A few housekeeping items:

I don’t ship eggs that I wouldn’t put in my own incubator. I inspect and candle each egg and carefully package them snug in the box. I hope you have a great hatch! However, hatching eggs can take a beating in the mail. By having hatching eggs shipped, you are accepting the risk of a 0% hatch rate. If you have never hatched before, I would recommend learning on eggs that have not gone through the trauma of shipping. There is a lot of information available about how to incubate eggs and it involves a lot of trial and error. Eventually, you will find an incubation plan that works for you. Always run experimental hatches on cheaper eggs before you invest in expensive eggs. If you want guaranteed chicks, please order chicks.

These are just general helpful tips and suggestions that have worked for me in my local climate. I’d recommend doing more research on how to incubate and hatch.

Please feel free to leave feedback on our Facebook page: Mistic Acres, or here on our website. We LOVE pictures! Feedback is for how the eggs were packaged and shipped, and for communication during the transaction, not for how USPS handled the eggs or your hatch rate

Here are some basic helpful hatching tips for shipped eggs:

Start your incubator about a day before you expect your eggs to arrive and let it come to optimal temperature and humidity. Make sure that it is stable for at least 12 hours before adding eggs. I suggest 99-100 degrees F and about 40-50% humidity. Be sure to have a secondary thermometer and hygrometer in addition to the ones that come in the incubator, and calibrate them prior to use.

Let the eggs come to room temperature with the pointy end down for a few hours. Shipped eggs are very sensitive. You want to allow them to come to room temperature slowly and then put them in the incubator. If they have been cold, make sure to let them warm up slowly, don't shock them with quick or drastic temperature changes. Put them in the prepped incubator as soon as they are room temperature.

If an egg arrives cracked but is not leaking, look up how to use candle wax on cracked eggs. Gently melt a thin layer of candle wax on the crack and add it to the incubator. I’ve had a few chicks hatch from cracked eggs this way. Others have used Elmer's glue, melted crayon wax, and nail polish and have reported that they have successfully hatched those eggs.

I suggest not turning the eggs for the first 5-7 days of incubation. If you have detached air cells, this will give the air cell time to reattach properly. I also recommend an incubator that tilts side to side and keeps the eggs pointy end down at all times, rather than on their sides and rolling the eggs.  

Turn on the automatic turner after 5-7 days and keep it on until about day 18 of incubation. On day 18, turn off the automatic turner and adjust the humidity to at least 65% humidity, but not higher than 70%. I suggest using a separate unit for hatching, especially if you have multiple hatch dates in one incubator. Hatching is messy and requires a higher humidity than earlier incubation stages.

I personally spray the eggs with a 3% Hydrogen Peroxide mist just before putting them in the hatcher. This especially helps with eggs that have thick, dark pigment or heavy blooms. You can read more here. Some people use fine sandpaper on their darker, thicker egg shells to help with hatch rates. I haven't tried this.

If you candle your eggs, do it after 10 days on lighter-shelled eggs. The darker the egg the more difficult it is to see and you will need a very bright candler. I find that I can’t see through dark pigmented eggs well enough to make candling worth it until day 18. When I move them to the hatching cabinet, I just look to see if there’s a visible air cell and the rest of the egg is mostly dark. This means a chick likely developed enough to potentially hatch. If the egg looks less than 50% dark/filled, I pull that egg and don’t put it in the hatcher. Some chicks will fully develop and not internally pip, others may internally pip but die in the shell. This happens, especially with Marans or Olive Egger varieties, it is just a part of hatching dark shelled eggs. The darker the egg, the more difficult it is to hatch.

I recommend hatching eggs, especially dark pigmented or heavy bloom eggs, pointy end down in an egg tray. Make sure it is open enough for the shell to still breathe. I find much better hatch rates when I keep the eggs pointy end down all the way through hatching. Once I hear the hatcher start chirping, I wait about 24-36 hours before opening it to check on the chicks. I can’t see in my hatcher very well, so I don’t open it until they’ve had enough time to hatch on their own. The chicks will be fine for a couple of days without food and water as they absorb the yolk right before hatching.

If there are unhatched eggs when I open hatcher, I will try to help if they seem like they need it. Anything that has pipped on it’s own but hasn’t hatched fully yet, or is still wet, I put right back in the hatcher while I go through the ones that have hatched. If there’s eggs with no signs of hatching, I will hold them up to my ear and tap the egg to see if I hear chirping. If there’s no chirping, I simply put them back in the hatcher. If I hear chirping, I will punch a small hole in the air cell end of the shell so the chick doesn’t suffocate trying to get out. Those dark shells are pretty tough to crack! I put these chicks back in the hatcher and check on them again in three hours. If they haven’t made any progress and are still alive, I help them out of the shell as much as I can. If you need to assist the chicks out of the shells, here is an excellent article on the correct way to assist chicks and this offers a step-by-step guide.​

What works for me might not work for you, I have altered my incubation protocol and I'm constantly modifying it as I learn more. There is a wide variety of hatching ideas that work. Create your own by trial and error. My best advice is to hatch, hatch, hatch, and learn from your mistakes in your environment and with your incubator.

Here is a great article to read if you experience a power outage or fluctuating temperatures in your incubator. Read about temperature and early and late hatching here.

I wish you all the best luck. Happy hatching! Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns at info@misticacres.com