USPS is messing up all my plans!

[emorems0]

Of all the times for it to take 5 days to deliver a Priority 2-day package it's when I have a dozen hatching eggs 'in-transit' with 7 more local eggs already waiting here for their arrival.

The local eggs were all laid Tuesday/Wednesday, kept at ~70 degrees and rotated several times a day. The shipped eggs were sent out on Wednesday, expected to be here Friday so that I could get them all going in the incubator today (Saturday). Now my shipped eggs won't be here until Monday at the earliest.

Should I just call the shipped eggs a loss? Is there any chance that they'll even still be viable? If I wait until Monday, get them in the incubator on Tuesday, they will all have been sitting for at least a week. What would you do in this situation? The incubator has been on and stable since Thursday so I could put my 7 local eggs in now, but can't really add other eggs later when the shipped eggs do show up.

What would you do?

Melissa

 

[JeanR]

To start with, ---shipped eggs are not a sure thing at best. It isn't the time factor, but the toss and drop, even with the best packed eggs, PO may not be kind to the package. I have many requests, but will not ship eggs from my flock of best of their breed. I have no eggs to waste by shipping!
Hold your local eggs. ,Eggs will be viable for quite a long time, (2 weeks is usual, for best percentage of hatch) so set them optimistically. If they do not hatch well, blame the shipping handling. BE SURE to let the shipped eggs "rest" for a few hours before setting them carefully.
Think of hens that steal a nest out. A hen may lay up to 20 eggs before setting--and likely will have 100% hatch--all the same day!. It may have taken her more than 3 weeks to lay that many eggs and they were not started to incubate until she finally stays on the nest night and day! She does not stay on the nest after laying each egg, temperature is variable all those days until she sets and starts the incubation.

So not to worry, do your best, and if the shipment was insured, you may be able to start again with new shipment. Good luck

 

[emorems0]

It's really reassuring to know that the local eggs should be okay for a few extra days. I wish I had been able to get the australorp eggs locally, but it seems shipping was my only option... I ordered twice as many to account for the reduced hatch rate due to shipping. I guess I figured that the longer they were in transit, the more opportunities the USPS had to shake them up and expose them to too high of temperatures. I planned to let the shipped eggs sit for the day/night (point end down, air pocket up) before getting them set up in the incubator. Is there anything else I can/should be doing for either my local eggs or the shipped eggs once they arrive before I get them going in the incubator. Assuming the shipped eggs will finally get here on Monday, I'll be putting them all in the incubator on Tuesday.

*Also, the seller did include insurance on the package, but according to the USPS, Priority 2-day shipping is not guaranteed to arrive in a certain time frame. So unless the package is lost or damaged, I won't get anything from the USPS no matter how long it takes for them to get it here.

 

[emorems0]

So, it's now Monday and the USPS tracking hasn't been updated since last Thursday at 1am. All day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday no activity/movement! I don't think I've ever had a package delayed this much... I wonder at what point my eggs will be considered 'lost'. The PO is not being helpful at all and now I'm thinking maybe I should just go ahead and re-order more eggs because who knows when these eggs will get here if they've just been sitting in the same sort facility for 3 + days!

 

[cmfarm]

They probably are moving along and just haven't been updated. With priority mail the # they give isn't really a tracking #, it is just to confirm that it arrived. Sometimes they update it, sometimes not; but it doesn't mean it isn't moving.