HOW to solder to a 8 pin IC socket?

I have a 8 pin IC socket on a bread board I destroyed 3 sockets trying to solder to them. OK I know someone will ask if parts came from China, NO. They came from a seller in TX. Several weeks ago I almost had this circuit finished rain stopped we had 80+ degree weather we been camping several times. Now I am a prisoner in the house again none stop rain again. I struggled all day trying to get wires to solder to the pins I was down to the last wire pin 3 broke off the IC there is nothing to solder too. I removed all wired from socket then started soldering wires again still having trouble with wired that do not want to stick to the sockets. I can solder wires to anything else but these #$%& 8 pin sockets. If I get pins hot too long it melts the socket plastic case. Now I am on socket #3 trying to solder wires to it like before wires refuse to stick. Another pin broke off so I stripped all the wires off ready to start over with new socket #4. I quit for the day......... or maybe until after dinner. Maybe I need to solder flux the pins on the socket? I never had to flux pins in 40 years. Pins look shiny as chrome but after trying to get solder to stick they look like copper. I have done wire twist to pins in the past but don't want to do wire twist this time.

With my temperature controlled soldering iron and rosin core 63/37 tin/lead solder, I can solder a #24 awg copper wire to a Name Brand IC socket in 1 second. I buy genuine high quality parts from Digikey, not from "a seller" who gets junk from China.

"...buy genuine high quality parts from Digikey, not from "a seller" who gets junk from China." ... Exactly. Just because the eBay says US seller, doesn't mean that the part he is selling is from the US.

Solder flux will help, but the rosin core should be doing that for you.

Also you could seat a dummy IC in the socket while you are soldering to help dissipate some of the heat and keep the pins from coming out and the plastic case from melting.

Lastly, it sounds like your soldering iron could be too big or the temperature is set too high.

Cheap soldering irons sit there and get hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter and ….
Then when you begin soldering with them they start much too hot causing the important flux to get burned away. Then quickly get cooler and cooler and cooler and cooler and .... are useless.