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There is a special feeling that comes from hatching chicks yourself.
A lot of people hatch eggs that have been laid by their own hens. But this is not always possible. Maybe you do not have a rooster, so your eggs are not fertile. Or, perhaps you want to introduce a new breed into your flock.
So where can you get hatching eggs when your own eggs won’t cut it?
The solution is online hatcheries.
Below, we list thirteen of the best hatcheries and give some pointers on how to find the best hatching eggs for sale…
Related: Buy Chickens Online: Top 11 Best Hatcheries
Cackle Hatchery is a Missouri-based hatchery that was founded in 1936.
They have one of the largest selections of hatching eggs to choose from including rare breeds like the Ayam Cemani, Salmon Favorelle, and French Maran. They also offer popular breeds such as Rhode Island Reds, Red and White Leghorns, and the Cornish Cross.
The rarer breeds can be expensive, with Ayam Cemani eggs going for $15 per egg. Fortunately, the more common backyard breeds are a lot cheaper. Rhode Island Red eggs are priced at $3.84 per egg for two dozen eggs, or $4.67 per egg for one dozen.
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If you are looking for rare colored hatching eggs then the California Hatchery might be right for you. Their Black Copper Maran eggs are a rich chocolate color. They also offer Easter Eggers, which are a beautiful pastel color.
The California Hatchery offers twelve different breeds, including a few exciting options such as Cream Legbars, Black Copper Marans, and Salmon Faverolles. The price of eggs starts at $5.00 per egg but can drop down to $4.25 when ordering 12 or more eggs. If you are considering this hatchery then take a look at their mystery breed option which is $2 per egg cheaper.
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Chickens for Backyards have an incredibly large selection of both standard and bantam breeds. Their eggs are $2 each, which is cheaper than virtually every other hatchery out there.
You can find hatching eggs for Golden Comets, as well as Rose Comb Bantams.
This hatchery will also replace any eggs that are cracked upon arrival, but they are strict in the way cracked eggs are reported. They must be noted on the delivery receipt which you sign upon their delivery. If you do not notice a small crack at that time or you forget, you are out of luck.
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Freedom Ranger is a collection of five family owned hatcheries. These hatcheries include the Freedom Ranger Hatchery, Fifth Day Farm, Blue Banty Farm, Hillside Hatchery, and JM Hatchery. The hatching egg selection from this group is small but includes three broad groups of chickens: broilers, egg layers, and silkies.
While Freedom Ranger only sells eggs by the dozen, they do have a great per egg price that dips as low as $2.50 per egg for common broiler and layer breeds. Being a collection of family run businesses, they know how to keep prices affordable for the families they are selling to.
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Happy Feet Hatchery is the newest hatchery on this list and was founded in 2017. As a smaller hatchery they only have around 9 different breeds of fertilized chicken eggs for sale, but every year or two, they switch out some breeds to keep their selection interesting.
They focus on standard-sized breeds with one or more of these highly coveted qualities: colored eggs, egg laying ability, or sex-linked chicks. There is a minimum order of 12 eggs but you can mix and match breeds within that dozen. Also if you are located close enough to pick up the eggs, you can collect them in person to prevent them cracking during shipping.
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Hoover’s Hatchery was founded back in 1944 by Bob Hoover and his wife Helen. Although they started off by only hatching the popular White Leghorn, they have expanded the hatchery to include over 100 different breeds of poultry.
This hatchery is the best place to order from if you are interested in buying broiler eggs. Broiler eggs are only available in multiples of one dozen, but the per egg cost is fixed at a budget-friendly rate of $3.67. This makes their hatching eggs much cheaper than many other hatcheries if you only want one or two dozen eggs.
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Ideal Poultry is an older hatchery founded in 1937 that offers a small selection of eggs in addition to their live order chicks. The four breeds that Ideal Poultry offers as hatching eggs are Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, White Leghorns, and Easter Eggers.
The egg order minimum for Ideal Poultry is one dozen eggs, with all options currently priced at $62.99 per dozen ($5.25 per egg). Unfortunately there is no option to mix and match breeds to reach the minimum order of 12 eggs.
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Jenks Hatchery is the oldest hatchery in the United States. This hatchery was founded in 1910 by E.M. Jenks and has stayed in the family ever since. It is currently owned by E.M. Jenks’ great-grandchild Aaron.
If you are lucky enough to live within driving range, there are nine different laying breed options that can be pre-ordered for prices as low as $2.50 per egg. The breeds they have available for pick-up changes on a weekly basis so make sure to check with them often.
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Meyer Hatchery has a great selection of breeds for sale. They even offer 10 different bantam hatching egg options too, including the Mottled Cochin, Black Frizzle Cochin, Easter Egger, Green Queen, Porcelain Belgian Bearded d’Uccle, Mille Fleur Belgian Bearded d’Uccle, White Crested Black Polish, Buff Brahma, and Assorted Silkies.
All of their eggs are affordable with prices ranging between $3.00-$4.00 per egg before bulk discounts are applied. Buying six or more hatching eggs at once will earn you a 10% discount, but that can scale to a maximum discount of 35% off if you buy 50 or more eggs.
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Murray McMurray Hatchery was founded in 1917 and started out as the quaint side business of banker Murray McMurray. By the 1990s the hatchery grew too big for its original premises so they moved to the 26,000-square-foot facility where the hatchery is located today.
It is best to buy eggs in bulk from Murray McMurray because the per-egg price decreases dramatically from over $5 per egg to under $3 per egg. The three options available to order are Red Stars, White Leghorns, and a special assorted mix. The special assortment depends on which breeds they have extra eggs for at any given time, and includes any breed that Murray McMurray Hatchery sells as chicks, including rare breeds.
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Stromberg’s Chickens have twelve breeds of hatching eggs available. The breeds they offer include the Orpington, Plymouth Rock, and Rhode Island Red. The addition of Easter Eggers and mixed Bantams adds some pizzazz to their offerings.
Expect to pay around $5 per hatching egg, but this price drops the more eggs you buy. You can get the price close to $3 per egg if you buy over 50 eggs at a time.
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The Chick Hatchery is a fairly new hatchery business in Michigan. They source their eggs through a collection of local hatcheries and breeders.
At the moment they offer 8 different breeds, including Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, and a mixed assortment option. The minimum egg order is a little high at one dozen with egg prices being moderate compared to other hatcheries.
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Townline Hatchery is 110 years old and located in Michigan. This hatchery is a great choice if you are looking to buy eggs in bulk. You can only purchase sets of 3 dozen eggs or more, and there is some degree of mixing and matching allowed as you can select a different breed for each set of one dozen eggs.
This hatchery is among the lowest priced at $2.08 per egg. They also offer a good breed selection, including classic laying breeds such as Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds, newer laying breeds such as the ISA Brown, and fun breeds such as Olive Eggers and Mystic Marans.
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Visit Townline Hatchery
Most of the time you will order hatching eggs online so you won’t be able to check them over. However, if you are lucky enough to have a local hatchery, then here is what you should look for.
Many people naturally want to pick the largest eggs to hatch. After all, the larger egg will hatch a larger, stronger chick, right? Wrong. Larger eggs are more likely to have some kind of abnormality that made them larger when they were laid. The healthiest eggs are average-sized.
A good hatching egg should have a normal, oval egg shape. Eggs that are elongated or too circular are malformed and are less likely to successfully hatch.
The shell of the egg should be hard and calcified, without any ridges or dents.
You will also want to look for any cracks as even the tiniest of cracks can allow bacteria to sneak into the egg and kill a developing chick embryo. If the egg has a crack, it will not be a good hatching egg.
Lastly, make sure you know when the eggs were laid. Eggs older than one week may be dead already so they should be discarded.
The very first thing you should do when your hatching eggs arrive is inspect them for cracks.
Shipping can sometimes be a rough and rocky process for the eggs, and sometimes eggs can crack. Most hatcheries will replace any cracked eggs, but only if cracked eggs are reported on that first day.
Once you know that all of your eggs have arrived safely, you should store them for 1-2 days at room temperature with the narrow end of the egg facing down. During this time you should also double-check your incubator to make sure it is working properly.
After 2 days of storing the eggs you should immediately incubate them. Typically, no further preparation is needed to start incubating your eggs. Now, you can incubate your eggs like normal. If you are unfamiliar with hatching your own eggs then make sure to read our 21 day hatching chicken eggs guide.
Now that you know all about the best hatcheries to buy your hatching eggs from, what are you waiting for?
Make sure to do your research and order your eggs early. Lots of the most common breeds sell out fast!
Hatching your own eggs is a fantastic experience. The experience of watching an adorable newborn chick hatch out of its shell never becomes dull, regardless of how many times you have seen it before.
Which hatching eggs did you buy? Let us know in the comments section below…
