Shipped eggs

[CrazyFowlFreak]

I set some eggs I won on Eggbid and here last Saturday. Temps have been perfect, humidity at 48-50%. I candled today and out of 24 from one seller, 8 are developing. Of the 8 from the other seller, 4 are developing. I have an Hovabator 2362N, with an automatic egg turner and the bator has a fan. What am I doing wrong? The eggs are on day 10 today, btw.

 

[debilorrah]

Nothing. Shipped eggs get kicked around by the postal workers, especially if they are marked fragile, eggs and such. If I get a 50% hatch rate from shipped eggs it is GOLD.

 

[abanjaf]

I agree. I've had it go both ways. I live in Florida, received 13 eggs from Texas and 10 hatched. Received 24 eggs from Michigan, and only 11 have made it to Day 10 in the bator (temp and humidity perfect, forced air, and auto-turner). Same bator, same conditions, different eggs and handling. You take a chance on shipped eggs.

 

[ChickFila]

I hatched 14 shipping eggs last weekend.
They were from two different sellers (8+6), and 10 healthy chicks were hatched out of 14.
I opened unhatched eggs today to find out what was wrong. (Due date was last Saturday). Among 4 eggs, one was clear (not fertile) and 3 were fully developed and absorbed york successfully. I am blame myself because I had to open the bator on Sunday night to take out already hatched chicks. Maybe the remaining 4 eggs were dead when I opened the bator.
I think I was very lucky to have 10 chicked out of 14 shipped eggs.
Now I have 16 more shipped eggs (french black copper marans) in a bator and 24 blue marans eggs (I picked them up from local breeder) in a bator also.
Both eggs are due the same date (April 15), so I can compare if shipped eggs are really not good for hatching or not.
I will report it next week.

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
I haven't had much luck with shipped eggs either. But I did have 11 out of 14 Cuckoo Marans hatch, go figure I got them real cheap on Ebay. The BSM I paid dearly for, 1 out of 12 made it to lockdown, never did hatch. I haven't opened it yet to see but I know it was moving on day 19.
The seller resent me 24 BSM eggs and on day 9 and 10 doesn't look good at all. Maybe 2 look like something is happening in them. I an using the Hovabator 1588 with turner and fan with consistent temps.
I sucessfully hatched out 18 of my own with 100% hatch so I think I know what I am doing.

I also bid on EEers and out of 14 sent one hatched and that one had a broken air cell. All of the others had broken air cells as well and three came all smashed. We think they froze and popped. The seller is going to send me new eggs when my bators are freed up.

Right now I have 61 silkie eggs that I won on the Weekend Silkie Special and so far it only looks like maybe 12 are clear and 2 are quiters. Not bad. All of the rest are moving around.

So all in all I'd have to say I am not pleased with shipped eggs except for the silkies and Cuckoo's being the exception.
I would bid again but I wouldn't spend as much as I did on the BSM's.

Hard to say what the problem is. We'd like to blame the PO for most of the problems but there is always the possibilty of the eggs being infertile. I've also read that the diet the parent chooks are on can influence whether a fertile egg develops or makes it to the hatch date.

Keep us posted.

 

[Mahonri]

This Saturday I'll be candling 76 shipped eggs. I'm hoping that I'll have 50 of them going Sunday.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I got two shipments of eggs from the same seller, packaged the same way in the past month.

The first one arrived quickly and 8 out of 12 are hatching right now (well, 7 have hatched and the last one is zipping

)

The second one arrived two days later than it was supposed to because the P.O. managed to send it from PA to FLORIDA and then back up to me in WI and the box was pretty banged up. Out of that batch, 6 out of 13 are developing - and one of those 6 looks weak.

Getting shipped eggs is a huge gamble. With both batches of eggs I got last month, I would've been happy if I got just 2 or three chicks; I just got lucky. It sounds like you're doing everything right - it's just that the shipping was hard on your eggs.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

The eggs I'm mostly upset about were 24 Silkie eggs that I won on eggbid from a big name Silkie breeder. When I cracked the ones that didn't make it, a whole dozen were completely clear. I feel as if I got taken, you know? The ones that are still going (8) are all very, very pointed end eggs (except for two!), which means (according to some older folks and a few books) that they are going to be roosters. Not sure how true this is, but I have the pointy eggs separated from the rounder ones to see if it may be true. I'm just so peeved and I feel like the seller knowingly sold me unfertilized eggs, you know?

Edited to add: Do you think I should say anything to the seller or am I being a whiner about this? I can take it if you think I am.

 

[ChickFila]

Oh, I forgot to tell this.
6 shipped eggs had broken (or misformed) air cell. I asked question about it here on BYC before, and others said those eggs could hatch.
4 out of 6 hatched successfully, one was clear and one couldn't pip (fully developed though).

 

[ChickFila]

Quote:
Well... I would complain to seller, you have nothing to lose. If the seller is reputable, he/she can send more eggs to you to make up.
Don't complain about hatch rate, tell seller that dozen were not fertile. No one can hatch infertile eggs.