Would like to know more about shipped eggs.good and bad

[OmaBird]

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I've met some wonderful poultry people on EBAY and this board and spent hundreds not 500.00 counting shipping too....I wasted more money on hatchery birds than on eggs I hatched......

After I won my jackpot in Las Vegas I spent about $10,000 of poulty (all kinds not just turkeys). I can count on one hand all the DOA. I think when you order big there is few losses. I order eggs on ebay to get types I could not get anywhere else. It just does not work for me. I can hatch eggs with no problem. Been hatching eggs all my life. If I got 50% to hatch I would be happy. That was rare. Way too many times 100% where compleate duds. You could see that they where already scrambled in the shell or 100% of them had broken air cells. Then you also had some of those real stupid people that had no idea how to ship eggs. I would get my box of smelly rotten yolk. I had some nice agurements with them. I did meet some nice people. Some I already new from BYC. I just don't want to waste money just to meet people.

 

[Denninmi]

I'm sure it depends on the person doing the packing of the eggs, as well as a lot of it being up to luck or chance with the post office.

I got eggs once before, back in the 1990's, from Murray McMurray, pheasant and quail, and they did OK, too, as I recall, probably like a 70% hatching rate despite using the cheapo foam incubator that had uncontrollable temperature swings and humidity issues.

I just got last Thursday and put into the incubator on Friday night, June 18th, 2 dozen button quail eggs off of Ebay from the Zebrafinch.com website gentleman. They too were packaged really well and looked OK externally. One had a little tiny dent in the shell over the airspace, and I broke it trying to fiddle with it and put candle wax over the dent. I didn't even try to candle them -- too small, too fragile, and too dark of shells.

It will be interesting to see what the success rate on those is. I just put them into the Brinsea and they are on autopilot until lockdown. I'm really afraid of handling these eggs because they're so delicate and small.

Based on the comments I've read about shipped eggs on the various forums here, though, I think I got really lucky with my one lone turkey egg purchase from Ebay in that the seller was so knowledgeable and careful about packaging them properly. I made sure I left a very positive feedback comment on the Ebay site and I also sent her a thank you e-mail after they hatched to let her know it went really well.

 

[ziggywiggy]

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I've met some wonderful poultry people on EBAY and this board and spent hundreds not 500.00 counting shipping too....I wasted more money on hatchery birds than on eggs I hatched......

Just curious. What problems did you have with hatchery birds? I've never had any problems.

 

[OmaBird]

I have only hatched button quail one other time. I bought 200 or so from someone in Florida. So they did ship far, but that hatch went great. I think 90%.

My husbands cousin just bought 17,000 pheasant. I am waiting to here how that is going.

 

[Denninmi]

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Wow. and it's keeping me busy night and day to take care of my 6 Isa Brown chicks, 5 Rouen ducklings, and 6 Royal Palm turkey poults all roughly 3 weeks old now! I guess I should be grateful.

Game bird farm, meat production, or hunting preserve I would gather?

 

[Lotsapaints]

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Just curious. What problems did you have with hatchery birds? I've never had any problems.

Well maybe my expectations were out of place but I did expect to get birds that met the SOP so you spend time and money on just laying hens well in my case BBQ as I ordered straight run...I didn't expect show birds but I want a good farm flock of heritage breeds....Years ago when I ordered birds they did meet the SOP a lot has changed in 20 years and my kids showed them in 4-H and the local shows and did pretty good-with the birds I received this time it would take years to breed them to standard if ever.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

When you order from a hatchery that's just what you get hatchery quality.

Steve

 

[OmaBird]

Game bird farm, meat production, or hunting preserve I would gather?

He owns a hunting lodge. He does turkeys too.​

 

[longranger]

Hatchery quality birds are, sorry for the pun,"A TURKEY SHOOT". Sometimes you get some darn nice birds. Other times you get really inferior stock, sometimes of varieties you did not even order. % survival of poults is also highly variable depending on initial vigor and shipping trauma. Then as they develope an inferior lines often fail to put on size and/or develope problems like bad legs. Then when you breed them you often get a bunch of undesired varieties because these birds have not been carefully bred to remove unwanted genes.

Bottom line for me. If the birds will be foundation stock for breeding the extra cost of incubating eggs or ordering more poults than I need from the highest quality sources is worth it. For the freezer hatchery birds are perfectly fine but if you have your own fertile eggs that becomes unecessary.

 

[ziggywiggy]

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That's a very broad statement. Yes, I know people can selectivly breed and come up with a better bird but, how many people actually do this? I'd be willing to bet most of the eggs sold on ebay are out of hatchery stock or worse.
Can you please explain the difference between a hatchery Midget White and a non hatchery MW? and why can't I take my hatchery turkeys and breed in the qualities that suit me?
After all, don't they all come from the same original flock? and please don't think I'm trying to be arguementative. I really would like to know.
Also, my question to lotsapaints was refering to chicks or poults DOA. I order a lot of cornish-x's and have very few problems.