Hatching Eggs

Hatch rates during the summer months may be affected by the heat, and hatch rates during the winter months may be affected by the cold. Please take into consideration the type of weather you’re experiencing when placing orders for shipped eggs.

Due to the high demand during holiday season, we don’t recommend shipping eggs from the end of 

November to the beginning of January. With so many people placing holiday orders, the chance of your order being delayed, lost or damaged during this time period is more likely. Should you choose to order eggs during this period, we will not offer any guarantee for hatch rate, refund or replacement for delayed arrivals of your hatching eggs, nor offer a refund or replacement if your package is lost, stolen or damaged.

In the spring, there is usually an increased demand for hatching eggs. Please allow 3-5 weeks for fulfillment.

Please note that we will do everything in our power to guarantee you fresh eggs that are securely and safely packaged in the hope that they arrive intact.

Purchasing shipped hatching eggs is always a gamble. Despite us doing our best, there are many variables that can affect your hatch rate. 

Extreme temperatures or fluctuations in temperatures, poor or rough handling during transport, delays in shipping and more can all affect your hatch rate. On top of this, there are further variables regarding your incubation process and method, including hatching, that we are not in control of. Due to this, we cannot and will not offer any guarantee on hatch rate.

Rudiger Hatchery will only guarantee that the eggs shipped to you are three days old or less, and are packaged in a way to try and prevent any breakage or damage during shipping. Should your package arrive damaged, and within it your eggs arrive broken, please contact us as soon as possible. 

You will need to email us at information@rudigerhatchery.com within 24 hours of receipt of notification that your package was delivered. You will need to send pictures of the damaged package and/or broken eggs. A refund will be offered for the broken eggs only.

All eggs are shipped in foam containers via USPS Priority Mail. Eggs are collect up to 3 days prior to shipping and stored in a temperature controlled environment.

It is recommended to set up your incubator a few days prior to the arrival of your hatching eggs to allow your to troubleshoot your incubator as needed, as well as to allow your temperature to reach an optimum 99.5° F and humidity to reach 40-45%. If you run into any technical difficulties, read your manufacturer’s pamphlet that came with the incubator or reach out to the manufacturer directly. We recommend using a secondary thermo and hydrometer due to the common issue of incubator readouts not being calibrated correctly and therefore reflecting the wrong information.

Once your eggs arrive, it is advised to allow your eggs to rest on a stable surface free from pets and children for 12-24 hours. The best way to do this is to position them with the pointed, or narrow end down, and the wide end up. This allows the eggs to settle and the air cell to return to its natural location.

Place your eggs into your incubator, and begin your wait. Monitor the temperature and humidity daily and make adjustments as needed per your incubator. Some require more frequent checks and interventions than others.

For days 1-14, you want to maintain a temperature of 99.5° F and a humidity level of 40-45%. Turn your eggs 3 to 5 times a day or more. Most incubators turn eggs every 120 minutes.

For days 15-18, you enter lockdown. Temperature can continue at 99.5° F but humidity needs to be increased to 60-65%. Once you enter lockdown, do not open the incubator. Opening the incubator during lockdown causes a rapid decrease in humidity that can cause a chick to shrink wrap in its shell. Shrink wrapping occurs when the inner membrane dries up and hardens around the chick, making it very difficult and in some cases impossible for the chick to break out of its shell.

Leave the quail in the incubator while they are all hatching, allowing them to dry and for their brood mates to hatch safely as well. Quail can remain in the incubator for up to 48 hours, while 24 hours is ideal. If you need to open the incubator during lockdown, lightly spray distilled water into the incubator and as quickly as possible lift the lid just enough to pull out the hatched and dry babies. Quail can sometimes take up to 21 days to hatch.

Viability begins to decrease after 10 days, while some still remaining viable at 14 days. You should plan to place your eggs into the incubator 12-24 hours after their arrival and time to settle. If you allow your shipped eggs to rest for too many days after arrival, you may have a poor hatch rate or zero hatches.

Candling your eggs is not required, and not all individuals choose to candle their eggs. Some choose to candle their shipped eggs upon receipt, on day 7 and 14.

We recommend candling shipped eggs upon receipt to rule out any fractures or breaks that are not visible to the naked eye. Most fractures can be left alone and the egg still incubated without issue. However you can lightly dip the egg in melted beeswax to cover the fractured portion only. Do not wax the whole egg as this will suffocate the embryo. Do not incubate eggs with spider-web like fractures, large fractures, or any break that results in leaking fluid as this indicates the membrane is not intact. Bacteria can spread from this damaged egg to the remaining eggs during incubation and result in a poor hatch rate.

We then recommend candling on day 14 or 15, at the start of lockdown. When you remove your eggs from the turners of the incubator, you can candle the eggs to verify development prior to lockdown and give yourself a better guess on how many will hatch.

When candling, you are looking for a dark portion and the air sac. This indicated development and a growing embryo. Eggs that shine bright light throughout, did not develop, may have died early on, or were not fertile. At lockdown you can remove any non-viable eggs.