Buying eggs for hatching off of ebay! Do or Don't?

[Jungleexplorer]

Well, I bought twenty eggs off eBay the beginning of this month. I put them into a band new HovaBator Genesis 1588 with an automatic egg turner. I kept them at 99 degrees and about 40 to 50% humidity for the first 18 days and then took the turner out and raised the humidity to about 80%. Yesterday day was day 21 and only one chick hatched. There are no signs of any of the other eggs hatching even now.

So, now I am questioning whether I did something wrong or if buying eggs off of ebay just does not work. These eggs are from a special breed of chicken and ebay was the only place I could find any. These twenty eggs ended up costing me $116 after shipping fees. I did not expect a 100% hatch rate, but only one out of twenty has me pretty upset.

What do you think? Did I do something wrong in the incubation? Are eggs off of ebay just unreliable or a scam? Could some of them still hatch even though it's been 22 days?

Thanks for the help.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

I bought three dozen eggs from EBAY and was pleased to receive a full four dozen- two dozen of each breed I selected.
A rough trip had three eggs arriving cracked- and a snafu with the post office- I had asked to be called when they arrived at our central delivery office- so they wouldn't be driving around on a 23 degree day- and no call was received but late afternoon on day 3 after mailing had the postman knocking on my door with a frigid box of eggs.
Afrer settling, they were placed in the incubator with egg turner, and today day 18 I candled and identified eight eggs that never started- leaving me with the rest- a full 34 eggs in the lockdown bator. If your seller knows how to pack eggs, and gives you as many extras as mine did, then you will get what you hope for- enough eggs with a chance to hatch, to make buying eggs on EBAY worth the risk. That's all you can expect.
This was my first time- with shipping eggs but having had a disaster of an egg purchase from a local raiser, my chances with this bunch appears much better than the eggs I drove out of state to pick up for the last hatching experience.
EBAY also has sellers who offer to hatch your eggs for you, and guarantees the hatch- but I think this is just a way to get around the ban on selling day old chicks. They charge quite a bit for this service.

 

[aaggjg]

Shipped eggs are a gamble. Period. It doesn't matter where they come from... Eggs are fragile and being jostled in the post can fatally damage them ... I just got 18 eggs drop kicked across America courtesy of the USPS ... 4 broke and only 5 of the remaining 14 showed any development ... now on day 18 I only have 2 that will go into lockdown.

Did you candle the eggs during incubation? Were they growing? Eggs can hatch late.... I'd wait until day 24 and then candle or you can float the eggs in warm water and see if they wiggle .....

Good luck.

 

[speedy2020]

Well, I bought twenty eggs off eBay the beginning of this month. I put them into a band new HovaBator Genesis 1588 with an automatic egg turner. I kept them at 99 degrees and about 40 to 50% humidity for the first 18 days and then took the turner out and raised the humidity to about 80%. Yesterday day was day 21 and only one chick hatched. There are no signs of any of the other eggs hatching even now.

So, now I am questioning whether I did something wrong or if buying eggs off of ebay just does not work. These eggs are from a special breed of chicken and ebay was the only place I could find any. These twenty eggs ended up costing me $116 after shipping fees. I did not expect a 100% hatch rate, but only one out of twenty has me pretty upset.

What do you think? Did I do something wrong in the incubation? Are eggs off of ebay just unreliable or a scam? Could some of them still hatch even though it's been 22 days?

Thanks for the help.

There are many factors that cause eggs not hatch (rooster not mate, package been tossed around, old egg, egg been wash, etc...). I don't have a good hatch with my own backyard egg because the rooster ain't mate some of the hens. If you like the breed and willing to take a chance, just do it. You can eliminate few factors by buying egg locally.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I hate to sound stupid, but what is "Candle the Eggs"?

 

[aaggjg]

Candling is a techinque used to check the development of an egg during incubation. You can hold a bright LED flashlight to the egg in a dark room to try and get a look at what is going on inside the egg... People usually do this when they set the eggs to check for cracks.... At day 7ish to check and see if it is growing day 14 to make sure you don't have any early quitters and then at lockdown, day 18.... You discard the eggs that never grew and early quitters and only put in viable eggs for lockdown.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

aaggjg is right about shipped eggs, but in all fairness to your seller, if you didn't candle the eggs on day 7 to see if they were growing, the eggs could have just died along the way. I had a 100% hatch on a dozen shipped eggs but only a 50% hatch on eggs I picked up. It is a gamble but we keep trying again and again.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Okay, I did the LED thing to check the eggs. I found two eggs that were about 25% developed, one egg that was about 50% developed, one egg that was about 90% developed, and nine eggs that never even started to develop. These eggs I cracked open and looked at. All the chics were dead. There are six eggs that are totally solid inside and I still have them in the incubator, but there has been no sign of hatching from them yet and it's now day twenty three.

So, at least I know that eleven out of the 20 eggs I bought off ebay were fertile. But now my question is, why the heck did my chics die? I put these eggs in the incubator and did not touch them. I only opened the incubator to add water when I saw the humidity dropping. I verified that the turner was working each day. I monitored the humidity and temp by placing my outdoor sensor that goes to my weather station and the temperature stayed pretty consistent at about 99.5 degrees. But it did go down to 98.5 when I increased the humidity to 80% on day eighteen (not sure why).

Something must have gone wrong for ten chicks to die after starting to develop. I put all the eggs pointy end down because that us what I was told to do. Is this right? If I would have got the eleven that started to develop, I would have been very happy because that would have been about nine dollars a bird. That is not great, but it is acceptable for the breed I am trying to get. I need to find out what I did wrong before I try again, because I can't afford to spend another $100 to get one chic.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

Sounds to me like your humidity was too high for too long.
Hatching eggs need to lose moisture during the hatching process to make room for an air sac so the chick can breathe.
Too much moisture during incubation leaves you with chicks that drown in their eggs.
This was the mistake I made on my first attempt.
A local poultry guru explained to me the benefits of a dry hatch.
So this time around, I went dry until day 18 lockdown when I changed incubators from one with turner to one without.
I'm locked down with humidity in the 60's and a constant 100 degree temp- and am waiting to see what develops.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

luvmychixandducks is right. I incubate chicken eggs 55%, then raise to 65-70% the last three days. I keep a note pad next to my bator so I can keep good records so if something goes wrong, I can make changes the next time around. A good book to keep on hand is Storey's Guice to Raising Chickens. Good luck.