What do I need to know about ordering fertile hatching eggs from My Pet Chicken?

My Pet Chicken absolutely guarantees that the fertile hatching eggs you order from us will arrive intact and ready for incubation. Hatching egg orders may ship any day of your selected shipping week, Monday through Saturday via USPS Priority Mail. If any eggs for which you have paid arrive cracked or broken, contact us within two business days of receiving them with photos of the damage.

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IMPORTANT: Receiving unbroken eggs is NOT a guarantee that they will all hatch. Why? Let us tell you BEFORE you make your purchase so you can be informed.

Our eggs are gathered daily and stored properly to ensure freshness and improve viability. Even so, most people are happy to get a 50 per cent hatch rate on shipped eggs. Firstly, even if the eggs are intact on the outside, handling by the post office can damage them enough that they do not hatch. Let's face it: when a hen lays an egg for hatching "in the wild" (or more likely in the coop), it stays put while she lays her entire clutch of eggs, and then she hatches them right there. She does not lay them in one place and move them to another. The internal arrangements of a chicken egg are relatively delicate and can be disturbed even if the outside is completely intact.

Secondly, we cannot guarantee your hatch rate because we have no control over the incubation conditions with which you try to hatch them. Eggs will not develop into chicks unless exacting conditions of temperature and humidity are met--and even a one degree difference in temperature can cause them not to hatch or can cause the chicks that do hatch to be weak! If your thermometer is inaccurate, if the power goes off in your home during incubation, if your incubator is dirty: all these issues are simply beyond our control.

Hatching results will vary even if you are experienced, so while our eggs are guaranteed to arrive intact and beautiful, we cannot guarantee your results.