The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[Alaskan]

Progress report, day 13.  I've candled twice and evicted 8 from the original 42.   From the shipped eggs:  out of 12 Cooper Marans, I've pulled 2.  I'm worried about 2, maybe 3 others, but its so hard to see, I'll keep them for now.  Of the 9 cream legbar, I've removed 4; 3 clear, 1 blood ring.  Of the 8 Bresse that made the trip, I've remove one clear, and one blood ring.  I've got another that's kind of iffy, but I'll give it another week to see if I'm mistaken.  From the home team of EE, I started with 13.  I've pulled one clear.  I'm concerned about one that seems to be half air pocket but I've left if for a while.  I was most worried about the Bresse's.  They must have been mishandled enroute to have the 50% initial casualties that I got, but I've still got 5 strong contenders out of the 8 I put in the incubator.  I'm pretty happy with that.  I can so see how you can get addicted to this!  It's like Christmas.

It is the gambling part of it.

You just might win this one!

 

[hildar]

Wow! Thanks for the photos.

Your welcome, she wasn't to happy with me when I got done with her, but I didn't care when she gave me the cold shoulder and a blank stare. I actually thought it was kind of funny. Yesterday was another really hot day, so the girls were not in good moods.

 

[islandgirl348]

last candling wasn't so promising. I removed another 12. Put 22 into lockdown from the original 42. I now have 5 Cooper Marans, 4 Cream Legbars, 5 Bresse and 8 Eggers. I need a new incubator, I need to know what I'm doing, I hate lockdown!! I just finished watching a video on water candling. How do you all feel about that? I think I could believe in seeing eggs wiggle. I'm not sure I can believe in dark blobs seen through a flashlight. One part of my head knows that this is the just the last two days worries that NOTHING WILL HATCH, but that doesn't make it any less real!

 

[ladycat]

Zero of 12 shipped eggs hatched that were due yesterday. They were packed good but they were in the postal system for 6 days!

 

[Alaskan]

Zero of 12 shipped eggs hatched that were due yesterday. They were packed good but they were in the postal system for 6 days! 

Yep, the eggs I got from you are still doing there thing.

I am very happy that you sent the blue ones along with the dark ones. Now I remember why I have been so thrilled with incubating all light eggs this year!

It is so lovely when you can SEE in the egg!

Of the 8 light eggs:
1 early quitter
2 still going, one better than the other
5 total clear

So.....if the two that are still with us both hatch, that would give me a 1/4 hatch rate.

My shipped eggs have been running between 1/4 and 1/2 hatch. (Except for one set of eggs where I got 1 out of 12 )

They were packed wonderfully, do you remember just how old they were when you sent them off?

I am not even gonna try to guess about the dark eggs...we will know when they hatch!

Gotta tell you, it sure is great fun, and thanks LOTS for sending them up to me.

 

[ladycat]

do you remember just how old they were when you sent them off?

Not exactly, but about 1 to 4 days old I think.

If I remember right, the box was dented when you got it? Whatever did that probably played havoc with the eggs.

 

[Alaskan]

I wonder..... Makes me think that 1/4 to 1/2 is the best I can ever hope to get with shipped eggs.

Fascinating.... This time around I put in some of my own eggs, so I could prove to myself that the low hatch rates aren't my fault.

The difference was most noticeable at about 5 days of age. My eggs were further along than shipped eggs put in at the exact same time. My eggs had more veining and better embryo movement.

Now that the eggs are further along the differences are not so black and white, but I think that my eggs are still showing more movement.

Boggles the mind, endlessly fascinating. I guess because I would have thought that either the egg would be scrambled, or the egg would be good, not that the actual health of the embryo is that greatly affected.

 

[Wisher1000]

I've heard (read) Ron say, many times, that the egg is a closed system and contains a limited amount of energy. If the energy is spent in repairing damage done in shipping, there will not be enough left when it's time to hatch. This makes sense to me. If they have used up all the available energy, or calories, healing.....the growing is slower and if it was bad enough, will stop. I would like some scientific back up here, but like I said, it makes sense to me.............

 

[Alaskan]

Yep..... I would really like a study that has all of this info in a chart.

 

[misbhaven]

I am curious if some eggs I shipped do anything here is the letter I got from the buyer, i advised them to file a claim because of the shape of the box!!
"Hello! I received my eggs today, and I have to tell you, I nearly passed out when I saw the box. My mailman brought it to my door and said "this one looks like it went through hell getting here. It came in like this" He handed me a box that was smashed in on the bottom,and one flap on top was hanging open. I opened it immediately, and to my surprise, they were all okay!! You packed them so well, whatever happened to them didn't break even one!! Thank you so much for packing with such care!"