special silkie eggs hatch along- UPDATE

[emmalynn]

I did let them set. I had to learn that trick though a couple of hatches back.

I know shipped eggs are a gamble. I am just disappointed. Darn it, I wanted these so badly.

I know it is not the seller's fault regarding postal practices. I so wish we could have an egg courier service. XRays - wouldn't that kill all of them? I heard someone say, maybe on here, that they had started wrapping their eggs in aluminum foil. Has anyone done that? Do you think they would look like terrorist activity or they would go thru? I could just see the bomb squad and bomb sniffing dogs going thru my package. LOL

I never hope for more than a 30% hatch on shipped eggs. I have one where absolutely nothing hatch but it was only 3 eggs that were sent. Odds weren't too hot from the beginning.

The seller sent lots of extras. The auction was only for 12 and she more than covered the cracked one and the free floating air cells. I doubt my birds would have laid enough for me to do that. I didn't expect it but it was certainly generous.

Hopefully the two remaining will continue to develop and I will find them homes if they hatch.

 

[Ksane]

Aw so sad. I'm on Day 15 of my very 1st hatch ever, eggs shipped from 2 different states. I started with 16 Cochin & 15 Polish eggs. I don't know what I'm looking for and the dark Cochin eggs are too hard to see through but we did see tiny feet moving in 10 of the Polish eggs. This thread kind of scares me & I'm so sad for you. I've tried to just put the eggs out of my mind and prepare for 0% hatching so I'm not disappointed....but I'm still going to be heartbroken if I don't get at least *1* gray Cochin :-( I can't find a standard gray Cochin anywhere and that's the chicken that started my entire poultry craze. So I feel your pain

 

[emmalynn]

Quote:
Don't be scared. Sounds like you are doing an amazing job- too cool to see feet!!

I don't think I have ever seen a gray Cochin. How did they start your chicken addiciton?

 

[Ksane]

Quote:
Don't be scared. Sounds like you are doing an amazing job- too cool to see feet!!

I don't think I have ever seen a gray Cochin. How did they start your chicken addiciton?

Oh, they're beautiful. Huge with puffy feathers and feathered feet, gentle and sweet. We stopped at a yard sale (of all places) to buy some Guineas and they had a variety of chickens in nice pens. I fell in love with the big gray puffball Cochin. This was about a month ago. Every Hatchery I checked was out of them, I couldn't find them anywhere/didn't know where to look. So I bought the incubator and on Ebay bought Cochin eggs for me and Polish eggs for my grown daughter . Then proceeded to read post after post about failed 1st hatchings from mailed eggs and lost all hope they'd hatch. I also bought 16 Silkie babies who are 10 days old now (to ease my anticipated pain at losing the Cochins. Sigh). They're all pets and I dearly love them. But I'm too scared now to get my hopes up about the Cochin eggs. If someone as experienced as you has bad luck with shipped eggs then there's just no hope for a 1st timer like me. Maybe the Chicken gods will take pity on me.

 

[Brody's Broodello]

Last year at the North East Poultry Congress show, there were eggs up for auction. Well I out bid everyone & got the Hattrick eggs.

Janet was so wonderful she set me 2 Dozen eggs a few months later when the weather & fertility was better. I was very excited to get them, since I have a closed flock & have rarely added new blood over the years. So I set all the eggs, & you guessed it! 2 yes 2 developed. 1 was a sticky hatch, pipped through the yoke sack. It of course did not make it. So I was left with one chick, a partridge boy!

But I have kept him to add to my partridge flock, since I hatch 99% pullets from my line, so he is here to add some blood to them.

Like I said eggs are a gamble, just think of them as the chicken lottery! Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. If you want a sure thing, you hand pick an adult bird, that way you know what it will look like (it's done growing & feathering in) you can see & feel the type on it. Sometimes it is cheaper to go that route, think of the cost of eggs & shipping, electric, feeding to adulthood compared to the cost of an adult bird. When you think of it that way, the cost of a finished bird compared to a chick that may or may not end up being what you want. Well you get the jist of it. Good Luck!

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
That was probably a blue Cochin.

 

[emmalynn]

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[Ksane]

Quote:
That was probably a blue Cochin.

I know, I know-ha! I've got a blue Chow and I always correct people when they call her 'that gray dog there'.....

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
That was probably a blue Cochin.

I know, I know-ha! I've got a blue Chow and I always correct people when they call her 'that gray dog there'.....

We had a Chow Mix dog before and he had to be the Laziest dog we have ever had!

Sorry OP for getting off track here.

 

[emmalynn]

Update- of the 2 developing- lost 1- it was just barely veining compared to the other but I had my fingers crossed anyway.

Last one is doing amazingly well. Huge veins, very visible chick when candled. I have never seen a calico except in pictures so seeing this one if he hatches will be a treat.

Anybody have a calico picture that would like to post up?