The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[Wisher1000]

Well, on to PHASE TWO of the experiment. Hatching shipped eggs! I'm looking for some Ameraucanas that have really good blue egg color, and some really nice, SOP, Marans with dark eggs. I don't really care what color either are, as long as they are recognized varieties. Ron, are either of these available out your way?

 

[R2elk]

Well, on to PHASE TWO of the experiment. Hatching shipped eggs! I'm looking for some Ameraucanas that have really good blue egg color, and some really nice, SOP, Marans with dark eggs. I don't really care what color either are, as long as they are recognized varieties. Ron, are either of these available out your way?

I can highly recommend Brian Walden for Marans with very nice egg color and for hatchability of shipped eggs. I got some Welsummer and Maran eggs from him last year. They shipped Express from Brian in Arkansas to myself in Wyoming. If I recall correctly, the hatch was around 75% on the Maran eggs that he shipped me. Very good to deal with. Good luck.

Oops, forgot to add the link to Brian's Maran egg thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...s-hatching-eggs-12-npip-certified-clean-flock

 

[ronott1]

Well, on to PHASE TWO of the experiment. Hatching shipped eggs! I'm looking for some Ameraucanas that have really good blue egg color, and some really nice, SOP, Marans with dark eggs. I don't really care what color either are, as long as they are recognized varieties. Ron, are either of these available out your way?

Yes!

@chickee has Ameraucanas
@SunnyDawn is working on a dark egg project. They are also from good lines.

 

[ronott1]

Yes!

@chickee has Ameraucanas
@SunnyDawn is working on a dark egg project. They are also from good lines.

The Ameraucanas lay some of the bluest eggs I have seen for Ameraucanas.

My UofA blues lay very nice blue eggs too but they are not in the APA.

 

[Jessshan8]

Hey All,
I would like to relay my experience with shipped eggs. I have had many purchased eggs shipped to me because of my location and the availability of quality birds in my area. I have had eggs shipped to me wrapped in paper towels and stuffed back into cartons, Eggs wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed into a box with no room to spare, I have personally bubble wrapped eggs and packed them in a box with saw dust so they didn't move. In all these cases the eggs fared fairly well with little to no breakage of the actual egg. One thing all of these methods had in common was scrambled air cells, very low to non-existent hatch rates.
Sound familiar? Well there is one method that has proven at least to me to be the best out there. This would be Wisher1000's method of wrapping each egg in bubble wrap and placing them in a box with shredded paper (not stuffing it so full as to facilitate no movement at all) lightly allowing subtle movement of the eggs and then placed inside another box also surrounded by shredded paper. With this method I was able to attain a 75% to 80% hatch rate.
So what's the difference you may ask. It is my opinion that the over stuffing and tightly packing of the eggs does not protect them against shock from all the banging , tossing , and dropping that the eggs experience in transit. Sure they do not break because they don't move at all. Whats the point if they don't hatch right? With Wishers method the eggs are allowed to shift around in the box, that is in another box. Thus the shock is absorbed by the shredded paper and across the box's instead of by the egg resulting in an outstanding percentage of developing and hatched eggs.
You Rock Wisher1000!

 

[ronott1]

Hey All,
I would like to relay my experience with shipped eggs. I have had many purchased eggs shipped to me because of my location and the availability of quality birds in my area. I have had eggs shipped to me wrapped in paper towels and stuffed back into cartons, Eggs wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed into a box with no room to spare, I have personally bubble wrapped eggs and packed them in a box with saw dust so they didn't move. In all these cases the eggs fared fairly well with little to no breakage of the actual egg. One thing all of these methods had in common was scrambled air cells, very low to non-existent hatch rates.
Sound familiar? Well there is one method that has proven at least to me to be the best out there. This would be Wisher1000's method of wrapping each egg in bubble wrap and placing them in a box with shredded paper (not stuffing it so full as to facilitate no movement at all) lightly allowing subtle movement of the eggs and then placed inside another box also surrounded by shredded paper. With this method I was able to attain a 75% to 80% hatch rate.
So what's the difference you may ask. It is my opinion that the over stuffing and tightly packing of the eggs does not protect them against shock from all the banging , tossing , and dropping that the eggs experience in transit. Sure they do not break because they don't move at all. Whats the point if they don't hatch right? With Wishers method the eggs are allowed to shift around in the box, that is in another box. Thus the shock is absorbed by the shredded paper and across the box's instead of by the egg resulting in an outstanding percentage of developing and hatched eggs.
You Rock Wisher1000!

Yes! I wish everyone would ship like this.

 

[ozexpat]

Hey All,
I would like to relay my experience with shipped eggs. I have had many purchased eggs shipped to me because of my location and the availability of quality birds in my area. I have had eggs shipped to me wrapped in paper towels and stuffed back into cartons, Eggs wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed into a box with no room to spare, I have personally bubble wrapped eggs and packed them in a box with saw dust so they didn't move. In all these cases the eggs fared fairly well with little to no breakage of the actual egg. One thing all of these methods had in common was scrambled air cells, very low to non-existent hatch rates.
Sound familiar? Well there is one method that has proven at least to me to be the best out there. This would be Wisher1000's method of wrapping each egg in bubble wrap and placing them in a box with shredded paper (not stuffing it so full as to facilitate no movement at all) lightly allowing subtle movement of the eggs and then placed inside another box also surrounded by shredded paper. With this method I was able to attain a 75% to 80% hatch rate.
So what's the difference you may ask. It is my opinion that the over stuffing and tightly packing of the eggs does not protect them against shock from all the banging , tossing , and dropping that the eggs experience in transit. Sure they do not break because they don't move at all. Whats the point if they don't hatch right? With Wishers method the eggs are allowed to shift around in the box, that is in another box. Thus the shock is absorbed by the shredded paper and across the box's instead of by the egg resulting in an outstanding percentage of developing and hatched eggs.
You Rock Wisher1000!

Overall I agree with you but like everything - its still a crap shoot.My last shipped hatch I had 18 basque eggs from the supplier that has the video of wrappping and tossing eggs, Every egg was clear at 10 days. I also had 2 shipments from a famous RIR and SPR breeder in PA - all clear. Sawdust eggs I got 8 from 24. I feel the eggs that all were clear had some other factor. They were bubble wrapped individually.

I am in the first week of a big egg shipment from multiple suppliers

The eggs were shipped to me then trans-shipped 7500 miles and set on the beach. Previously I had bad conversions from viable to hatched -even with local eggs. I carried a dehumidifier in pieces in my checked luggage and have my small incubator room at 40% humidity. I am now getting 80-97% on pullet eggs and 100% on one year old hens' eggs laid on cocobeach.

I will post results of candling and hatch rates here.

On day 5 we candled duck eggs

Pekins - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 6 to a carton - 18/24 viable
Ruoens - - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 6 to a carton - 20/22 viable (2 broke in transit)
Rouens - Shipped in bubble wrap and shredded newspaper on their side - 0/12 viable - ebay eggs
Muscovy - Shipped in bubble wrap and shredded newspaper on their side - 8/12 viable - ebay eggs

On day 6 we candled white shipped eggs
Brown Leghorn- shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton - 20/22 viable (2 broke in transit)
White Leghorn- shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton - 8/20 viable (4 broke in transit)
Red Leghorn- shipped bubble wrap and shredded paper- on their side - 4/12 viable - ebay eggs
White Crested Black Polish - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton - 24/24 viable

day7 we will candle
Golden Sebright - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
Australorp - - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
White Plymouth Rock - - shipped in sawdust filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
Australorp - shipped in tissue filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
Speckled Sussex - shipped bubble wrap and shredded paper- on their side
Speckled Sussex shipped in tissue filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
Creme Legbars - shipped in tissue filled egg cartons - 12 to a carton
Blue Partridge Brahmas - shipped bubble wrap and shredded paper- upright
BBS Orps - shipped bubble wrap and shredded paper- upright
Buff Orps - shipped bubble wrap and shredded paper- upright

all sawdust and carton eggs were same supplier

 

[Jessshan8]

Quote: I have to say that I agree with allot of what yo say. There is not one fail safe method. One thing we have not touched on here is the quality of the breeders the persons that are supplying have.

 

[ozexpat]

I have to say that I agree with allot of what yo say. There is not one fail safe method. One thing we have not touched on here is the quality of the breeders the persons that are supplying have.

this is my first hatchery delivery - they ship for a living and i wanted to see how their eggs would turn out.

I was getting disillusioned with small time sellers. Going backwards, eggs should rest a day and spend 3 days traveling. That gives the supplier 3 days to collect your eggs. I will bet good money that many of the eggs we receive are older than 3 days.

 

[Pozees]

Oz, do you have any pictures of how the sawdust-filled egg cartons look when they arrive? I am trying to understand how to accomplish this. Is it pretty fine sawdust?