Hatching shipped eggs tips

[chickengeorgeto]

Eggs are designed to incubate in a bowl shaped depression. This depression is often called a NEST. Do NOT keep a light bulb burning inside of your incubator. Chicken embryos are light sensitive and they orient themselves to the light. This is the reason that everyone recommends that you turn your hatching eggs an ODD number of times every day. Turning the eggs one, three, five, seven, nine times every day insures that no egg is never returned to the position it was in over the preceding night. Using a soft graphite pensiel mark the date that the egg was lain on one side of the shell. On one flank of the egg put a big "O" mark the opposite flank with a big "X"
This is an indication of what side of the egg is up and which side of the egg belongs in a downward position. If you are saving eggs until you have enough to set you will still need to use the "Xs" & "Os" to ensure that each and every egg is turned to a new position until it is set. If you are hatching your eggs in an incubator this is very, very, very, important. When the eggs are not turned properly the eye of the embryo orients itself to the light and if it isn't moved the embryo will stick to the inter egg membrane and die.

Use the "Xs" and "Os" if you are turning your eggs manually. If you are incubating with the eggs laying on their side, lay a clean old dish towel in the bottom of a plate and lay your future chickens on it. The shape of eggs is intended to ensure that when incubated in a natural bowl shaped nest that they naturally lay little end down. If you want to hatch a small number of eggs there is a problem incubating them laying on their sides. That is why most incubators and especially commercial incubators incubate eggs in a big end up position.

When hatching shipped eggs unpack them as soon as they arrive and let them rest for 24 hours in a cool, quite, and dark location. Cool means between 50 to 60 degrees F. It also helps if you write a big fat check to your preacher or priest.

 

[ChanLillie]

I have an automatic egg turner so I don't need to turn them myself. I let all of my eggs rest 24 hours before I start them in the incubator. I guess I was asking more of tips for lockdown. I have a horrible time with keeping humidity up during lockdown.

 

[Pyxis]

Just some quick questions that I didn't see asked or answered yet, apologies if I missed this. What temperature have you been keeping your incubator at? I know you said one was an LG And one a Farm Innovators, are these the still air or forced air models? And what have you been keeping your humidity at?

 

[ChanLillie]

100 temp and 45 for incubation and 65 for hatch

 

[Pyxis]

And did the air cells look like they were developing okay? Did you open up the ones that didn't hatch to try to figure out why they died? I ask because 45% humidity would be too high for my area and the embryos would have drowned in the shell. It seems like this might not just be a shipped egg issue since you didn't have good hatches with local eggs either.

100 is fine if the incubators are forced air. It's actually a little high, temp should be 99.5. If they're still air, with no fan, that's actually low because the temperature in a still air should be 101.5 degrees measured at the top of the eggs.

 

[CuzChickens]

I am going to follow this thread....

I have had 4 hatches from my own flock, first two 90%+ hatch rate, second one was 70% some percent, that one was in a a Styro though, so not surprised, and the last was 14% hatch, I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. I have an IncuView as my main incubator, and a still air LG as a secondary, but I avoid using it.

I have had 2 shipped egg hatches, first 36 eggs shipped from SC, of the 37 about 14 hatched, and for that hatch I had some of my own eggs in there, and got 100% for my eggs. The second hatch, I had 37 eggs shipped from TX, and 4 hatched.

I hand turned my first batch the whole way, and the second batch I turned them by hand for 1 week, then switched to turner, but when I candled them on day 5, 32 were dead, all clears, on day 7 when they switched to the turner, 4 were alive...And then the 4 hatched.

So there you have it, if you have any questions about what I may or may not have done, ask away, because I am feeling pretty discouraged hatching shipped eggs, and have spent over $100 dollars on bad hatches.

 

[Pyxis]

32 were dead, all clears

So no development at all? Sounds like either they were infertile, or scrambled so badly in shipping that they couldn't develop.

 

[CuzChickens]

NONE. That is what was so terrible. I think that they might have scrambled going from TX to VA.....

 

[Pyxis]

That really is too bad I don't think that was anything you did, especially with you having a good hatch of your own eggs at the same time the last time.

 

[ChcknNurse]

NONE. That is what was so terrible. I think that they might have scrambled going from TX to VA.....

I always crack open the clears. I've received a larger number of infertile eggs lately. If they were clear, this may have been at least part of your problem. Crack the clears and look for the bullseyes. No blastoderm then it doesn't matter what you did right or wrong, nothing was happening with these eggs.

I purchased a dozen eggs locally a year ago. I put them in my very reliable Brinsea Octagon and 5 days later, 4 were developing. I waited until 10 days and no change. I pulled the 8 clears and cracked them, confirming infertility. I told the breeder who claimed it couldn't be. A week later she contacted me and confirmed her own infertility. These weren't even shipped.

Unfortunately, people have said that they were fertile when they left, but the X-rays that they likely experienced from USPS reversed the blastoderm
Please note-- this does not happen.