Since I have chickens on the brain lately, I've been doing some searching. I had started looking for egg cartons, then a various breeds, then, well, you know how it goes. LOL
I noticed eggs for sale on Ebay, eggbid, etc. I'm assuming these are fertilized eggs or why else would people pay $10/dozen and another $10 for shipping?! Sooo, here come the stupid questions! I assume people buying these, will hatch them. If you considered doing this (and I know some of you do!), do you leave them with the hens until you ship? Or how do you store them? I think I remember it taking about three weeks to hatch eggs. What happens to the cycle between the hen laying the eggs, shipping the eggs, then trying to hatch the eggs?
Right now, the only eggs I collect, that I know are pure bred are from the white silkies. I have them in their own pen/coop. There are two females and a male and they reliably lay 2 eggs a day. Therefore it would take about a week to get a dozen. We don't let them hatch any because I don't want babies going into the cold months.
And if I have this right, it takes several days to be able to candle an egg and see if it's fertile? That brings me back to the question of keeping the eggs, the cycle of hatching, then getting them to the new owner.
I've never offered to trade or sell eggs as others do because I don't want to disappoint anyone. So, how does it work?
When you get finished laughing, can you help me here? LOL
I'd especially like to hear from people that buy/sell/ship eggs and I'd like to know how it worked out. What percentage hatch, where the birds the right breeds, did many eggs break in shipping, etc.
Selling, trading, shipping eggs. How to?
Hello!
I have bought many different breeds of eggs from egg.bid, Peafowl,pheasant and chicken. I always look at their feedback first before buying. I always also email or talk to the breeder about the same issues you are bringing up. They usually have so many of the same breed of fowl that i got fresh layed that same day shipped eggs. So far i have been very pleased with what i got. They usually are packed in bubble wrap in some other type of carton then put in shipping package. I also try to buy from sellers that are the in my same region or very close to it.(faster shipping and less handling). When hatching my own i have kept eggs in a cool dry place for up to 2 weeks and did well with the hatching also. I have bought live birds also, but only when i can drive and pick them up myself and see how they are kept and the condition of the birds. I hope this helps.
George
p.s. I have had some eggs break in transport, but the seller usually puts a few extra in there except for the peafowl(they cost more per egg). Really ticks the mailman off!
Hi George! Imagine bumping into you again. :)
I'm not quite ready to sell or trade anything (I don't think. LOL) but I thought I'd start gathering opinions and information so I have some idea what to expect and what I am doing later. I'm kind of waiting until spring to make any major changes.
We still have 42 birds and do need to thin down some. I'd also like to keep the breeds we do have pure, so plan to separate them later if we want to do actual breeding.
I thank you very much for taking the time to post!
Michele
i buy (eggbid and ebay) and sell (ebay) hatching eggs. i'll try to explain the best i can to help you and no laughing you asked honest questions. first off fertile does not refer to all eggs. you do not test all them before you send each time. fertile refers to the potential they are fertile. for my while silkies i have 12 females to 2 males in one pen i sell them as fertile because there is 2 males in there who are of breeding age so there is a potential to be fertile for all eggs but does not mean they all will be. i random test there eggs every so often and personally hatch them here in my bators or under my broodies to make sure the boys are doing their jobs. when i set eggs here i usually have 9 out of 10 fertile with developement when i candle on day 7. that is how i test hatch my eggs for fertility i do it usually once a mth sometimes more but it's cause i'm a hatchaholic and i love their bearded babies,lol.
i just hatched some of theirs out and i got 6 out of 6 but 2 didn't make it they got stuck in the shells cause my humidity droped in the hatcher and they got stuck but otherwise it was a great hatch the others are doing excellent and look great!! the babies are 2 days old now.
not all my girls are old enough to lay yet in that pen so i sell mine as 6+ egg per auction this way they get 6 definate eggs and extras incase some break which i have yet to happen during ship. that way they get anywhere from 8-10 eggs usually. i send whatever is layed over 3 days time or less nothing older(the longer they sit over 7 days the less chance they have to be fertile the fertility rate drops). i collect 2- 3 times (sometimes more if i have things to do outside and i'm board but they don't mind )a day place them in a carton and keep them in a cool room and tip them from side to side 4 times a day so they do not settle this way it is like a turner moveing them so they don't stick on the bottoms. i only ship on mon, tues or wed after payment is recieved i do not start collecting untill the 2nd or 3rd day before ship day. i ship priority only.
the day of ship i take them all and wrap each one individule with bubble wrap lose tape place each in a carten so all 12 fit in a carton. if there is only say 8 i leave the outer 4 open and stuff with bubbles. i tape around the carton to hold it shut this holds them from bounceing inside(i have gotten them in that way not taped and had nothing but egg leaking from box). if you place inside a #7 priority box with lots of peanuts or newspaper packed tight they will not break you can ship up to at least 3dz fine without breakage if you do it right with enough padding around and in between them. there is several other ways to pack eggs also. if you'd like other examples.
no, ya can't leave the eggs with the hens ya have to collect same day laid. collect at least 2 times a day. if you leave them with them for a few days before you ship and they nest on them it starts the incubation process since they apply heat to them for a period of time. by removeing them from the heat source and shipping them it would kill the embryo. your buyers would never be able to hatch anything and would be very mad if you sent them duds not sure how else to explain that one but will try to explain different if that doesn't make sence,lol.
i have bought lots of hatching eggs from many breeders first thing i must say is ebay is definately better always check feedback first. eggbid is bad for selling eggs and getting another breed you didn't order but not all breeders are like that just becareful. i have bought eggs from many states all over and had many different hatch rates i have had better rates from those in tx than i have from those here in pa or close to me in oh. the main variable in hatching in you, the temp, the humidity and how much stress the usps puts on the package during shipping. hatching is always a gamble when it comes to shipped eggs and is never a garontee. out of 300+ shipped hatching eggs i've ordered in i have had broken on arrival less than 2dz due to breeder packageing. the biggest thing is don't spend anymore money on them than what you are willing to loose. i have found the more you spend on eggs the less you get. i have gotten way better hatch rates on ones i have spent less money on. ones i have spent lots of money on i was lucky if 1-3 babies hatched if any did.
hope this helps,
silkie
Thank you very, very much for all that info! I knew it wasn't as simple as it looked. LOL I have years and years of experience packing and shipping plants but nothing else that is alive. ;) I think you included just about anything I could think of and some I didn't!
I already do take the eggs several times a day. George said to keep them cool and dry. Where do you keep yours?
I'm thinking about getting an incubator in the spring. I'd also like to get another Golden Campine or a pair. We have one and she is just the nicest bird! She thinks she is a large parrot. LOL My eldest child named her Cheetah. I would like to have a couple/few more. I liked getting the one day olds and they did very well but ordered late and couldn't be real picky about breeds. I think raising them from eggs would be fun too.
Thanks for all the great info!
you are very welcome! i keep them in my air conditioned liveing room on my computer bar,lol. yep cool and dry is how ya want them. i don' t know where else to keep them here cause the fridge gets to cold and moist. so i do them as quick as i can i try to do it 2 days out since i have been picking up layers. soon since it is getting to cold i'll be done till spring. one thing i learned to is they come in and out safer not marked hatching eggs only fragile and perishable but i have had one person complain about it,lol. seams if it says hatching eggs usps thinks they are a soccer ball and kick the darn box around or something egg dripping everywhere grrr....
i haven't had that breed yet but heard of them i'll have to look at feathersite see what they look like. i been trying to figure out a few new breeds for spring. i have hatched out many breeds but stuck with showgirls, silkies, bantam salmon favorolles, polish, d'uccles and on halloween i got my first sizzles to go in the hatcher. i have 5 kid's we love to hatch,lol. it is such a great learning experience for them. we have 4 foam incubators i hatch in plus all my girls. at the moment i have 100+ in my flock but only 4 white silkie broodies on nests. i didn't want them setting but can't break them for nothing,lol. that's a silkie for ya though.
silkiechick, And I thought I had IT bad (the chicken disease). I have similar experience as you with buying and selling eggs but not quite near the volume. I thought it funny once to read in a Yahoo chicken Group of a group member bitterly complaining of someone on ebay selling fertile Swedish Blomme Honne (aka Swedish Flower Hen) eggs and the sorry buyor was extremely peeved about none of them hatching. The breed (of course) is limited to Sweden and is virtually nowhere else on the planet. P.T. Barnum said correctly that a sucker was born every minute. I caution all to be wise about spending money for extremely rare chicken breeds in the USA. Kelly
Check the feedback
There are unscrupulous sellers who just go to the grocery store ,buy eggs and then sell them on eggbid or ebay
There is really no way to prove it but if there is feedback consistently saying unfertile you know there's a problem
I rarely have good luck with shipped eggs
sometimes they hatch well
others do not even though there is fertility
Its usually a broken egg sack
I set my limit on how much to spend on them by saying...
How much would I spend to buy 1 bird of that breed?
If the eggs and shipping come in under that price I go for it
One thing I have learned from ebay and others is be careful how you list and word things and put plenty of disclaimers in your listings, read a bunch ads from people with high ratings and write what they do about hatch rate etc, people will try to take advantage of newbies.
I personally have had a great hatches from shipped eggs, I think people don't wait for them to settle to put them in the incubator, next year I will probably have 1 percent hatch rate for saying something LOL
This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 7:57 AM
they should settle a good 6-8 hours after you open the box before you set in the bator. to allow time to settle and adjust to room temp even up to 12 hours is fine.
silkie
This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 4:51 AM
Thank you all for the wonderful information! It's so nice to have someone to ask. :)
Our egg production is going along very well! We got 18 eggs yesterday! I sold 3 dozen to a neighbor last week, for eating. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast, egg salad for lunch and no eggs for dinner!!
I'm looking forward to next year when I can hopefully add some different birds and thin down what I have. I have several extra white leghorns and barred rocks, and ones and twos of the others-Delaware, Aracauna, Americauna, Golden Campine, etc. I know I still need some Polish. LOL
I'm very happy to have all the info about buying eggs too!
i regret selling my americanas to my kid's finding a blue or green egg was like finding a golden egg,lol. i have yet to have Aracauna's i'm thinking of adding them for a breeding program next year. lol, you would love polish, they are one of my favs!! i forgot to look up the Golden Campine's gonna do that now.
silkie
wow those are beautiful!!! i have never seen one before i just may have to add them to my have to have list for next year,lol. they are a white egg layers right? how big of eggs do they lay? i need to find some good layers for next season for just eating eggs. i'm not for sure what to get yet.
This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 6:55 AM
Those must lay later in life (as I refuse to believe they are roos. LOL). I've yet to get any blue or green eggs! We have white, shades of beige, to nearly chocolate but not a single olive, turquoise, etc! I just looked at the calendar and mine are 27 weeks old. Some started laying dead on the 17th week. I read some can take as long as 30.
mine where closer to 24 weeks or after when they started to lay and some layed what i call a cherry egg looked more pink or real light tan color. most where blue though.
OH, the Golden Campine. Scroll to the 2nd and 3rd pics. Looks just like Cheetah! http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Camp/BRKCampine.html
Not only is it a very friendly bird, it's much smaller in size. She's not as small as the silkies but much smaller than our other breeds. She loves to be held. We have to be careful though as she jumps on your back if you bend over or on your shoulder if you are close enough to the coop. LOL She really acts like a large parrot!
I've become enamored with these too! Buff Laced Polish! http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2063340800033791576Vicaqj We saw these at the county fair. I was talking about them at a soccer game and found the lady that had shown them. chuckle
last year i raised buff laced and silver laced polish(also the same colors in frizzles) and black crevecours and showed them. this year i am raiseing red crested reds, w/c blues and w/c blacks. due to heat waves i lost all my w/c blacks but here is a pic of mine a few mths ago i don't have any recent pics of them, sorry. i'll try to get new ones done this weekend for ya but here is them as babies. i love the new color but the blues and buffa are my favs of all the colors so far.
silkie
Oh my! Those are so darn cute!! What is w/c? I'll be looking for those new pics!
The silkies are such sweet little birds! Our white rooster has turned quite mean though. LOL The buff male is still really sweet, which is good because he's getting some nasty looking spurs!
We had someone offer us some frizzle and peacock babies and at the time I said no because we had so many birds already and were building a large coop. A month or so later, my 12 year old really wanted them but there were no more extras. Sigh.
A funny but not funny story....The kids were playing hide n' seek a couple of weeks ago. For some reason that white silkie male hates my 5 year old. Wellllll, my 12 year old hid in the big coop and had some brain failure and hid my 5 year old in the silkie coop. One side opens into the pen and the other side opens out but has locks on the door. I'm out front gardening and I hear muffled screaming. I see the 12 year old leave the big coop and walk to the little coop. Then the screaming gets louder. As I am running to them, they are running to me and my 12 year old has her hand over her mouth to hide how hard she is laughing. She put my 5 year old in the coop and closed the door then went to hide. The mean white roo noticed the kids he hates in his house and ran at her and was pecking her. LOL She had on pants and a long sleeved shirt and she was not hurt but she did get a good scare. I can laugh now. And I repeat, she was not hurt! LOL For some reason, he just doesn't like her. She's never done a thing to him and she still tries to be friendly with him but he'll have no part of it. He takes a charge at all of us but really goes after her.
i know just what ya mean i got a showgirl roo just like that now. i have a friend she has a polish and a bantam turken like that. ya have to not back down to them or they will continue to due it. ya have to make them think you are top rooster. he does it to her cause she is smaller he thinks he can get away with it. you have to charge him when he goes after one of you make him run from you(when he takes a step to you, you step to him and mean it or stomp at him to make a noise on the ground) and don't turn ur back on him. he does it and keeps comeing after you corner him and catch him carry him around for awhile upside down under your arm while ya feed the others ect. a roo won't try to fight once upside down he'll surender. just carry him around for awhile for like 10-15 min but keep ahold of his feet so he can't kick you. i talk to mine tell him he's bad he can't be doing that but hehe that's just me and then i let him go again after he calms down and i have petted him a bit. i make sure i'm out of the line of fire though. usually he's good for a few days again. if it doesn't work on a roo after a few weeks and he is not brooken of it i do not keep him i have 5 kid's it's to dangerous to have him around so i rehome them. i don't have it in me to cull them i get way to attached but i do farewarn the potential new homes ahead of time so they know.
it is funny but i have to watch some of mine have spurs like 3" long so i worry and they do got claws too ta boot. that's why i like raiseing them from eggs i have never had one of our hatchlings grow up spunky like that only ones we have gotten older from others.
here is 2 pics of my girls from last year i showed. both took first in their shows. i lost the frizzle due to a coon and the crevecour to cold. i miss my girls.
this is paige
this is anna.
if you ever get the chance again to get frizzles get some for your kid's they will LOVE them and so will you!!! i have sizzle eggs in now i have to put in the hatcher on halloween. it is a silkie x frizzled cochin i can't wait to see them our first for them. i got them in as hatching eggs from a member of byc i just candled them with dh i had forgotten to,lol and we got 12 eggs in and only 1 clear so i'm excited for a good hatch!! i will be cam happy this weekend cause i got babies in the brooder already (silkies and a showgirl) and those will be hatching in a few days and i got favorolles hatching eggs due same time also so i will take updated pics of the flock also of my bigger ones for ya.
Hello!
Badseed, we may have to trade some eggs at the spring round up? I love your cheetah!
George
George, we may just have to do that! Or you are welcome whenever you'd like to make a trip. I'm not sure how far away you live. I don't think Neal said how long his trip was for the RU. I'd love to have some more "Cheetahs" myself. I'll have to remember to order early in the spring.
Poo Silkie! Do you have any bigger pics of the Frizzles? I'd love to see them. The ones we saw were so darn cute with their little afros. Seems like they were black and white. They were quite small and fairly new, like day old or so.
We will be working harder on that male silkie. He's quite a handful. He tried to attack me when I was putting a fresh water jug in this morning. I had to bob and weave to set it in and ended up smashing my thumb. I told him if he didn't knock it off, I'd eat him! LOL They are in a shorter coop now that I can't walk into, so it's harder to get him. When my 14 year old was getting the silkie eggs yesterday, he went after her and she ran and he got out. The 12 year old (the only one he truly likes) had to go out and catch him and put him back. He's quite the little beast! He barely has spurs so we'll have to get him under control. Right now he mostly runs at you and pecks at you.
i'll have to look and see if i got a bigger ones of the frizzle babies. have to look through all my photo bucket pics to see.
is he a young roo? ours are. i'm wondering if it's a hormone thing they think they are protecting their woman or something.
oh w/c= white crested, sorry forgot to tell ya,lol. i love their little afros.
my fav i have now is a white crested blue pullet and a red crested red male both smooth polish. every day they come to the doors to play when i go to see them. they are a hoot. if i wear my glasses they try to steal them. if i don't they hop out on my shoulders and sit while i get their food. she tries to steal my rings and jewlery. they both love to play it is so funny to watch them. i move my hand he acts like he is on crack and darts,lol. he reminds me of the roadrunner from that cartoon with his funny hair, oh gosh i have to take pics of them for you they are so cute!! then i have a baby showgirl that gets in on it with them and plays too. i think it is a girl it is white. they act like the 3 stooges together playing everytime mommy comes to visit them and we have a blast. they are my favs i think of my whole flock, i just adore them!!
You could also post your eggs on www.Ovabid.com it is free to list there for time being....
hiya . im trying to hatch silkie eggs which i bought of the internet has anyone got any positive results from the internet ? i am going to make a home incubator has anyone done that and has anyones eggs hatched ??
I'm afraid I cannot add much aside from having new chicks today, hatched by our silkies. I thought the eggs were a loss but hatched on day 26! I had read it takes 21 days and most people give them an additional 2-3 days. I think the rain and cool weather may have affected the hatch.
I'm sure someone will be along with experience, to answer your questions.
If you do a search, there are some that have made their own incubators.
Hi louise13! I have purchased eggs that I bought on the internet--the hatch rate is usually lower than if the eggs hadn't been shipped--but they do hatch.
Several of us have made incubators and they work well--main pain is having to turn the eggs and deciding if you want to do still air or forced air (the temps are different for those). Cleaning them between hatches can be hard. But if you make the styrofoam cooler type you can just keep buying new coolers (they are very inexpensive) and just recycle the other hardware. I use my homemade incubator as the hatcher for the last 3 days, since the eggs shouldn't be turned then and there are still eggs in the store-bought incubator that do need turning. It has worked brilliantly. You can find good plans for building an incubator on the internet--or check the threads here. Good Luck!
hi louise. di dyo ualready receive the eggs and not have the bator yet? please hurry, your hatch rate will drop significantly after the eggs are 7 days old.
depending on your climate there, while you build the bator you coudl have them in a small cardboard box with a towel, a wet sponge, and a light bulb. you need the temp about 99.5 F, and relative Humidity 50% to start... and set up in a room where the temp and rH is steady...
good luck!
tf