FAQs

Some of the challenges with hatching eggs – and what to do:

Temperature changes – Ask for ‘Hold for Pickup’ during freezing or extreme high temps.
Rough handling – We ship individually wrapped, double boxed & air padded. Over hundreds of orders our packing has eliminated cracked eggs.
Late delivery – We ship fully insured to protect the value of your order. Eggs will be 48 hours old at most when shipped.
Buyer incubation process – Read the instructions provided in your box. Ask us for help if needed.
Faulty incubator – If you have failed to hatch anything in your current incubator, find a new one.
Fertility – We do regular fertility checks on our eggs to ensure fertility. Both fertilized egg and incubation. If we are selling a type of egg, we are incubating it also.

About Your Incubator

There’s nothing worse than paying good money for eggs, setting them to incubate in your new incubator and have nothing develop. Make sure to have your incubator set up prior to purchasing. Some incubators are known to have unacceptable temperature & humidity fluctuations. Always research before you buy. & only try cheap hatching eggs on new incubators to verify their ability to hatch eggs.

Your Eggs had a Long Trip, Let Them Rest!

You should let your shipped eggs sit with the large side up for 24 hours before placing them in your incubator. The air space in the egg will need to settle and reform after it has been shuffled around by being in the mail. Your package will contain extra instructions about handling disturbed egg air cells. Read the directions and candle your eggs to check the air space upon receipt. Click here to learn how to Candle Shipped Eggs Before Incubation.

Your hatching success is our priority!

You should know buying hatching eggs is risky (mostly due to rough shipping and handling). We cannot guarantee your hatch rate due to things beyond our control once they leave the farm. Ask us for help if needed.

What should I do when my chicken or turkey eggs arrive?:

You will need to carefully unwrap the eggs and place them in a cool-humid storage area. Ideal storage conditions include a 55 to 68 degrees F. temperature and about 75% relative humidity.

Although this is not always possible, the reasoning is this:  cool eggs need to warm slowly to room temperature before placing in the incubator. (Abrupt warming from 55 degrees to 100 degrees causes moisture condensation on the egg shell that leads to disease and reduced hatches.) This is dependent of course on the weather outside.

Store the eggs with the small end pointed downward for 12- 24 hrs.  To help the egg settle. There is an air pocket in the egg that can get bounced around in transit. Hatch-ability will hold up reasonably well for the next 24 hours. But, do not store eggs more than this. And do not wash them.

After 24 hours of settling, Eggs should be placed in an incubator and maintained at 99.5 to 100 degrees.  Follow your incubators hatching protocol with 40% to 55% humidity during incubation the raise to 65%+ humidity during hatching.

Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days and Turkey eggs hatch in 28 days.

What should I do when my duck eggs arrive?:

You will need to carefully unwrap the eggs and place them in a cool-humid storage area. Ideal storage conditions include a 55 to 68 degrees F. temperature and about 75% relative humidity.

Although this is not always possible, the reasoning is this:  cool eggs need to warm slowly to room temperature before placing in the incubator. (Abrupt warming from 55 degrees to 100 degrees causes moisture condensation on the egg shell that leads to disease and reduced hatches.) This is dependent of course on the weather outside. This usually only takes a few hours.

Make sure you put the eggs with the small end pointed downward for 12- 24 hrs.  To help the egg settle. There is an air pocket in the egg that can get bounced around in transit. Hatch-ability will hold up reasonably well for the next 24 hours. But, do not store eggs more than this. And do not wash them. However, Misting duck eggs once a day with non chlorinated room temperature water is what is recommended as their egg shells are porous and hold the moisture which increases hatch ability.  Start this misting once a day after the eggs are room temperature.

After 24 hours of settling, Eggs should be placed in an incubator and maintained at 99.3 to 99.6 degrees.  Follow your incubators hatching protocol with 50% to 60% humidity during incubation (25 days) then raise to 80%+ humidity during hatching.

Remember Duck eggs need a fifteen minute cool down period daily, to mimic the mother getting off the eggs to get herself some food and water. When she comes back to the nest her underside is still usually wet from the water and this moisture gets transferred to the eggs.  So the cool down period is when you will open your incubator and mist your eggs with room temperature non-chlorinated water. 

(You can put a bowl of tap water out over night and the chlorine in it will evaporate after 24 hours).  Make sure that your eggs are just misted and not sitting in a puddle of water. 

English Orpington Hatching Egg Codes

BL: Blue Laced

BLU: Blue

BMO: Black Mottled

BP: Blue Partridge

CMO: Chocolate Mottled

DC: Crele

GO: Golden Laced

JUB: Jubilee

LAV: Lavender

LC: Isabel Cuckoo

PO: Partridge

RED: Red

SIL: Silver Laced

WO: White

Rare Breed Hatching Egg Codes