Re: blotchy shells

eggbox wrote:


I can't understand why you've had such difficulty hatching them, shell
quality alone is not a reason why an egg fails, there are many
factors to take in to account, especially when using a forced
enviroment such as an incubator. It doesn't matter what quality of
shell you have if cleanliness isn't paramount in the incubator. I'm
not saying this has been your problem as none of us could ever know,
but they are other considerations before you go blaming someone else
for failures. As I said, Jill has pointed out the problems you face by
receiving eggs in
the post, and as she quite rightly says, incubation is a "black art".
It does sound/look like these eggs don't travel well, and it's still
early in the year to be hatching, although my own results have been
good.

I would have to say that from the pictures of those eggs those shells are
weak and I would not chose to hatch from them. If he has been selecting for
egg size, with a breed that had got notoriously small eggs over the past 20
years, then maybe he has stretched it a bit in this latest generation and
has to get a bit of shell quality back into his birds. Shell quality is very
strongly genetic and I would not want to put the weakness shown in those
pictures into the next generation.
Breeding is another "black art" and you have to go forward and then stop to
consolidate otherwise you can set up different weaknesses.

It can be enough to prevent a good hatch from eggs that are posted. Also his
location may be working against him, he is off the beaten track a bit like
us, and that can lead to the packages going through a lot of hubs to get
around the country. These packages are light and so very easily knocked
about.
Maybe he should stop sending eggs out in the post? We have, we can no
longer get a 24 hour carrier and the post does FAR too much damage.
Customer expectations of the results outstrip their ability to deliver in a
satisfactory condition - the big problem is that eggs should not be posted
anyway and the damage is internal to the egg so you cannot challenge them.


--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk


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