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Introduction
Whilst live birds such as chicks can only be collected directly from us at the farm, fertile hatching eggs can be either collected or posted to you. We post all over Australia at the beginning of every week. We strongly encourage you to read our policies regarding hatching eggs prior to purchasing from us.
Our policy on hatching eggs that have been collected directly from us
We check the fertility of all our breeds as well as our rainbow layers every few days by sacrificing a batch of eggs and cracking them open in order to see evidence of fertilisation (“the bullseye”). In addition to this, we incubate a batch of eggs from each breed every week to ensure the hatching ability of our eggs is optimal. We use top quality incubators such as the Brinsea and RCOM, which allow us to get a good grasp of the quality of our eggs. Based on these two processes, we only sell eggs when we know upon testing that fertility is no less than 90%, and in fact for the majority of the times it is nearing 100%. Because of this reassurance that we get from our eggs on a weekly basis, we do not typically replace eggs or offer a refund for eggs when you get suboptimal hatching success. We always discuss your incubating process as well as the type of incubator you used, often providing advice in advance when asked. If we are given adequate evidence that the process you used was ideal, your incubator was a top quality incubator, and still your hatching rate was poor, then we may offer to replace eggs, but that is at our discretion.
Our policy on posted hatching eggs
We only book your eggs for postage after payment has been made. Orders can be placed either via our website, which we encourage, or by messaging us directly. Depending on the time of the year, some breeds may not be available or there may be a wait list. When the wait list is more than 6 to 8 weeks long, we close availability of this breed until all previous orders have been fulfilled.
The eggs we post are typically laid in the last two days prior to the day of postage. We test fertility and hatching ability of all our eggs weekly and we do not sell eggs with fertility any less than 90%. In fact, the majority of our eggs show fertility and hatching rates in our hands that are nearing 100%, which is a testimony of the good health of our birds, their optimal nutrition as well as the optimal ratios of roosters versus hens that we keep.
We post express with Australia Post typically on Mondays and Tuesdays. This ensures for the majority of the times that the eggs arrive to you within the week. Occasionally, we may post on a Wednesday within WA if you specifically request that. We make every effort to pack the eggs in the most safe way that we have found preserves egg viability. This includes using eggsafe foam containers, where the eggs are tightly packed and protected using tissue and bubble wrap and placed within a parcel box. We post every week to destinations all over Australia, including Tasmania, and have optimised the packaging method we use. We always provide you with your tracking number and we also keep an eye on tracking to deal with any issues in a timely manner.
From the time the eggs are handed over to Australia Post, their fate is not within our control and this is the risk you as the customer are willing to take. It is important that you understand and are comfortable with this risk. The hatching success of our posted eggs in your hands will depend on how well they were treated during travelling as well as the quality of your incubator and the incubating process. We always follow up with everyone asking how the eggs went incubating or under a hen, and in 90% of the cases the feedback we receive is very good to excellent. For those few cases where hatching rates have not been great, we ask for more information about your incubator, incubating process as well as photos of the egg interior for those eggs that did not hatch to establish what might have gone wrong. We would like to also point out here that posted eggs are more suited to being incubated in the upright position than on their side or under a broody hen. It is not our policy to replace eggs or offer any refund for poor hatching rates of posted eggs because a) we test our eggs in our incubators weekly and only sell eggs when we are confident that fertility is near 100%, and b) compromise of the eggs or damages during postage is beyond our control and a risk the buyer is willing to take.
Although ordering posted fertile eggs is not a cheap exercise, we also often do it ourselves to enrich and improve the genetics of our lines, and we therefore understand the risks involved, but also the potential benefits. We have breeding pens that literally started from one hen, the only egg that hatched from a dozen posted eggs. But now, after a lot of work, patience, perseverance and generous amounts of funding invested, these pens are thriving. We have created lines of heritage breeds that adhere to breed standards, have beautiful temperaments and are a picture of health, laying amazing vibrant eggs. We also specifically cross-breed them to create some of the most beautiful and sought after rainbow eggs in the country, with heavy blooms and unique speckles. And it is exactly this that is reflected in the price of our fertile eggs: all the effort and funding that goes into raising and keeping healthy purebred poultry, including creating and maintaining appropriate vermin-proof coops and large free-range areas and providing with the best feeds and living conditions that allow for the exceptional fertility rates of our eggs and health of our poultry.
Recommendations on how to deal with eggs just received in the post
1.
We encourage you to give us a P.O. Box address to ship your eggs instead of your residential address to ensure the eggs will not be left exposed to the weather elements if you may not be home to receive them when they arrive.
2.
As soon as the eggs arrive, carefully unpack them, inspect them for any hairline cracks or other damage, and then place them with the pointy end down in an egg carton so they can rest for the night.
3.
Place the eggs in your incubator, ideally upright with the pointy end down. This is optimal for all eggs, but even more so for posted eggs. If your incubator does not hold the eggs upright, you may place them with the pointy end down inside an egg carton and put them in your incubator after switching the automatic turning off. This way, you will have to manually turn the eggs 2-4 times a day. You may opt for no turning in the first 1-3 days to allow the air sacs to settle.
4.
Day 1 starts the day after you put the eggs in the incubator. Ideal temperature is 37.5-38 degrees Celsius and humidity 45%. Often, incubator settings do not correspond with the actual temperature and humidity on the eggs. For this reason, we highly recommend you use an Inkbird hygrometer placed on the eggs so that you know how you may need to adjust your incubator settings to achieve the optimal temperature and humidity on the eggs. Depending on the incubator and its environment, these conditions may fluctuate during day and night or from one day to another. Keep an eye on your hygrometer readings and adjust accordingly.
5.
Candle the eggs on day 7-10. You may remove any eggs that have not developed by now.
6.
For chicken eggs only: On day 18, stop any turning and place the eggs in a basket on their side inside the incubator. Whilst the temperature can remain the same, it is recommended you increase the humidity to 55-65% during the last 3 days of incubating.
7.
Whilst chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch, some eggs may pip earlier than others. We usually give chicken eggs up to 24 days to hatch, with some hatching even on day 20. Chicks can stay in the incubator for up to 24-36 hours from the time they hatch, and it is absolutely fine to remove them in small groups as they are hatching and transfer them to your brooder.
8.
Your brooder will require a cage, a heat source and a chick waterer and feeder set. Heat sources vary from heat lamps to heat plates. We prefer heat plates because they allow the chicks to touch their backs on the gentle heat and stay warm (similar to a mamma hen/chick situation), they often have height adjustable legs that you can adjust to the chick size as they grow, and also because they have lower fire risk and you run a lower risk to burn yourself by touching them, as opposed to heat lamps.
What to expect when you hatch our eggs and raise our chicks
It is important to read this if you are purchasing pink and purple eggs from us. These are typically in our Fairytale and Dream Dozens, as well as in our Pink Dozens. Pink and purple eggs are most of the times cream-shelled or brown-shelled eggs that are covered by an x amount of bloom. The bloom is a protective cover and can be calcium-based or protein-based. The amount of bloom a hen adds to each of her eggs can vary from one day to another, making her eggs look different from one day to another, often very different. All her eggs though carry her bloom genetics irrespectively of how each egg looks. We do not only sell the eggs with heavy blooms from that hen, but we offer all her eggs, some looking more pinky or purple than others. The value of her eggs is the genetics they carry, not their specific appearance. Because we do not control the amount of bloom the hen will add to each of her eggs each day, we cannot and do not guarantee the colours you will receive. It will be what was laid that week and may differ from specific photos we advertise for these dozens. As mentioned above, it is this hen’s (and rooster’s who mated her) genetics that we offer, not specific colours laid on certain days versus other days by a hen. Moreover, calcium-based blooms, which appear more powdery, are less stable than protein-based blooms and the hydration levels can influence the look of these eggs. Heavy bloom eggs look the best when they are freshly laid. From that point on, the environmental humidity, the egg hydration levels as well as contact with an eggsafe carton material for example, can affect their appearance. In posted eggs, the above can change the look of these eggs from the moment they leave our premises to the time they arrive in your hands. Lighting also affects the appearance of these eggs and how they are photographed. For all the above reasons, we do not guarantee specific shades of pinks and purples. Finally, for custom orders we may mention in writing to you “depending on availability” for specific colours. When we do, it means that we may not include a specific colour we discussed if we do not get it in the two days prior to postage. When we receive an order from you, specifically one that includes pinks and purples (though the same goes for all colours of eggs), we assume you have read all the above, and you understand and agree with it.
We strive to breed all our birds to standard. Some of our breeders will be show quality birds and some will be pet quality. Although we take every possible step to perfect each of our breeds, this is always an ongoing process and on occasion there may be suboptimal traits in offspring hatched from our eggs that may relate to faults originating many generations back, and which are not obvious in our current breeders. If something like this is noticed, we would like to be notified.
It is not difficult to purchase fertile eggs or chicks from a seasoned breeder expecting a certain level of quality of the offspring. What is less understood, however, is that a line of quality birds cannot guarantee that all the offspring will also be show quality birds. It’s simply chicken genetics. For example, hatching the darkest marans eggs does not mean that all the offspring will also lay dark eggs similar to the mother. Hatching an olive egg does not always guarantee that the offspring will lay olive. Particularly so because of the genetics of first, second or multigenerational olive eggers. Hatching a pink egg does not mean that the resulting hen will lay pink. Having said the above, we specifically breed our crosses with the intention of creating various beautiful colours, such as dark olives, spearmints, teals and various shades of green, greys, pinks, mauves and purples. We utilise those hens that carry the genetics of heavy blooms and speckles to add an extra something to our rainbows, which are always beautiful surprises.
