Where do I get eggs from to hatch?

[NewHopePoultry]

Saturday Im getting my first inubator and will be hatching eggs (hopefully) for the first time. Wheres the best place to get a few eggs to start out with?

 

[marlene]

I don't know where you are located but I try and source mine from locals if possible. But if I am after specific breeds, I usually have to get them from eBay. You want to try and get them as local as possible so that if they are travelling through the postal system, they are not travelling for too long.

 

[MeepBeep]

Try Craigslist, and stick to local for your first batches as shipping in eggs comes with many more issues and failures...

If no one is actually selling 'hatching' eggs on your local Craigslist, contact those selling edible eggs and ask if they are fertile and if you can get some for hatching before they refrigerate, although refrigeration is not always a deal breaker it just lowers hatch rates...

You can also hit up Ebay or your local State thread on this forum and see if someone is within driving distance, again I highly suggest you avoid shipping them in until you get some experience and can deal with the issues that arise with shipped eggs and even incubator quirks that need to be ironed out during the first runs of your incubator...

You want to try and get them as local as possible so that if they are travelling through the postal system, they are not travelling for too long.

In the US due to that vast size travel time can be all over the place, ordering local sometimes takes longer as they ship them 'ground' in the back of a non-climate controlled truck bouncing down the road from hub to hub, on the other hand if you order it from a few states away it will likely take a plane ride in a climate controlled cargo area and then take a short ride in a truck to your local hub... Of course this is all dependent on your location, postal routing, postal hub location and proximity to an airport... I know for a fact living outside Chicago that I can generally get postal deliveries from New York, California or Florida (extreme continental distance locations) in the same time period as something from a few states over due to this ground vs air phenomenon, so it's something to consider...