Storing postal eggs before incubation

[Heather Adams]

Hello. I am only a second time hatcher and the first time didn’t have the best success rate so I am after some advice!
Unfortunately I was unable to find any eggs locally of the breeds I wanted so I have been sent some through the post. I am waiting on others before incubating them together.
I know you need to let them settle for 24 hours pointy end down but what about turning them? Do I leave them completely for 24 hours and then turn them? Or do I start turning them straight away?
They have just arrived and I’ve currently opened the polystyrene box and left them inside with the lid off. Is this ok or should I transfer to an egg box and lid open or closed?
Thanks in advance!

 

[mcdze]

i would ... ive ordered eggs off ebay 3 times .. every time i set up the incubator, carefully unpacked the eggs, and put them in the incubator ... if i remember right out of a dozen each time i got 8, 10, and all 12 hatched respectively .. some of them hatched early, that means this time of year theyre getting warm on the way here and acrually were already started, so in my own singular opinion, leaving them 'outside' the bator to settle like thats helping anything, is pretty much a myth .. some of the airsacs were seperated and formed all weird, thats true, but they hatched anyway lol ..

 

[Weekend Homesteader]

Hi Heather,

I am also a 2nd-time hatcher. My first hatch went really well (8 of 10 hatched local eggs). This go-around I wanted Deathlayers and could only get shipped eggs. I bought 6 from OH and 12 from OK. I'm in MA. The OK eggs were 4 days late in arriving.

I did not rotate mine while they settled because of the air cells based on a lot of research and reading about how to handle shipped eggs. I also moved mine into a cardboard egg carton and closed the lid. Since I have no experience beyond this time, others may have better advice but this is what I did.

Together I had 27 eggs. I put them all in the incubator together and did not rotate for the first few days because most of them had detached air cells. Ultimately after 10 days, I candled them and 10 had developing embryos. 6 of the 7 (my OH eggs) were good and only 4 of the 20 (OK eggs) were good.

I ran into some issues and did a lot of searching and that's how I found this forum and was so excited to join because there is a huge wealth of info especially when you're dealing with new situations.

This experience really taught me the importance of monitoring the air cell, especially with shipped eggs. 4 of the 6 OH eggs hatched without a problem. My OK eggs had air cell problems. I'm guessing they weren't handled properly during shipping and may have been on the "older" side since shipping was delayed. When dealing with shipped eggs, it can be risky because so much is out of your hands but I will be doing it again in a few months.

I wish you the very best luck and you are definitely in the right place. This forum is priceless. If you haven't, I suggest you check out the articles as they were most helpful to me! I wish I knew more to help but only have this one experience.

 

[Weekend Homesteader]

i would ... ive ordered eggs off ebay 3 times .. every time i set up the incubator, carefully unpacked the eggs, and put them in the incubator ... if i remember right out of a dozen each time i got 8, 10, and all 12 hatched respectively .. some of them hatched early, that means this time of year theyre getting warm on the way here and acrually were already started, so in my own singular opinion, leaving them 'outside' the bator to settle like thats helping anything, is pretty much a myth .. some of the airsacs were seperated and formed all weird, thats true, but they hatched anyway lol ..

That is awesome! I had so many issues with this last hatch, but I think it was because of the shipping. My eggs that did well were also from EBay.