Shipped eggs arrived, ALL with detached air cells

[Chotii]

These eggs were wrapped beautifully, and they still arrived, every one of them, with the air cell detached.

I have set them anyway, starting this morning, in egg cartons. I don't have much hope but I've heard of instances where some like this DID hatch. I will candle at 10 days and remove clears and blood rings, and pray for no explosions.

I don't think I better buy shipped eggs anymore. The two boxes I got came from different people, different regions of the country, both well packaged and marked, and they're equally bashed around, so I blame my local handlers.

Wish me luck.

 

[gocrow77]

Sorry to hear it. I got two shipments a few weeks ago while my regular carrier was on vacation. Nothing from either batch developed or hatched. Not the fault of the shippers at all; they were packaged extremely well. Now that my regular carrier is back I'm trying again. Hope you have better luck and get some to hatch for you.

 

[onthespot]

I just hatched seven beautiful dark brahma chicks out of eleven possibles from shipped eggs... Hang in there. I hatched mine in the turner, standing up. I turned the turner off at 18 days and left the eggs in it and kept checking for zips. When they zipped, I would pull the egg out, pull the chick out of the egg myself and mist the rest of the eggs lightly with a spray bottle and close the bator. They did fine.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Aww. I hate that for you. Shipped eggs are chancey arent they?

My regular PO delivery gal even keeps my boxes in the shade of the back seat while driving her route so that they stay as cool as possible. She is fabulous!

However, I will just keep my mouth shut about the yahoo that they use when she is out sick or on vaca. Next year, I am requesting her vaca schedule....ugh

good luck!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

It is always worth a try, I have had eggs that I am sure are not going to hatch and they do. Make sure you let them rest for 8-12 hours at least. Good luck to you. Keep us posted.

Question for onthespot: (not to put you on the spot...) when do you take the chicks out of the eggs? At the star crack, pip or zip? Why don't you let them hatch out themselves?
Don't get me wrong, I am thinking this is a good idea and want to try it out. Just need more info. Is this hijacking? If so, would you please pm me with the answer? Thank you

 

[onthespot]

I pulled them out after they zipped because the first one I let hatch itself in the bator with the turner in it and the first thing he did was get stuck head first down the hole at the bottom of the turner cradle... I have been looking for these for MONTHS and didn't want them bumbling around getting hurt after all the long odds they had beaten so far. I did not have a non-cardboard egg carton to do the egg carton method, so I just kept a super close eye on them all day and pulled them just as I thought they were about to launch themselves already. There were no "assisited" hatches. Four out of eleven failed to impress me enough to pull them out and I let them go the way of eggs that didn't hatch. I was THRILLED to get seven out of eleven BADLY torn up air cells. They looked like some kind of deep sea invertebrate formation instead of a nice, round or oval light spot. Some went more than halfway down the shell, then across the top at an angle. Some had three or four big lobes like a lopsided cloverleaf. One was WAY offset clear over to the side. One was accidently set upside down with a completely loose air cell and still developed. I didn't realize it until the 18th day. I just candled them by leaving them in the turner and just touching the candler to the top of the egg for less than a second to check on development. I did not try to make them "dance" or "swim" for my entertainment. I don't mind you putting me on the spot. That is my name, after all. I do the best I can with the info available and pays my money and takes my chances. I don't take everything on here as bible truth either. I just do what I think will work.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

You are great onthespot. I bet you could hear my gasp when I read that the chick was head down in the turner! OMGosh. Talk about shock. I would have never dreamed they would but now that I have seen just how graceful (joking) some of the chicks are I am surprised that was all that happened!
I think what you did was smart. If they got to the zip stage then I dont think they could be called assisted. They were ready.
Today I opened one up that only had a "star crack" I was done waiting for the eggs and had already opened about 6 with dead chicks. When I heard it peeping I was thinking that it was not such a great idea. But I finished helping just to see and out comes this big chick with big feet and it had its head curled up and would not uncurl it. I just put it back in the bator to dry out and watch and after a couple hours it was on its feet.
The air cells sound terrible and I am happy for you that they actually hatched. That is encouraging for all of us who look at the air cells of our shipped eggs and want to cry.

 

[tia]

So the air cells can be screwed up and the chick/duck will still develop.....I hope mine are okay. I will have to candle them again...
Mine were shipped from Metzer Farm and I live in Alaska. When I candled them I could see they were developing, all but one that wasn't fertile, but I didn't check the air cell that much.

I have a question too... for anyone. When you get eggs like that from a hatchery. Do they all come from the same chicken or duck? I have 4 black runner eggs and 4 while/fawn runner eggs, but I imagine all of the black ones came from the same duck, so if I want to hatch some more ducks will I have to get a duck from another source?

The more I read on here, the more I realize that I have a lot to learn.

Thanks.

Tia

 

[becky3086]

The eggs could come from any number of chickens/ducks but even if you wanted to hatch more and they were related, you still could. Inbreeding with poultry is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[onthespot]

Candling stresses the chicks. Too much can kill them. Less is more.

If you just want to see chicks dance, set some junker eggs along with your valuable ones and just candle those junker eggs if you want your kids to see the baby chicks move inside the shell... I candle at around ten days and 18 days usually. More just seems to be for my own entertainment and I have learned to quit doing it. Candling does NOT help the chicks in any way. Also, leaving them in the bator or turner is easier on them for candling, as opposed to removing them all and letting them cool, get jostled around, dropped. Just leave them as they lie and candle them where they are. If you can't see anything, wait till the next candling day. There is probably nothing to see.