To hatch or not to hatch?

[Melabella]

Hello


I have bought some Lavender Ameraucana hatching eggs. I just finished my first try at hatching in a Brinsea Mini Advance and had 4 out of 7 hatch. 2 were infertile eggs and one quit very early on. I have always wanted some Ameraucana chicks, as I have a lovely black/lav split roo, and thought it would be nice to increase my chances of lavender babies in the future.

I received the eggs today and after cleaning and disinfecting my Brinsea yesterday, it's been up and running ready to go. The eggs arrived about an hour ago and I was so excited to unpack them, and see how they look. Well, first off (1)they are quite a bit smaller than my Ameraucana eggs. not to worry I thought, I don't think egg size has anything to do with quality of bird or chicks... or does it?
(2) I don't like their color so much. I know where I got them from is a reputable seller with many positive feedbacks. Pictures of his birds and his eggs were lovely.... these eggs, almost look like Easter Egger color, and some even seemed uneven in color.. almost speckled!
(3) When I candled them to inspect air sacs... I can hardly make anything at all out. I ordered 6, and 8 were shipped. A lot of the eggs upon candling almost seem porous.. and lots markings on the shell. The surface of the some of the eggs almost don't feel smooth.

(4) I can't make out 5 of the air sacs... of the 3 I can sort of identify.. they appear to be not even and not circular in shape that I am used to upon candling my own eggs. I have read lots of tips on how to set detached and displaced air sacs. I was thinking I should not turn these eggs the first few days, and turn the egg turner off. Of course I realize that shipped eggs are a risk, and the statistic is only half of them to hatch.

I am certainly not a professional breeder, breeding and choosing eggs for showing or selling, but I was hoping for eggs more true to blue, and should I be concerned with the small size of these eggs? Will hens from these hatching lay the same color eggs? I wish my daughter was home to take pictures of the eggs as I candle. Some of these eggs truly seem porous, with all blotches

I will be honest, there is a part of me that thinks I should just cut my losses and forego even trying to set these eggs. Should I just cut my losses, and search for eggs I am more pleased with, appearance and condition, or should I just set them and give it a try?


Any thoughts would be helpful, and as soon as my daughter gets home I will post some pictures of the candled eggs. I would really love some experienced opinions on how they look.

THanks for reading,
MB

 

[Melabella]

Ok... maybe I can ask this.

Would you set eggs that you received if you didn't like the quality, ie size, color, and after candling, condition of eggs?

Will the resulting chicks from this hatch lay the same color and size egg? Is egg size a negative sign of anything?

I know these answers may seem obvious, but I am curios to hear thoughts.

Thanks for helping a newbie to this all.
MB

 

[Kelsie2290]

I guess first question is did you contact the seller, did he send you the eggs you were supposed to get if they seem that different from what was being advertised.
Setting them it would depend on a number of things ... can you get more eggs before these hatch, or would the incubator just be sitting there, you have already paid for them, so if you have anything hatch you could sell the chicks as layers or meat if nothing else. If you can get more ... I would probably toss these if .... you are looking for breeding stock and consider egg color is a major factor, the color of the eggs would be a no go for me if they were worse than what I already had... on the other hand if you are trying to improve the birds themselves / color, if you like his adult birds, then egg color takes a back seat to be worked on later... you don't know what the rooster is, but if those eggs are representative of his flock, then that is what I would expect the pullets to lay.
Condition of the eggs themselves resulting from shipping would not stop me from setting them, sometimes you get lucky and the detached aircells reattach etc and everything goes fine...
The quality of the eggs themselves would worry me and I would ask the seller what is going on, did he send you pullet eggs which are often quite small, or eggs from old hens or ones that have just resumed laying, sometimes those shell problems... but if those eggs are typical of his flock, would not want to be breeding that unless I had a good reason (those adult birds better be darn beautiful).