Shipped eggs?

[mollybuck]

i hatched 6 last year. out of a dozen shipped eggs. 8 went into lockdown, but 2 died before they pipped...i think they were positioned wrong. I dont turn mine for a day.. and i let them still about 12 hours before I put them in. I have them in a turner tho so the air cells are mostly at the top.

I have 12 in the bator now.. (16, but 2 clears, one scrambled and one bloodring so far) if I get 50% i will be thrilled! I candle tomorrow, to keep or throw...
i looked locally for these eggs and couldnt find any, so ebay was the next choice. I did find some beauties a few hours away, and have considered a roadtrip to go pick some up...but with 4 active kids and a fulltime job.. my time is a precious thing right now!!

 

[hildar]

i hatched 6 last year. out of a dozen shipped eggs. 8 went into lockdown, but 2 died before they pipped...i think they were positioned wrong. I dont turn mine for a day.. and i let them still about 12 hours before I put them in. I have them in a turner tho so the air cells are mostly at the top.

I have 12 in the bator now.. (16, but 2 clears, one scrambled and one bloodring so far) if I get 50% i will be thrilled! I candle tomorrow, to keep or throw...
i looked locally for these eggs and couldnt find any, so ebay was the next choice. I did find some beauties a few hours away, and have considered a roadtrip to go pick some up...but with 4 active kids and a fulltime job.. my time is a precious thing right now!!

Yeah I know that feeling. I found some Delawares that are going to make me a 5 hour trip round trip. And with kids and my schedule. I don't think I can do it. This is why I like using e-bay when I can. I normally let all of my eggs when I first get them sit out for 24 hours, then I place them in the incubator.

 

[DylansMom]

hmm that is something new. I never knew we were suppose to not turn them the first week. I will try that this time. However I am not turning my heat up to 101 like someone told me to do with a still incubator. I did that this last time, and even lost most of my own eggs. Nope I believe the 99.5 is perfect for them. I don't care if they come out a day or 2 late or not.

Did you leave eggs in bottoms of cartons or did you lay them down?????

If it is me you are asking, I did leave them in the carton that first week and instead of turning I would just tip them toward the right and then tip them toward the left. Read on here that a detached air cell may be able to reattach a little if they are left point down for that first week. 2 were clears and never did anything and one hatched with a terminal birth defect and had to be culled, but the other 4 are 2 weeks old now and doing great.

 

[dretd]

... After a lengthy discussion with the very helpful ladies at my PO, I can say I will always request Priority Express shipping not Priority. It costs more but they are handled completely differently, they are not put on conveyor belts and dropped into giant sorting bins, she said they are always moved by hand.
...

I think this is really good advice! I have decided in the future to avoid regular mail as I believe it is the sorting and crashing off conveyors that is the main reason my hatch rates on shipped eggs are so terrible.

 

[dretd]

Hi Mother Hen to 6!

I have received quite a few shipments of hatching eggs over the years and have pretty terrible luck. If you want unusual breeds, though, you may be stuck with having to purchase them from remote breeders. I plan for 0% hatch rate to avoid disappointment.

Off the top of my head, my hatch successes on flown in eggs were 0/12, 2/29, 2/14, 1/12, 0/14, 2/12--I know there have been more, but you get the idea. THe distance didn't seem to matter, eggs were from as far away as both coasts (may 2K miles) and from a neighboring state (800 miles). From this group I have hatched 7/93 eggs or overall 7.5%
--At first I thought it was me (incubator issues) but then I decided to put eggs from my own flock in and I have 100% of fertile eggs hatch eliminating me as the problem.
--I also thought that it may be the altitude as I am at ~5,000 feet and most eggs were from near sea level. I talked to the Poultry Vet at the local University and she said they receive many, many eggs frequently from the east coast (FedEx overnight) and have excellent hatch rates. So altitude/plane ride may not be a huge factor
-I believe packaging plays a role. I think that the tighter the eggs are locked in, the worse by a little my hatch rate. The shells are not cracked, but the embryos may get damaged as the shock of deceleration when the package hits the bin from the drop off the conveyor. The vet I referred to said her eggs come in stacked flats packed with sawdust to take up space between the eggs, that unit is wrapped together and boxed and that box is placed in another box that is nestled in insulation material. I have received eggs individually sealed in bubble wrap both in and out of a second box, wrapped in tubes of bubble wrap and sent in a Coleman egg carrier (4 were smashed but I did get one to hatch that was small and was able to shift in the carrier.
-One shipment was delayed during a heat waved in CA and probably sat for 2 days in 90 degree heat before making the plane ride--I got 2.
-I personally have not seen a correlation between egg size and hatchability.

I just hatched out eggs I drove myself about 850 miles (they came in cartons so I packed insulation around the eggs to cushion them and placed into a cooler--my car is climate controlled but has a bad shimmy), let them rest 36 hours at room temp before setting then did not turn on the turner for 24 hours. Out of 18 eggs set, I got 2 infertile eggs and 3 late quitters for an overall hatch of 72% but 81% if you exclude the infertile eggs. Both eggs from my own flock hatched.

I have decided that in the future I will cough up the money to try express shipping as I am ordering expensive eggs and even if I hatch a few eggs more, the shipping costs will be worth it as the per chick hatched cost will be the same... but I will have more chicks overall from the shipment to grow out.

 

[hildar]

Well out of the last 3 dozen eggs that I sent out including my shipment to Puerto Rico, we had 0 broken eggs. The ones that I sent to Minn, and Puerto Rico they said the air cells did not become unattached and everything looks good. So I guess it all depends on how you ship them. In fact I will never again not ship eggs without there being shavings in the box for areas where there is space. It also helps to insulate from temp drops and rises. So if you do order online requaest the shavings. I stopped doing it for awhile because I am allergic to the shavings, however now that I am back to using them I am seeing 100% success with shipping.

 

[Pozees]

dretd I just asked someone to use Express instead of Priority shipping on eggs from ME - we shall see The only eggs I've ever had any luck with shipped from CA to CO were White Bresse, everything else has been nearly a complete fail. The Bresse did so well I'm about to try them again to see if it was a fluke

 

[mollybuck]

my dad told me the same thing about paying a little more for express shipping. he is retired from the post office. Actually he called last night and told me he ordered more eggs and he was going to request them be sent via registered mail. then they will not get put on a conveyor, or in any of the rough handled areas most of the mail goes through. they would also have to be accounted for so they arent going to be rough with them at all. Just a thought if you are ordering rare or really expensive eggs. we havent had bad luck so far. we got 6/12 the first order (8 made it to lockdown) and this time.. even though the box was smashed and we held out little if any hope.. i have 8/14.. with 2 that are...eh.. maybes... they were packed very well though, so I am certain that is the only reason we have anything going on. i was surprised to not find broken eggs when we opened it. 2 were leaking...so I didnt include them in the total.

its infuriating to say the least.

 

[hildar]

my dad told me the same thing about paying a little more for express shipping. he is retired from the post office. Actually he called last night and told me he ordered more eggs and he was going to request them be sent via registered mail. then they will not get put on a conveyor, or in any of the rough handled areas most of the mail goes through. they would also have to be accounted for so they arent going to be rough with them at all. Just a thought if you are ordering rare or really expensive eggs. we havent had bad luck so far. we got 6/12 the first order (8 made it to lockdown) and this time.. even though the box was smashed and we held out little if any hope.. i have 8/14.. with 2 that are...eh.. maybes... they were packed very well though, so I am certain that is the only reason we have anything going on. i was surprised to not find broken eggs when we opened it. 2 were leaking...so I didnt include them in the total.

its infuriating to say the least.

This is why I always send extras, it's for the just in case if a box gets slammed.

 

[TonysChickens]

I bought 5 different sets of eggs off ebay and currently hatching them now. They are from 5 different sellers. Thats about 60 eggs total after accounting for about 10 total broken eggs. So starting with 70 eggs, 12 of which were muscovy.
Right now, 7 muscovy eggs are growing to the 3rd week now. 2 of the 12 were not fertile from what I can tell, and 3 were blood rings.
Of the rest of the chicken eggs, I have 21 left that are in their 2nd week growing. The rest, about 20 blood rings, and the remainder didn't seem to be fertile or very very early quitters.

That leaves me with 28/70 eggs, or less than 50%

Thats just incubating and growing, don't know about hatches yet.

This hatch so far, out of the chicken eggs, 7 have hatched, 3 more pips, and the rest have not pipped yet. 2 of the 21 didn't make it into lockdown, so I had 19 in lockdown. 1 muscovy egg didnt make it and so I have 6 left incubating, and will lock down in a few days.
So far:
19/21 chickens made it to lockdown
6/7 muscovy made it to lockdown
7/19 chickens hatched, and 3 more pips
So far, at least 10% hatch rate on the shipped eggs.