Some input on my recent hatch

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
I agree 100%, if they had developed there wasn't damage in shipping.

Steve in NC

 

[SGM]

I think shipped eggs are put to a lot more extremes than your home eggs. I mean, we collect home eggs often, bring them in and they're stabilized until set to incubate. Shipped eggs are in boxes in cold and hot locations and jumbled around a lot. So I think that does affect them and is a good reason why they don't develop like we want.

Now, this is just speculation. But could it be that eggs subjected to a lot of cool weather and then incubated cause problems in the structure of the membrane in the egg itself. In turn when the chick fully develops and then goes to pip cannot pip and then dies? Has this theory been explored? It could make a lot of sence with shipped eggs.

 

[hinkjc]

I have had a lot of shipped eggs fully develop and not hatch. I have attributed it to the air cell damage that occurs with shipping. The chick fully develops but cannot pip for some reason. I often thought perhaps higher humidity for shipped eggs would help and even tried it with guinea eggs this year and had much better success (even with air cells that seemed really bad).

Jody

 

[tazcat70]

I can't remember who said that they thought bantams needed higher humidity....If I ever get shipped eggs again, I will up the humidity on them and see if it helps.

 

[JOSHSBANTAMS]

I’ve set 54 eggs, from 4 different breeders, from four different areas in the country in four different settings. 2 out of the 54 eggs have made it and I had to hatch (remove) them from the egg after they finally pipped. I’ve set my (local) eggs in with the same sets as the shipped eggs and had a 95% hatch rate from my (local) eggs every time. I’ve come to the conclusion that it has something to do with the air pressure changes in the cargo areas of the planes or something similar to that.
In all of the eggs I’ve had shipped in, the eggs have huge irregular air sacks. I think that in shipping something happens to dry out and thicken the membrane, who knows?
I wish I could figure it out. I’ve spent way too much money on eggs. I could have bought some really nice breeders if I would have just bought them in the beginning.
I’ve also heard that this year has been especially bad for shipped eggs… I can’t say since this is the first year I’ve tried them.
I hope someone can figure it out…..

 

[greathorse]

Did yours develop and die late in the hatch? Mine were fully developed and that is the part I really dont understand. You would think that they would just not develop at all.

I do have a hatch coming right now that looks pretty good so far. 1 out 1 zipping and several actively pipping. I dont know. I found some eggs I really want about 1200 miles from here seriously thinking about having someone hatch them for me and driving to get the chicks. It makes more sense than spening several hundred dollars and getting nothing. I have never asked on this site how well all the mutts do that get shipped all the time. I am guessing they do quite well. All the care with the fancy breeders is probably for naught. If we treated these high dollar eggs like just eggs we would probably do great.

Just a bit of a vent. I had a bad one on some pretty pricey eggs. It is just like a craps game. Ya better not play if you cant afford to lose.

Ah next time.

 

[hippichick]

Quote:
Jody, do you keep a higher humidity than normal throughout the incubation process, or only up the humidity on the last 3 days. Just curious, as I have shipped eggs in the bator right now.

Paula

 

[hinkjc]

Paula, for the batch of guinea eggs I mentioned, I knew they were being collected over a longer period of time than I prefer and with shipping involved they were aged and the air cells damaged, so I ran the humidity at 60% relative for incubation and 65-70 for hatch and the majority of the eggs hatched.

For fresh eggs, I don't think that would fair as well and you could end up with mushy chicks. So for my own eggs, I stick with 45-50% during incubation and 65 for hatch time.

Jody

 

[Pumpkinpup]

I have attempted to hatch shipped eggs from many different sources over the course of this year. Many were 3 different batches of eggs in the exact same hatch. I have moved my humidity from higher to lower ranges and fiddled with this and that. None of the fiddling seemed to help any. The ONLY hatch I have had good luck with was a dozen blue barred rock eggs I got from halo who is only one state away from me and 10 of those hatched beautifully! My humidity on that hatch was 30% through incubation and 58% durring hatch. I have since continued that methoad. I am convinced that long distance shipping is very detramental where eggs are concearned as a general rule because I have had lots of eggs develop and not pip from eggs sent long distances. I'm not sure what happens to them but something occurs that seems to make the difference. I now have 18 barred rock eggs from speckled hen in the bator and all 18 are doing great so far

They are due to go to the hatcher on tuesday.