[the great composto]

I am giving up buying hatching eggs through ebay.     Another batch of 12 eggs (2 sets of 6 from different suppliers) and just 1 lonely chick as a result. 
I Checked the eggs and the other 11 not fertile.
The only goods news is that both the suppliers did instant refunds when I contacted them - i wanted chicks tho'

The quick, no quibble refund is suspicious I think.

Has anybody used a supplier of Light sussex and got success?

[Rubella Clapton]

cluck-cottage chickens on ebay. monster chickens, good hatch rate.

[Henstock]

Where abouts are you, maybe you'd be better off finding someone local to you??
 

[the great composto]

thanks for the replies that ebayer seems excellent - i think i will try that one.

There are people local but not local enough compared to a few pounds of postage.

I am a bit dubious about the disclaimer about the affect of posting eggs.

I will try again with cluck cottage who claim 100% success for two years witht he light sussex - surely I cannot fail with that guarantee.

[Moleskins]

We bought hens from the Canny Chicken Company, she sells on Ebay.
The set up was presentable, hens are fine but don't know how good a rate of success she has with the eggs she posts out.
HTH

[Bionic]

I have just bought eggs from Cheshire Poultry. 3 French Copper Blue Marans and 3 Barred Wyandottes. They are under my broody at the moment and due to hatch at the end of this week. 
Sally

[Castle Farm]

I bought 24 LS off a guy on ebay that were supposed to be very good birds.

2 chicks.

[hughesy]

We sell eggs from our LS and our RIR on ebay. We've had excellent reports from buyers of both. I think if the eggs are good when sent out you should have no problems but there are some unscrupulous sellers who'll sell any old shite just to get a few quid in. I had some goose eggs earlier in the year that were rotten I reckon they were failed incubations but the tw&t sold them anyway.

[princesspiggy]

we havent had great results with buying eggs thru post, never tried ebay.

[the great composto]

Thanks again for the info sounds like its not just me.

[chrismahon]

The disclaimer regarding the postal service is a valid one TGC. Also depends on your incubator of course, but isf you are sure they were infertile perhaps that is OK. No substitute for fetching the eggs yourslf -you can see the parents and the condition they are in while you are there. We never post our hatching eggs -collect or go somewhere else.

[princesspiggy]

i dont think its fair to slam poultry farmers for selling on ebay, we considered it, and wudnt like to be thought of as poor quality producers because of it.  i know a v good poultry farmer up the road used to sell on there and there eggs are in good demand at market.
we have bought many eggs by post and always had poor results, about 40% was the best, and that lady still send us extra eggs as she wanted us to have a good hatch rate. top quality birds too.
i wouldnt like to sell on ebay and then have to refund either as there r sooo many variable beyond the sellers control with incubation alone.
the only seller who has got my goat were britannia rare breeds in england, they were so expensive £2.50 per egg plus p&p and sent me golf balls shaped eggs, which were never gona hatch even if the queen sat on them. u would always discard such an egg, not sell it. grrrr

[mwncigirl]

We have had some good and some bad from ebay. To be honest I'm not going to bother again, last lot (Cream Legbars) we ended up with one cockerel. I don't think its worth the risk really. Quite exciting as you think you can get anything, but the reality is, its costly and there are no real guarantees.

[the great composto]

We have had some good and some bad from ebay. To be honest I'm not going to bother again, last lot (Cream Legbars) we ended up with one cockerel. I don't think its worth the risk really. Quite exciting as you think you can get anything, but the reality is, its costly and there are no real guarantees.

totally agree it is a risk and the single chick I have will be a cockerel if sod's law has any say in it.

Still fun to do as long as you dont think too hard about the real costs.

[funkyfish]

I've had good results from eBay - used southyeofarmeast they are in Devon and sell alot of hatching eggs through the post. I had all but one hatch- bantom crode langshan. I also had almost all hatch from another seller-(silver laced wyndotts)- even though one egg was brOken when they arrived. The damn chicks died at 6 weeks old as a storm blew the font of the house off and they died from getting cold and wet- damn things!!