Okay, I am NOT a newbie to hatching shipped eggs, and I KNOW that things don't always go well. I've had hatches range from 100% to none. However, recently, I hatched three sets of eggs at once - one set from myself, one set from a seller whom I have bought from before, and one set from a new seller. Mine hatched so-so - not sure what is wrong with that breeding pen, but that has been par for the course - nothing new there. The one from the "repeat seller" hatched about 50% - not so great in the one breed that I REALLY wanted to hatch, but great in the other two. And the eggs from the new seller hatched at 33% (2 out of 6 eggs). Of those two chicks - both died at around 8 days of age, from no apparent cause. They are brooded with everyone else - same feed (medicated chick starter), same water, same heat lamp, bedding, etc - yet they...just...died. Failure to thrive - they didn't even seem to be growing like their hatchmates (different origin eggs, same hatch date).
I lean towards some sort of weakness in the chicks themselves, since all of their hatchmates are alive and thriving. Those two are the only two that I've lost.
Am I reading too much into this? Just a coincidence? Or would you let the seller know that their chicks may be weaker than others, for some unknown reason?
I lean towards some sort of weakness in the chicks themselves, since all of their hatchmates are alive and thriving. Those two are the only two that I've lost.
Am I reading too much into this? Just a coincidence? Or would you let the seller know that their chicks may be weaker than others, for some unknown reason?
