grumpy tonight

Well I am grumpy tonight. I thought I would gamble having some eggs shipped from ontario. Seemed to be nice quality birds and are supposed to be show quailty. Originally I ordered 2 dozen of 2 colour varities of the same breed. Last minute I was offered 1/2 dozen of a different breed at no charge. So yeah ok fill the bator. So they arrive today. There are 18 of the breed I originally ordered in 3 colour varieties and dozen of the breed i dont really want. One of the 18 was cracked and almost all of them have loose and bubbly aircells........

I know thats the gamble shipping from across the country but really? Really? We will see what happens.

Aww that is too bad fuzzy, It is always a gamble having eggs shipped, but to not get what you wanted is a whole nother issue.
I have some to arrive from Ontario today too, hoping they make it in good shape...

Oh, oh, oh, that is awful. Getting the three varieties when you asked for two, and then a dozen of the breed that you didn't want? That is wrong and you totally need to contact this person and express the displeasure, that is not good business ethics, period. Period. Period. Sometimes people make me wonder, I would very very grumpy too.

That is quite a few dislodged air cells, really, a lot. I know that shipping is very hard on eggs, especially that distance, but listen to this....

I had buff orpington eggs shipped from Ontario to here in our new life. The eggs were packed beautifully in a huge box, so big, I wondered what on earth was in the box. Anyways. I ordered two dozen eggs, and the gal sent me 30 eggs (6 extra, now wasn't that nice????). Despite her beautiful packing (eggs wrapped in bubble wrap, but in my eyes, not thick enough bubble wrap (and I told her to wrap thicker next time for others, she appreciated the advice) and inside a styrofoam container thing and then inside a box, that is why the box was so big), there were 7 eggs broken. Go figure that one. The air sac thing, that was not a bad one. There was only two of the remaining 24 unbroken eggs that had displaced air cells, only two, that was it. So I don't know. Of those 24 set eggs, only 10 hatched. The two displaced air cell eggs did not hatch. So I thought that was pretty good, 1/3 of the eggs sent went on to be beautiful adults, and these are indeed beautiful and massive buff orpingtons (and they love broodiness, which can be good or bad, dependent on what you are up to).

Fuzzylittlefriend, you certainly have every right to be grumpy. And I bet you paid a good price to get those eggs here. No one closer that could send you some of the same that you wanted???? Greyhound is a wonderful shipper. Still, try to have a great day today, CynthiaM.

Good luck with those eggs, grumpy girl. Lord knows you are justified in your grumpiness! If things go for you the way they always go for me, you will be grumpy in 3 weeks time as well since the eggs you want will not hatch and every single one you don't want will be alive and peeping!

We will brace ourselves for more grumpiness!

Grumpy update -

Well 10 of 17 eggs are developing and aircells have seemed to corrected themselves. 3 of the 12 "bonus" eggs are developing but not really well so I am not sure what will happen in the end.

I contacted the seller with my concerns and her only response was "what? I am confused I have never had an egg break in shipping?". No response in terms of the quantities requested vs sent.

Sigh.............count down to poofy head cuteness awaits

So hatch happened.....

3 of the original 30 eggs hatched. 2 I wanted and one of the bonus eggs. Several of the eggs looked alive but not fully developed near the end. A few piped internally not that was it.

I had set some of my own eggs and had a good hatch from them so I know it was not my incubator.

On an interesting note I had put 4 of my millie eggs in last minute. One of them was slightly larger then usual but still looked like a millie egg. I had collected eggs from all the coups and thought I had put the millies on top ( I also have 2 millies in gen pop that I dont usually collect from for shipping fyi) Anyways the 1st one to hatch poped out black with fuzzy legs!! What the??? It does not have a beard and middle toe is slightly feathered. Could be a bantam cochin cross....must have mixed up eggs when I vrought them in......but its super cute!

Well congratts on the 3 you did get hatched out. Unfortunately risks are involved in getting eggs from sellers, and it sucks when you dont get what you ordered in the first place.

When you hatch chicken eggs do you put them on their sides or fat end up in a egg carton? Just curious because i have hatched out eggs with broken air sacs and I have better success with them up right.

They were hatched upright. I do every hatch upright now. I used every trick I knew for detached cells. They had actually healed well but maybe the embryos were too damaged.

ah, that is really, really awful. Sure does make ya become very afeeeered of getting shipped eggs. But, not sure if I mentioned this or not. I think it is the handling of the originator sometimes, and of course, airplanes, smiling. I had a decent hatch from my shipped eggs. I think you got duped, sorry to say this, you got the wrong numbers and wrong variety of the breed too. Be grumpy. Figured out how you are going to deal with this yet, it must have a closure, and you need to be able to close that door, so you can carry forward, forgive, of course, but you have learned something. Was this a reputable breeder, just thinking out loud. If so, you should have a monetary or physical reimbursement of your money spent. Period. On an upside. You have a baby from a cochin parent, absolutely and 100%, little fuzzy legs and on the toe, cochin....bet its gonna be the cutest thing on earth. I had my flock running all together when we first moved here two years ago. I hatched out a few that summer. The coolest bird EVER was a cockerel that was a cross between my blue cochin rooster and the gold laced wyandotte hen. The most beautiful and densest bird ever, lots of meat on that fellow, he weighed so much!! He was black, feathered like a cochin, looked kind of like a cochin, but had a beautiful rose comb, lawdy he was so nice, massive. I gave that fellow to my second youngest Sister in Dewdney and she was supposed to eat him, along with a few other cross bred cockerels. She never had the heart (who knows why, she is a farmer too, she eats her own foods she raises),but she let those roosters wander her property and be farm guard dogs. She had them for about a year. Time goes on and so do things. Anyways. You gonna have some cute little cochin cross there, they do make for some very pretty birds. I love anything cochin, I would love to try a few crosses of things with cochins personally, just for fun, it would bring some very neat crossbreeds that would be strong and probably excellent egg layers (thinking buckeye/orpington or maybe cochin/buckeye ) and wonderful meat birds, smiling that big smile. Get over your grumpiness now, close this, so you can carry on to more wonderful and awesome things, smiling again. Good day to you, and us all, CynthiaM.

Oh Cynthia if you are ever out this way you will have to stop and see the cochin crosses that I have saved from my mixed breed breedings....

This little black fuzzy leg guy has me stumped because the d'uccles also have fuzzy legs....so I am not sure. I will keep it for sure and see what comes of it.

I also had in this hatch what I am hoping is finally a pure cochin, poped out of a brown egg that I was sure was cochin and is finally feathered on middle toe as well.

Oh the crosses are so cute. I have a few that are from my bantam roo out of ee hens. Hairy legs and beards and 2 of them have the birchin lacing on their chests. There is one from a month ago hatch that I think is from my splash cochin who I saw hatch and is the most beautiful dark blue!! Probably welsummer father. I am pretty sure its s pullet and she is sooo nice.

I also have 5 now of my polish cross. Little poof heads that came out of olive egg laying hens. Very neat crosses for sure!

I did email the egg seller with no reply as of yet. It has been over 24 hours so we will see if she responds.

Thanks you for your sympathy though.

I have to say so far in having eggs shipped to me I have not had the best of luck. My eggs being shipped out seem to doing well. Its just really disapointing in the end!

Anne, one day, one fine day, I will wind up at your place, Winfield is about one hour away, but summertime is coming and I love early morning drives, smiling that big smile. Mornings are the light of my life . I would love to see your flock of birds, good luck, hope you get closure with the egg crap. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.