Hatching Tips

Hatching Tips for Shipped Eggs

  1. Carefully unpackage your eggs, candling each one checking for cracks and detached air sacs. Place the eggs in a carton (pointy end down) allowing them to come to room temperature.

  2. Prep your incubator, ensuring the temperature is consistently running 99.5-100 degrees and the humidity is staying somewhere between 30%-35% and not fluctuating. I recommend placing a second thermometer/hygrometer in the incubator, you usually can't rely on the one built into the incubator itself. Personally, I like a dryer hatch, so I keep the humidity around 30%.

  3. After a few hours, place the eggs in the incubator pointy-end down. If you have the kind that rotates the eggs on their side, place the eggs in a carton or cut up a paper towel roll so they stay pointy-end down. The air sacs need time to settle and hopefully reattach. DO NOT turn the eggs for at least 4-5 days.

  4. After 4-5 days, plug in the turner or start hand turning. It is best to handle shipped eggs as little as possible. Try not to candle them until lockdown.

  5. On day 19, the eggs go into "lockdown”. Increase the humidity to 55% and unplug the turners. DO NOT open the incubator after this point. You will risk shrink wrapping any unhatched chicks.

  6. Chicks will start hatching anywhere from day 20-23. Some will hatch early and some will hatch late depending on their development. Do not remove any hatched chicks for 24 hours, this will allow them to dry off and their activity encourages the others to hatch. I only remove chicks if it starts getting crowded, otherwise they all stay in the incubator for up to 72 hours until every chick has hatched.

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