Shipping eggs in winter

[archerobx]

I recieved several shipments of eggs in april and they had to travel long distance.
The eggs I ordered did not hatch but my eggs that I had in did hatch. Both were packaged great.
Could the cold during travel made them infertile?
thanks
Ryan

 

[BeccaOH]

Clarifying that you said only your own eggs from your flock and not any from the shipped eggs hatched, right?

Many things can contribute to hatchability of shipped eggs. April is a decent month for shipping to most parts of the country, but I suppose they could have frozen in transit. Freezing would pretty much kill fertility I guess. If they came far distances, perhaps there was too much time between being laid and being started in your incubator. Perhaps the fertility rate from where they came from wasn't great. Perhaps they were handled too hard in the mail and the air sacs were broken. Etc, etc, etc.

I'm sorry about your hatch. I'm one who does buy eggs that are shipped in and sell my own eggs to ship out, but it is generally a crap shoot. Thankfully (or is that sadly?) I get enough good chicks out of what I order to keep feeding my hatching addiction.