Hatch rates during the summer months may be affected by heat during shipping. Be aware that you may have a decreased hatch rate if you purchase your eggs to be shipped in July and August. We do not offer a hatch rate guarantee.

We do everything we can to ensure you have a successful hatch! Our eggs are collected fresh for each order and are never over 3 days old before we ship. Because we are a small hobby farm and do not keep a large number of each variety, there may be a bit of a wait with some orders based on their demand at the time. Most orders may be shipped within 1 week. Other orders, such as our jumbo lines or new releases, may take a bit longer. Be sure to look at the description under the variety for updates on ship times.

Please note that buying shipped eggs for hatching is a gamble. Rough handling during shipping, extreme temperatures or variations in temperature, delays in shipping, and more can have an affect on your hatch rate. In addition to this, there can be many variables involved with the incubation and hatching of the eggs that can effect hatch rate that we are not in control of. Because of these things, we cannot guarantee that your eggs will hatch. We can only guarantee that your eggs will be fresh and packaged in such a way as to try to prevent damage during shipment.

All eggs are stored in a temperature-controlled environment prior to shipping. We ship in foam shippers vis USPS Priority Mail.

Here it is! An opportunity to receive select Thieving Otter Farm eggs straight to your door at a discounted rate!

With your subscription, you will have your choice of receiving either an assortment of plumage color/pattern, a full order of Jumbo Brown, or a full order of one color/pattern that will be hatchery’s choice. If you choose Hatchery Choice, we will send out a different color, pattern, or collection each month.

Orders will be sent out near the date your subscription was started. Contact us to change ship date or to cancel your plan.

We recommend letting your eggs rest, pointy-end-down for 12-24 hours before incubating. This allows the egg to come to room temperature and the air cell to settle back in place at the top of the egg. Set up your incubator a few days before and have it running with a separate thermometer and hygrometer in the unit to be sure it’s maintaining appropriate temperature and humidity before you start incubation. Not all readouts on incubators are calibrated correctly and false readings are extremely common. We recommend Thermpro thermometers/hygrometers from Hatching Time.

Begins to greatly decreases 10 days after the egg is laid. Be sure you are ready to incubate immediately after your eggs have been allowed to rest.

We recommend a temperature of 99.5 degrees F and humidity of 45% or less for incubation and 60-65% at lockdown.

If you decide to candle your eggs, we recommend candling the eggs on lockdown. For quail eggs, a dark egg with an air pocket is developing. We do not recommend inverting the egg with the blunt-end down while candling. Always keep the air cell in the blunt end upright whenever possible. Handle the egg as little as possible.

Once you have placed your eggs in lockdown (on day 14 for quail, day 18 for chickens), do not open the incubator, especially if the eggs have pipped (cracked). Doing so creates rapid changes in humidity that can cause the membrane inside the shell to stick to the chick, which can suffocate it. Leave the chicks in the incubator while they are all hatching. Chicken chicks can survive in the incubator for up to 72 hours, quail chicks should be removed in 48 hours or less - 24 is preferred.

While we cannot guarantee your shipped eggs will hatch due to shipping stress and variations in incubation techniques, we still want you to have a successful hatch. If you have a poor hatch rate, please notify us and we will troubleshoot with you to see if we can improve your hatch rate. We will be happy to work with you to be more successful with the next hatch.