Eggs in the Incubator

I've purchased hatching eggs online twice now and it just doesn't work. The first time they were packed extremely well but when you looked at them with an egg candler you could see that they were shaken and had lots of bubbles in them. Two hatched and only one lived. The second time I purchased eggs online they arrived in smashed box. Obviously none of them were any good. The seller reshipped my some replacement eggs for free but they didn't arrive much better. So I won't buy shipped eggs again!

I found some hatching eggs for sale on eBay that were near Houston and I messaged the sellers to see if they would let me pick them up locally rather than ship them. They agreed so today I drove north to Livingston about an hour and then south to Santa Fe about an hour. I bought 18 Black Copper Maran eggs and 12 Jubilee Orpington eggs. They are in the incubator now and should hatch on April 23rd :)

Notice how much darker the Black Copper Maran eggs are! They are more of a chocolate brown and the Jubilee Orpingtons are more of a light tan, a little lighter than the eggs I get now from my Black Australorps. I want a variety of chickens, about 5 or so, and I'm going to start selling chicks as soon as these chicks are old enough to lay in about 6 months.

The Jubilee Orpingtons are fat and fluffy and are a good layer. I love their spotted coloring :) They are a fairly new breed in the U.S. and chicks are very expensive. It was hard finding someone that would sell me hatching eggs since people make such good money selling the chicks. A year and a half ago I found this breed and the straight run chicks were selling for $80 each!! Now I have seen them for $20 each, but that is still a lot for an unsexed chick. Hopefully I'll make some money on them while enjoying them :) They will look like this:

The Black Copper Marans are much more common but it's hard to find ones with really dark eggs. I'm happy with the egg color I received - they are nice and dark. They will look like this:

My friend, Leila, calls them my designer chickens :)