The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[jsdeslidingh]

Very excited. I'm gonna want u to send me more once these hatch...we are in the process of building a chicken Taj Mahal lol.

 

[CashandTracy]

2 weeks of reading during down time at work and I got thru the entire thread! Thank you to everyone who has shared their knowledge! Now off the practice my incubating techniques, and hopefully next year I'll be able to ship eggs too. I'll be follwing you very closely

 

[wicket 07]

I have been following this thread also I have never hatch shipped eggs before kinda scarey to say the least, I have hatch my own eggs easter eggers cross black australorp in my little brinsea mini advance with no problems.

I wanted black copper marans so I started looking on this site found Brian from the breeder section and order my 7 eggs, then I found this thread by wisher 1000 then I had more questions then answers so I read and read and read until I have eyes have cross.

What I have learn is the 1. Black copper marans are sometimes late hatchers
2. let the eggs rest 12 hrs pointed side down
3. no turning for 5 days
4. no cooling for 7 days and then for 2hrs
5. no or little water until lockdown
6. sit on hands (hard part)

Is there anything else I have miss, I do have one question what to set the turner for. I don't remember reading that.

I want to thank all of you for your input I have learn so much and still learning.

A little about me my name is Penny, I live in swamps of Mississippi always humid here, right across the state line of Alabama but
unlike Wisher 1000 we are War Eagle people, only because we put our son thur Auburns rotc program, before that we were Alabama and still are until they played each other. Only time I fear for my life was when we live in Knxoville Tn, and my husband drove a red and white Bama truck in UT country.

I appreciate all your help and if there anything I have forgotten please let me know, my eggs should arrive this week.

 

[Wisher1000]

Welcome, Wicket! Sounds like you are armed (with knowlege) and ready! We are here for you, if you have any questions, let us know. Please just remember that the one factor that you cannot control is the treatment the eggs get in the mail. Work at doing all you can, but understand that that is not always enough. Don't get discouraged, no matter your results, and keep kicking the can down the road. It gets easier or maybe you get better at it, the more you do it, but just don't give up.

 

[wicket 07]

Thanks, I know I just wanted to do every thing on my end right I am also picking them up at the P.O.
we will see how it turns out.

 

[R2elk]

I have been following this thread also I have never hatch shipped eggs before kinda scarey to say the least, I have hatch my own eggs easter eggers cross black australorp in my little brinsea mini advance with no problems.

I wanted black copper marans so I started looking on this site found Brian from the breeder section and order my 7 eggs, then I found this thread by wisher 1000 then I had more questions then answers so I read and read and read until I have eyes have cross.

What I have learn is the 1. Black copper marans are sometimes late hatchers
2. let the eggs rest 12 hrs pointed side down
3. no turning for 5 days
4. no cooling for 7 days and then for 2hrs
5. no or little water until lockdown
6. sit on hands (hard part)

Is there anything else I have miss, I do have one question what to set the turner for. I don't remember reading that.

I want to thank all of you for your input I have learn so much and still learning.

A little about me my name is Penny, I live in swamps of Mississippi always humid here, right across the state line of Alabama but
unlike Wisher 1000 we are War Eagle people, only because we put our son thur Auburns rotc program, before that we were Alabama and still are until they played each other. Only time I fear for my life was when we live in Knxoville Tn, and my husband drove a red and white Bama truck in UT country.

I appreciate all your help and if there anything I have forgotten please let me know, my eggs should arrive this week.

You need to catch up with the Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detached SHIPPED Eggs thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs

Your item #3 is no longer considered the correct method.

Maybe I am just dense but I have no idea what you mean by item #4.

This quote from the above thread.

Without trying to beat a dead horse.

turn your eggs

If you choose not to follow the advice then that's ok. Just log how with the crappy air cells hatch. It won't be many. Then subtract the chicks that don't make it because they are stuck to the side of the shell. The benefit gained from trying to repair sure cells will bee lost in dead-in-shell chicks or those you will desperately try and save through assisting.

I may sound cold but I am really not. If you read through the two years of this thread you will see an evolution of thoughts and practices.

I am not the perfect Hatcher by any means. I have however set over one thousand shipped chicken eggs, a thousand quail, a hundred guinea, and scores of Turkey and Chukar.

Every hatch has thorough records in an access data base. I can run statistics on humidity, turning and packaging material with p values that are statistically significant.

Every egg is precious to me. A batch that fails can mean a delay of a year in developing the breed. I abhor detached air cells and like everyone else I set them. Out of eighty three eggs with air cells that roll from one end to the other I have had zero hatch.

A saddled air cell decreases my hatch rate by twenty seven percent.

No turning for 12 hours does not effect my hatch rate. I get an increase of dead in shell chicks of twenty percent by not turning for two days

I hope this makes sense.

Good luck.

 

[wicket 07]

You need to catch up with the Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detached SHIPPED Eggs thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs

Your item #3 is no longer considered the correct method.

Maybe I am just dense but I have no idea what you mean by item #4.

This quote from the above thread.
Good luck.

Thanks for the advice.. I am reading the detached air cell thread
#4 cooling down is a feature my mini has where the temp. falls for 60 mins - 2hrs. u set the time u want. suppose to like when the hen gets off the egg for a time.

 

[jsdeslidingh]

Ok. Opinions...where does my humidity need to be and for how long? On day 4 right now...dys 1-3 humidity was 40%-45%(due to my house being too hot), now is holding 28%-32%.

 

[ronott1]

You need to catch up with the Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detached SHIPPED Eggs thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs

Your item #3 is no longer considered the correct method.

Maybe I am just dense but I have no idea what you mean by item #4.

This quote from the above thread.
Good luck.

Contrary to the above regarding number 3, folks are seeing air cells reattach over the resting period on the Easter hatch a long thread. The sad truth is that you will not have good hatch rates with eggs treated roughly and not packed well. If you would, please change number three to let the eggs rest for 2 to 5 days based on the air cell condition. For eggs too dark to see the air cell(Do not get mad but it is worth the investment to get a ova view high intensity candler if hatching dark eggs) base the days on the condition of the box. I would rest all shipped eggs for 2 days.

Not turning the eggs does not make the chicks stick it causes deformities like missing eyes and etc. and a lower hatch rate. That does not happen unless you do not turn the eggs from days 8 to 16. Eggs do not need to be turned before or after. If they are getting real serious about turning, the bear in mind that many on that thread make their own incubators and do not have accurate thermometers. The studies and text books have all listed temperature during incubation as being the number one cause of hatch problems.

1 Temps too low
2. Temps too high
3. Humidity too high
4 Humidity too low
5. ventilation

not turning enough is way down somewhere on the list. Take care of the first three and you will have much better hatch rates.



Sticking is most often caused by incubating too low for the first 18 days and too high of humidity. Sticking is a symptom of the yolk not absorbing completely.

The cooling is simply that--the eggs are cooled for two hours a day from day 7 to 2 days before hatch. My Octagon 40 has cool down built into the controls now. This has information and links to research and articles about cooling. http://www.brinsea.com/cooling.html

The diary thread might make a big deal about a lot of things but most of them are only going to make hatch rates a bit better better.

I have had a lot of success following the recommendations in this thread.

 

[ronott1]

Ok. Opinions...where does my humidity need to be and for how long? On day 4 right now...dys 1-3 humidity was 40%-45%(due to my house being too hot), now is holding 28%-32%.

The best way is to wait until humidity goes down to 25% and add water to 40%. In my Genesis, that is usually every three days or so.