The eggs that I had the worst experience with so far were the free eggs that I received locally, but they didn't really know how to do storage on fertile hatching eggs or anything. So I will give them a pass on that.I have had really good luck buying hatching eggs fortunately but I do primarily buy locally. Most of the time I'm able to see the breeding flocks in person this way as well. That doesn't mean I haven't gotten a handful of bad batches. I just keep a list of people with hatching eggs, what they have, how much they charge, and then my experience with them. When I have a bad experience I rarely use them again, but sometimes, just sometimes, I think it's innocent.
The organic farm that I got my other eggs from I haven't really had any issues with them until Clops who has the cleft eyelids and is blind in one eye. But she is thriving and she is a very pretty chick so I can't really complain. If I end up keeping her, I just won't put her eggs in the incubator.
I doubt I will ever get eggs that are shipped. I'm just not comfortable with it unless it's someone I can truly trust.
The way my packages come to my house, I just doubt that a lot of them would make it.