I couldn't find a thread that talks about shipped eggs exclusively, so I thought maybe some of us could share our experiences. I'm having a weird problem (at least weird for me) so maybe some of you experienced folks can help out.
Last year, I let a broody hen hatch and raise all of my eggs, even the shipped eggs. She did an okay job with the shipped eggs (50%). There were some nest fighting problems etc, so that effected my hatch as well. I know that shipped eggs usually have about at 50% hatch rate, so I guess she did pretty good.
This year, I didn't want to depend on a broody, so I started hatching some of my own eggs in an incubator in January. First hatch, I hatched 4 out of 6. Second hatch, I hatched 7 out of 8. I thought I had the incubator dialed in and that all would be well.
So, I ordered some bantam eggs. They finally came and I set them with 8 of my own eggs. Today is day 21. Two of my own eggs hatched yesterday. I have a third one that hatched about an hour ago and another pipping. No sign of anything from the shipped eggs. Do they normally take longer than a "fresh" egg to hatch? I'm willing to wait quite a while for these eggs to hatch, but I'm really concerned because I'm not seeing any action from them.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Last year, I let a broody hen hatch and raise all of my eggs, even the shipped eggs. She did an okay job with the shipped eggs (50%). There were some nest fighting problems etc, so that effected my hatch as well. I know that shipped eggs usually have about at 50% hatch rate, so I guess she did pretty good.
This year, I didn't want to depend on a broody, so I started hatching some of my own eggs in an incubator in January. First hatch, I hatched 4 out of 6. Second hatch, I hatched 7 out of 8. I thought I had the incubator dialed in and that all would be well.
So, I ordered some bantam eggs. They finally came and I set them with 8 of my own eggs. Today is day 21. Two of my own eggs hatched yesterday. I have a third one that hatched about an hour ago and another pipping. No sign of anything from the shipped eggs. Do they normally take longer than a "fresh" egg to hatch? I'm willing to wait quite a while for these eggs to hatch, but I'm really concerned because I'm not seeing any action from them.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
