The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[chicken curious]

Thanks, Alaskan!

Rotate them, but rotate them while they are in the carton.

So spin the carton's rectangle and shift it about to be in different areas? And tilt 'bator? Or was the tilting what you meant by "rotate" and then you continued to explain the same point...?

So you are tilting the egg carton first one way, and then the other. About a 45 degree angle.

You can put a super fat book under one end of the incubator, then a few hours later move the book to the opposite end of the incubator.

I can totally do this! Actually, I did it for some of the days of the last batch to open the LG less, but since then I wondered if all the eggs would get good heat or if the low side and high side would be too different. Thank you for reassuring me!

 

[chicken curious]

Update: at the end of day 3 I candled the eggs again to check their air cells since I didn't see much on day 0...only a couple were jiggly, none left the large end of the egg with gentle tilting.

I'm going to leave them in the cartons and start tilting them slightly in the next day or so, but wanted to give the jiggly cells time to heal, if possible.

I was dry incubating...currently in Dallas that means adding no water b/c H% is naturally in the 30s/40s%, BUT many of the shells are porous looking so as I candle I will decide if I need some water to slow the growth of the air cell.

Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

Update: at the end of day 3 I candled the eggs again to check their air cells since I didn't see much on day 0...only a couple were jiggly, none left the large end of the egg with gentle tilting.

I'm going to leave them in the cartons and start tilting them slightly in the next day or so, but wanted to give the jiggly cells time to heal, if possible.

I was dry incubating...currently in Dallas that means adding no water b/c H% is naturally in the 30s/40s%, BUT many of the shells are porous looking so as I candle I will decide if I need some water to slow the growth of the air cell.

Thanks!

Sounds like a perfect plan

 

[ChcknNurse]

I have a couple Brinsea and would love to try this shipping experiment. How do we do this?

 

[chicken curious]

I have a couple Brinsea and would love to try this shipping experiment. How do we do this?

glean as much knowledge as you can from those who've documented the process in this thread and then try to find a seller who really knows what they're doing and will ship them well packed. Keep us appraised of your progress!

Good luck!

Edited to add...from your post a few pages back it sounds like you have plenty experience so I guess 'participating' for you will be documenting the process from state of shipped eggs to final hatch to help others learn

 

[chicken curious]

Day 7 update

Stats:
Prep LG still air ran for most of last month for a hatch. Cleaned well, had time to air dry, and then ran steady for 2 days before eggs arrived (with various clean rocks as heat sinks). Ready for dry incubation; humidity 30-40% while dry.

Shipping and Arrival
14 eggs shipped: 1 smashed, obvious broken egg got on 2 others, and one felt damp, but not sticky
Candled all 13 eggs to check air: was hard to see on some and jiggly, but not rolling in any

Day 0
Started 'bator late evening with 13 eggs

Day 1-5
Slowly moved carton's location and rotational direction 5+ times a day to help with hot/cold spots

Day 3
Candled 4 eggs end of day 3: air cells easier to see and jiggly so I decided to leave in egg cartons for whole incubation and not turn/tilt yet

Day 5
End of day: started tilting entire incubator 30-40 degrees by slowly lifting a side and putting shoe box underneath the edge - alternate tilt left or right 5+ times a day

Day 7
Candled 13 eggs
- pulled one egg for a blood ring (It was the one that felt damp on arrival...not covered in smashed egg from what I could tell, but damp inside the plastic bubble baggie)
- Two others have a very dark mark, but could be part of blood ring or a large vein PLUS two others are clear, but I'm leaving those 4 for now because I'm new at this and can always check again soon.
- 3 show jiggly saddle air cells (one shows great development anyway, but the other two are the clear ones)
- 4 show very stable air cells and development
- 5 show partially jiggly air cells and development
- air cell size looks normal to me so I'll keep going dry

Stay tuned for Day 10 candle

 

[Alaskan]

Good update!

 

[chicken curious]

Good update!

Thanks, Alaskan! I appreciate all your advice and will continue to update in case it'll help others.

So far I'm excited about development in 10 of the eggs! I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch ( ), but I wasn't so sure about these shipped eggs, especially b/c they sat at the PO all day Sunday with a smashed egg in the bunch. The advice on this thread has been invaluable!

 

[Alaskan]

Careful though...incubating shipoed eggs can become addictive.

I am proud of myself, I have zero shipped eggs planned this year.

 

[chicken curious]

Careful though...incubating shipoed eggs can become addictive.

I am proud of myself, I have zero shipped eggs planned this year.

Ha! Yep. After this I don't need more chickens, just want to hatch chicks