Frequently Asked Questions

You will want to gather eggs every day, and refrigerate them as soon as they've been gathered. This keeps them freshest. However, in the "good old days," of course, eggs were not refrigerated right away. That's surprising to many people! After all, milk that is not refrigerated will go bad, and it will do so pretty immediately... but not eggs. In fact, when a hen is laying eggs to hatch, it can take her about two weeks to gather a clutch large enough to incubate. At the end of that time, the first egg is still fresh enough to develop...

There is no one special breed that lays double yolkers. Occasionally a hen may lay a double yolker when her ovaries release two yolks at once, rather than one at a time. This tends to happen more often when hens are young and have just begun laying. Any breed can lay a double yolked egg, but it may be more common from breeds that are good layers, like Rhode Island Reds, Sussex, and Leghorns. Double yolkers are a favorite for over easy eggs! Commercially, most double yolkers will be discarded as "irregular" when candling, so getting farm fresh eggs from...

No. If you want to purchase live birds or fertile eggs, you will need to find a local supplier to help you; we do not ship internationally. (We don't even ship non-live items internationally.) If there is no local supplier and you want to go to the effort of importing chickens or fertile eggs into your country, you should be aware that it's not an easy process. Plus, we still can't help you--we don't export or ship internationally. We get asked often enough that we can provide some advice, though. First, you will need to check to see what customs...

Eggs from your own hens normally have very "tall" yolks because they can be so very fresh! It's not because they are pasture raised, though. The nutritional content for your own eggs when your hens have access to pasture is much better than regular "grocery store eggs." You can visually observe the difference between eggs from hens raised on pasture and eggs from factory farmed birds, because pasture raised birds will have yolks that are dark and orange, as opposed to the sickly pale yellow of grocery store eggs. Notice that in the photo above? That's the natural color of...

It is not likely that the problem is overfeeding. We recommend feeding free choice and not limiting their feed: underfeeding usually causes more problems than offering extra. It is rare for a layer to overeat ("meat" birds like the sickly Cornish Rock crosses are different, and often overeat). If it really concerns you, you might cease fatty treats, or perhaps double check the protein level in your food. Around 16% protein or so is good for layers, so if your protein level is higher than that, you might switch to a slightly lower protein feed. For the most part, though,...

There is no special size that is best across all breeds. Think about it: some breeds lay very large eggs because the chicks are comparatively large; some bantam breeds may have tiny eggs, and the chicks that hatch from those eggs are tiny. Hens of vastly different sizes lay different sizes of eggs. In fact, there are some large fowl breeds that lay small eggs, too... so the size of the egg you want to use for hatching depends on the breed. If that's the case, how do you know which fertile eggs are best to hatch? Choose eggs that...

If you're losing a lot of egg white when you try to peel hard-boiled eggs, the problem is not related to the breed you have, so choose your favorite! What causes the difficulty peeling is the freshness of your eggs, believe it or not. Fresh eggs are difficult to peel, and the eggs you are getting at home now are very fresh indeed. The problem--if having fresh eggs can be regarded as a problem!--is that what peels easily are old eggs. The eggs you were getting at the grocery store were very old, sometimes a month or more old. As...

Of course we can't know for sure what may be causing the problem in your case, but we can try to mention a few things that might typically cause problems maintaining a steady temperature in the styrofoam incubators. First, if you are reliant on manual turning, opening the incubator to turn your eggs does drop the temperature... but that is pretty temporary and shouldn't cause problems if you are quick. It can help to mark one side of the egg so you can see which have been turned and which haven't. (Use something like soft pencil, that won't soak into...