Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[FortCluck]

I thought that it would be 100% hatch rate since 6 out of 12 were developing. The other 6 did not be happy with 6 hatching either but with shipped eggs sometimes that's all you get. I think she was happy because she got 4 to hatch out of her first batch of eggs and 6 out of the second that were free replacements so she ended up with 10 babies.

Not sure...that was the only bad review I found and it was 3 years ago. I have gotten lots of good reviews on her saying she includes instructions on how to incubate and lots of extras...we will see I ordered a dozen so I will be able to give a review on her and her shipping and eggs.

When do you get her eggs?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

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.

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 re upally 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.

Never fun having a bad hatch. Where exactly do you think they went wrong with storage? Old eggs?

I just ask because I've also gotten some free local eggs. When I purchased a pullet the seller let me collect from her next boxes. It was a muddy day and they were disgusting! I wouldn't even put them in the cab of my truck. They came home in a #10 can bumping around in the bed. A few even had displaced air cells even though it was less than 20 minutes from my house.
They got washed. Spritzed with something (h2o2, Nolvasan, or Lysol). I had about 70% hatch rate. I caulk it up to the health of her breeder flocks.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I so badly want to join in with the February hatch along but I’m still waiting for my new Male to do his job

He’s been with the ladies around 4 weeks now and yes, it’s still pretty soon to be getting fertile eggs especially with it being winter but I’m just impatient...I need babies!

I’m still on the look out for the bullseye...

These were taken yesterday and are definitely infertile I can see that:
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However, this one was taken today:
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While it’s hard to see on the photos, I’m thinking out of the three I cracked today, this one has the bullseye. It was clearer to see in person and much bigger than the single white dots on the infertile eggs.

I’m holding out another week or so and I’ll continue to crack the eggs to check. Hopefully I’ll start cracking some more with the bullseye so I can join in with the February hatch!

Oooo that's looking very promising! I would start collecting eggs the second I saw a bullseye. I have no self control, you're way stronger than I am! lol

 

[CluckNDoodle]

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.

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.

I did finally give in and ordered shipped eggs from a source I felt very comfortable with. The viability was definitely lower because the post office scrambled lots of eggs but even with almost every air cell being detached or saddled I still had an 88% hatch rate of the eggs that started to develop. Not too bad but the scrambled eggs were a loss. I definitely always make a habit of driving to pick up my eggs if I can!

 

[FortCluck]

Never fun having a bad hatch. Where exactly do you think they went wrong with storage?
I just ask because I've also gotten some free local eggs. When I purchased a pullet the seller let me collect from her next boxes. It was a muddy day and they were disgusting! I wouldn't even put them in the cab of my truck. They came home in a #10 can bumping around in the bed. A few even had displaced air cells even though it was less than 20 minutes from my house.
They got washed. Spritzed with something (h2o2, Nolvasan, or Lysol). I had about 70% hatch rate. I caulk it up to the health of her breeder flocks.

I think that the storage was a huge issue. I do not believe that they stored them in room temperature or their house is very cold or they left them in their vehicle when they went to work. The eggs were really cold when I got them. almost like they were in a fridge, but I specifically told them not to put them in the fridge.

I usually spritz all my eggs with a hydrogen peroxide and water solution.

I believe that they're breeding stock is not up to par like mine is, not to sound conceited or anything but I know that my chickens are healthy. I do know that a few of the roosters that I gave them were very healthy when I gave them to them, so I was a bit upset that maybe they are not treating them like I did. But I took that thought out of my mind and decided that it's not my problem.

I'm just very picky when it comes to the eggs that I hatch. It might be because when I put 10 eggs from my flock usually all 10 make it through to lock down and 9 hatch. I guess that just gives me a higher expectation of eggs.

The organic farm that I got my eggs from I got six eggs and four of them hatched, which I consider good because it's not my flock. All six of the eggs made it to lockdown too.

 

[FortCluck]

I did finally give in a ordered shipped eggs from a source I felt very comfortable with. The viability was definitely lower because the post office scrambled lots of eggs but even with almost every air cell being detached or saddled I still had an 88% hatch rate of the eggs that started to develop. Not too bad but the scrambled eggs were a loss. I definitely always make a habit of driving to pick up my eggs if I can!

I've seen packages that arrive to my house just from Amazon and it looks like somebody kicked a field goal with them I honestly don't understand how these delivery services are so bad at doing their job.

I've also heard that a lot of people who ship eggs write fragile on the packages and usually when they do that, the packages end up more messed up than they would have if they didn't write it.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

All of the chicks that I'm getting out of all my pink eggs are mixed with my silver sebright rooster that means Squatch isn't mating with my girls like he was before. Good thing I have a few of his chicks from the last 3 hatches.

So your little bitty Sebright rooster is dominant over your big rooster? lol, Bantams crack me up. They're like chihuahuas of the poultry world, they have no idea they're smaller.

 

[LilyD]

When do you get her eggs?

They should be coming in April. I won't have eggs shipped up this way when it's as cold as it is unless they are very close.

 

[Pyxis]

I've got one egg due on the 9th, and a batch due on Valentine's Day

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I count all the eggs in total for my hatch rate. If I put in 12 eggs and only 6 of them are good that would be 50% to me.

Some people count the eggs that make it to lockdown, but to me that isn't a good representation of how good the eggs are. I count from the beginning all the way until the end.

I keep track of both, the fertility rate and the hatch rate. Since I try to both gauge the "hatch/fertility" rate of the eggs I'm getting from someone as well as the hatch rate of my incubators, but I can't hold my incubator accountable for an infertile egg so I keep notes like this. lol

3/31/19: 100% (started with 22, 4 infertile, No quitters, 18 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator