop her turner until day 19, i never got around to asking her why, nephew in england also turns his turner off day 19..i will have to ask one of them why day 19 instead of 18?...bif i remember right, our vet used to hatch out very rare and endangered parrots and like california condor type birds so some of the eggs were for cornell shipped from 1/2 way around the world..so lots of experience there...one guy on a redwood incubator site found it out trial and error..interesting he came up with same solution..

 

[aveca]

you know for a while i was hatching tons of birds for a freind that were shipped...had very large percent hatch so they wwere always thrilled...the only problems ive ever had were temp problems ..husband fell off a ladder once in winter befor a blizzard, i wound up in .trauma unit overnight with him and into surgery..they wouldnt even let me go home the weather was so bad...power was out all over town..a batch that i really wanted were at that time ready to go into lockdown..by the time the neighbor finnaly plowed me out and i was able to get home..house was ice cold..im still suprised the pipes didnt burst...i thought all was lost..the eggs fell way below temp...i for whatever reason turned the bator back on as soon as power was restored..on something crazy like day 27...three hatched and one lone australorp survived the ordeal..the eggs i checked were in hatch position but the cold had killed them...i was just heartbroke..i had wanted those for a long time..there is a lot of hope for shipped eggs..and vets instructions really help.

 

[aveca]

wow! thanks aveca! well then, that leads me to kinda the same question Chickmashnoon had....except that question was for one day. but my question is if you go longer, say a week, with out turning the eggs, will it hurt local eggs? or should i plan on turning the local eggs?

i kind of reach in the bator an tilt those back and forth right in the tray by hand and even once in middle of night if i get up...remember to wash hands since you will be handeling them often..i try to do that 2X day thou it really isnt good to disturb your temps a lot..it will still work. i start in the back and move my way to the front.

 

[aveca]

there was a show duck breeder in here or possibly another web site that at lockdown if he had any air cells that were in an odd place or healed in funny pattern , he would trace the air cell with pencil just on those in case he needed to go in and help that one, less likley to cut into veins. or working bits...once in a while those stop zipping because the patter is strange shape..i have seen some cut right out and a few get confounded

 

[angusb]

Has anybody found this cheat sheet on the "Easter Egg hatch thread" that avec has mentioned several times? I've looked all over, including in avec's posting history, and found nothing.