Shipped egg newbie: documentation

[hammyanne]

Mostly posting this for my own records! But maybe it'll come in handy for someone else in the future. To date, I've hatched one batch of my own eggs, with another batch of my own due on 4/3. This was all in preparation for hatching shipped eggs—it seems like there are as many opinions as there are actual eggs being hatched!

I ordered some Ameraucana and Ayam Cemani eggs from a breeder in Florida back in January, and she reached out about fulfillment in early March. The eggs shipped on 3/17 and reached me in upstate NY on 3/21. I had fully intended on letting them rest upright for 24 hours before setting them, but I was worried about risking a drop in viability by waiting another day. I candled the eggs when they arrived and a few of them had some pretty rough-looking air cells, some saddled and some completely loose.

I let the eggs come to room temperature on my counter for a few hours, and then loaded them up in my incubator. Turned off the turner for a day, then turned it back on on day 2. I just did my day 3 candle and I was pleasantly surprised to see some development in almost all of the eggs, but some problematic air cells as well. Will post updates as they continue incubating!

Attaching photos of some of the fun colors I might get from the random egg assortment:

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful incubation/hatch. Sounds positive so far.

 

[hammyanne]

Good luck for a successful incubation/hatch. Sounds positive so far.

Thank you! Cautiously optimistic, but remaining open to heartbreak.

 

[Debbie292d]

Mostly posting this for my own records! But maybe it'll come in handy for someone else in the future. To date, I've hatched one batch of my own eggs, with another batch of my own due on 4/3. This was all in preparation for hatching shipped eggs—it seems like there are as many opinions as there are actual eggs being hatched!

I ordered some Ameraucana and Ayam Cemani eggs from a breeder in Florida back in January, and she reached out about fulfillment in early March. The eggs shipped on 3/17 and reached me in upstate NY on 3/21. I had fully intended on letting them rest upright for 24 hours before setting them, but I was worried about risking a drop in viability by waiting another day. I candled the eggs when they arrived and a few of them had some pretty rough-looking air cells, some saddled and some completely loose.

I let the eggs come to room temperature on my counter for a few hours, and then loaded them up in my incubator. Turned off the turner for a day, then turned it back on on day 2. I just did my day 3 candle and I was pleasantly surprised to see some development in almost all of the eggs, but some problematic air cells as well. Will post updates as they continue incubating!

Attaching photos of some of the fun colors I might get from the random egg assortment:

View attachment 4080816 View attachment 4080817

I have hatched about 6 shipments of eggs this past summer. I'm in Wisconsin and they came from Florida, Maine, and a few other states.

Every time I let them sit in an egg carton at room temperature for 24 hours. I would only get 1/3 to hatch, but those that were saddled didn't make a difference until hatch time came. Their air cell was on the side. 50% of the time they could hatch themselves. The other 50% I helped them get out, then left them in the incubator for another 12/24 hours as they were weak and/or seemed like they had leg issues. They came out of it perfectly!

 

[hammyanne]

I have hatched about 6 shipments of eggs this past summer. I'm in Wisconsin and they came from Florida, Maine, and a few other states.

Every time I let them sit in an egg carton at room temperature for 24 hours. I would only get 1/3 to hatch, but those that were saddled didn't make a difference until hatch time came. Their air cell was on the side. 50% of the time they could hatch themselves. The other 50% I helped them get out, then left them in the incubator for another 12/24 hours as they were weak and/or seemed like they had leg issues. They came out of it perfectly!

Thank you for the wisdom! I’m going to keep an eye on some of those funky air cells and be prepared to assist

 

[hammyanne]

I've been monitoring 2 Ameraucana eggs that I suspected were unviable—they looked like lava lamps these last few days. Confirmed today that both were completely scrambled with no development.

All 6 Ayam Cemani eggs are developing well! I'm curious why that's the case...

 

[hammyanne]

2 more Ameraucana quitters: one was completely scrambled, another looked like it had developed up to day 6.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

What a coincidence! I believe you ordered from the place I just looked at ordering from.

I'm curious, if I may ask, did things go okay...?

 

[hammyanne]

What a coincidence! I believe you ordered from the place I just looked at ordering from.

I'm curious, if I may ask, did things go okay...?

Great timing! I’m currently on day 20 and everyone has pipped so far. Of the 24 eggs I ordered (18 purebred Ameraucana assortment, 6 Ayam Cemani blue eggers), 13 made it to lockdown. One of my Ayams failed to absorb her yolk and was dead in the shell.

So at the moment I’m looking at a 50% hatch rate, pretty good for shipped and considering I only let them rest for a few hours before popping them into the incubator. I’ll update with photos once everyone’s hatched ◡̈

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Congratulations! Sending best wishes for their continued...uh... thriving? That sentence sounded weird.