[princesspiggy]

last year we had 2 dozen hatching eggs from 2 different suppliers, only 1 egg hatched. yet when we picked up other eggs ourselves our hatch rate is good.
does anyone recommend suppliers/better practise so we can have better results this year, with petrol prices as they are, postage seems more favourable!!

[hughesy]

Definitely a lot of luck comes into play when eggs have been through the post. We've just incubated 24 eggs from off ebay with a pretty dissapointing hatch rate considering 23 out of the 24 showed development at the first candling. 6 hatched on day 21, 2 or 3 pipped then died in the shell. Was about to give up on the others but another has pipped now on day 23 so will wait a bit longer.

[shetlandpaul]

23 out of 24. is very good. its unfair to blame the later hatch rate on the seller. it could be caused by any number of other things pipping then dieing sounds more like the settings are not quite right.
but these things happen after all they are living things.

princess that sounds more like postage problems. the poly boxs are not very good for the eggs.

[princesspiggy]

can u recommend anyone? im still looking for new bloodlines for Old english pheasant fowl, ( we had only one hatch from 12 posted eggs then the dog caught it). white sussex (again - no hatch at all from 12) and would like to try ixworths and russian orloffs.

[Henstock]

Where abouts in the country are you PP if you can find breeders near you to pick eggs up you might have more success

[daddymatty82]

have you got any  white sussex PP if you have can i buy some as they are very rare so would love to get them to go with my light sussex

[hughesy]

23 out of 24. is very good. its unfair to blame the later hatch rate on the seller.

I wasn't doing that. Just making the point that eggs that have been through the post are subject to stresses that eggs laid locally don't have. I would much prefer to buy locally if I could.

[shetlandpaul]

oh i agree. we even did an experiment the first time we used the incubator. we used 12 fresh eggs 6 old eggs that must have been hanging around for a few weeks and 6 from the fridge. they all nearly hatched. the best ebay eggs have been 60%. funnily we got some meat bird eggs from a firm and they were packed completly diffrently and everyone got 95-100%. they were packed in an outer cardboard with the larger egg trays surrounded by bits foam pieces. the only got one broken out of a hundred or so. we have had some very poor eggs of ebay and a number of batches with no growth at all. the most annoying were a dozen guineafowl. watch the feed back on the seller. distance does not seem to matter. some of the better % have come from devon/cornwall. special deliverly is ment to be better. but as its handled the same up here there is no point.

i don't like the sellers that don't want the hatch rate posted. i can understand why a few poor hatches would make them look bad but thats what we are buying. if yousee mobile air sacks don't even bother sticking them in they have been scrambled.

[princesspiggy]

im in aberdeenshire. last year we were travelling 2 hours each way to find hatching eggs, postage seems alot cheaper aslong as they hatch. iv only got 4 (thanx to mr fox) white sussex hens, they are really beautiful and lay well too, last years hatch.  but determined to get a good flock of 50 white sussex layers, so will need 100 chicks really of diff bloodlines. we'l eat the cockerals so they wont go to waste. if i bought that many eggs id be so upset if they didnt hatch out! i think th best breeder is kent, long way from me.

[bamford6]

[email protected]        aberdeen aryboune     53 rare breeds no posting

[princesspiggy]

thankyou, will try that 

[BlueDaisy]

I was just about to suggest RontheShepherd an Ebay seller in Aberdeenshire with lots of different breeds - but I'm guessing that's the same guy that Garys just posted!!

[princesspiggy]

[email protected]        aberdeen aryboune     53 rare breeds no posting

is that old macronalds from tarland?

[clydesdaleclopper]

[email protected]        aberdeen aryboune     53 rare breeds no posting

is that old macronalds from tarland?

Yep.

Whereabouts in Aberdeenshire are you?  from Huntly-ish

[princesspiggy]

i know them, got some fantastic marsh daisies from them last year, and purple araucanas. they dont do OEPF anymore or white sussex. wer near peterhead but its worth the drive cos its a lovely spot.
so still looking ...really need a cockeral for my OEPF hens(and they laying now arrghh)...i presume my cockeral is related to them as he came from the same farm... no wonder some breeds are rare...