08/08/2026
🥚📦 POSTED HATCHING EGGS — LET’S TALK PACKAGING, FERTILITY & HATCHABILITY 🐣
There’s a lot of discussion around posted hatching eggs, what hatch rate people should expect, and who’s responsible when things don’t go to plan.
The reality is that both breeders and buyers have a part to play, and then there’s the unpredictable third party in the middle — Australia Post. 😂
Posted hatching eggs will always carry more risk than eggs collected in person. Once a parcel enters Australia Posts system, nobody can control exactly how it’s handled.
But accepting that risk doesn’t mean we can’t do everything possible to reduce it.
🐔 BREEDERS — IT STARTS WITH YOU
Be honest and upfront about your breeding pens, genetics, fertility testing and when that testing was done.
There’s also an important difference between fertility and hatchability.
A breeder may have excellent fertility when testing eggs straight from their own pens, but that doesn’t guarantee the same percentage will hatch after those eggs have travelled through the postal system. Fertility tells us whether an egg was fertile — hatchability can then be affected by egg age, storage, transport and incubation.
Freshness matters too.
Hatching eggs don’t suddenly become useless at a particular age, but viability generally declines as eggs get older. If older eggs are being included in an order, buyers should know that.
Then there’s the part breeders have the most control over once those eggs leave the property:
📦 PACKAGING. PACKAGING. PACKAGING.
Package hatching eggs for the journey they’re actually about to take.
An unbroken shell does NOT necessarily mean an undamaged hatching egg.
An egg can arrive looking absolutely perfect on the outside while the shocks and impacts it experienced during transport have damaged or detached the air cell internally.
Foam shippers such as Eggspress are useful for keeping eggs separated and secure, but an Eggspress carton straight into an Express Post satchel offers very little additional shock absorption or suspension from the outside world.
Ideally, the egg holder should be placed inside a sturdy outer box with cushioning around it — bubble wrap, packing material, wood shavings, scrunched paper or whatever works — creating some shock absorption between the eggs and the outside of the parcel.
And good packaging doesn’t need to make postage ridiculously expensive.
An Eggspress carton is around $5.50, an Express Post satchel around $15–16, plus tissue, tape etc. An additional cardboard box and cushioning is only a few dollars more.
There are larger breeders already providing very well-padded or double-boxed hatching eggs for around $30–35 postage and packaging per dozen.
When someone may be spending $100, $150 or considerably more on valuable genetics, another few dollars spent protecting those eggs is pretty insignificant.
Assume Aus Post is going to be rough with the parcel and package accordingly. 😂
🙋♀️ BUYERS — ASK BEFORE YOU PAY
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Ask:
* When were the eggs laid?
* When was fertility last tested and what were the results?
* What genetics are in the breeding pen?
* Exactly how will the eggs be packaged?
If you’re not comfortable with the standard packaging, ask whether you can pay extra for better packaging or double boxing.
And if that’s not available, particularly when you’re spending substantial money on eggs, there’s nothing wrong with finding another breeder who offers it.
🐣 BUT HATCHABILITY ISN’T ONLY THE BREEDER’S RESPONSIBILITY
A breeder can control their breeding pens, fertility, egg selection and packaging.
They cannot control Australia Post, your incubator or how you incubate the eggs.
This is why it’s completely understandable that reputable breeders generally won’t guarantee a hatch rate on posted eggs.
You can’t spend good money on hatching eggs, put them into a cheap or inaccurate incubator and automatically blame the breeder if you get a terrible hatch.
Temperature, humidity, turning, ventilation and calibration all matter.
And don’t blindly trust the temperature and humidity displayed on your incubator.
A good-quality, accurate independent thermometer/hygrometer is worth its weight in gold — and that doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest $10 one you can find online. 😂
Check different areas of your incubator too. Hot spots, cold spots and humidity variations can exist within the same machine, particularly in cheaper or poorly designed incubators.
A breeder could hand you fresh, highly fertile eggs in perfect condition and poor incubation can still destroy your hatch.
Equally, you could own the best incubator money can buy and it cannot undo significant damage an egg received before it reached you.
🥚 WHAT ABOUT “RESTING” POSTED EGGS?
There’s a lot of advice floating around saying posted eggs should be “rested” for 24, 48 or even 72 hours before incubation, particularly when they arrive with damaged or detached air cells.
There are also plenty of old wives’ tales mixed in with that advice.
A detached air cell isn’t going to reattach or magically glue itself back into place because the egg sat on the kitchen bench for two days.
What is sensible is allowing eggs that may have travelled through significant temperature changes to come naturally to room temperature before placing them into a warm incubator.
Once they’re at room temperature, unnecessarily adding another couple of days to their age isn’t automatically beneficial.
You’ll also hear recommendations to incubate shipped eggs upright and/or stop the turners for the first 12–24 hours when air cells have been damaged.
There may be benefits in particular circumstances, but this shouldn’t be treated as some proven method that repairs a detached air cell. There simply isn’t good evidence that not turning an egg for a day somehow makes that damage disappear.
And remember:
Hatching eggs don’t become better with age.
Every additional day is another day older.
And please don’t put fertile hatching eggs into a normal household fridge while they’re waiting. 😂
Bring them to room temperature and get them incubating.
🥚 SO WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR A BAD HATCH?
Sometimes nobody has actually done anything wrong.
That’s the frustrating reality of hatching eggs.
But don’t automatically blame the breeder.
Don’t automatically blame the buyer.
And don’t automatically dismiss every disappointing result with “that’s just posted eggs.”
Look at the whole journey:
🐔 BREEDER:
Good fertility + fresh eggs + known genetics + honest information + excellent packaging.
📦 AUSTRALIA POST:
Please don’t play football with them. 🤞😂
🐣 BUYER:
Prompt handling + reliable incubation equipment + independently checked temperature/humidity + good incubation practices.
There will never be a guaranteed hatch rate with posted eggs. There are simply too many variables between the hen laying that egg and a chick eventually making its way out.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stack the odds as heavily in their favour as possible.
Breeders: don’t package simply to prevent cracked shells. Package to protect from shock and impact.
Buyers: ask questions before purchasing, know what you’re buying, pay for better packaging if necessary, and make sure your incubation setup is up to the job.
And remember that the responsibility sits at both ends. Poor packaging can undermine excellent incubation, and poor incubation can waste beautifully fertile, perfectly packaged eggs.
🚗 AND FINALLY — COLLECT IF YOU CAN!
If collecting hatching eggs in person is an option, it’s always preferable to having them posted. It takes the Aus Post lottery out of the equation altogether. 😂
But realistically, that’s not always possible. The breed or genetics you’re looking for might be interstate or hundreds — even thousands — of kilometres away.
And that’s exactly why good packaging matters so much when postage is the only practical option.
Good fertile eggs + fresh eggs + great packaging + surviving Aus Post + good incubation = the best possible chance of fluff balls at the end. 🥚📦➡️🐣❤️
Hen on the Run 🐔 @ Ham’s Happy Hen’s
