16/08/2026
Some info on Fertile eggs:
NOT ALL FERTILE EGGS HATCH
Because you have a rooster or a drake in with your girls, and your eggs have the correct bullseye to say they are fertile. They still may not hatch.
There is so much more to producing fertile eggs then just adding a boy.
I see a lot of eggs not stand up to the riggers of posting. Not totally Australia Posts fault.
Quality of eggs has a lot to do with poor hatch rates with posted eggs.
When you see your hatch ratio’s are dropping, one of the biggest causes as you get into the season is your birds are running out of essential nutrients.
Sometimes you get close to 100% hatch rates early in season then all of sudden rate drops dramatically.
• Rooster has run out of nutrients to fertilize
• Rooster is carrying a disease, so firing blanks
• Rooster age
• Too many hens for older rooster (young roosters can cope with more hens)
• Hen has run out of nutrients. Egg quality drops
• Hen is carrying a disease, and quantity of eggs she lays will drop , as well as quality. Then she will stop laying all together.
• Hen age
Because you have eggs doesn’t mean they will hatch
Important thing to remember, what you feed your birds over winter dominates how good a hatch season you will have. Because they are not laying, doesn’t mean you just throw them some wheat. Does not work like that.
Winter is the time your birds are gaining weight/strength for spring. This is the time you should ensure all your maintenance is up to date. Wormer, lice, mite, warm place for birds to sleep/ protection from the elements.
Read labels on your feed bags, don’t rely on words such as premium, organic, producers use these words to sell their wares not necessarily what is in the bag.
Read the nutritional values on the bags.(this is regulated, but producers can get very generic with descriptions because they wish to keep their exact recipes a secret. Very competitive market)
Learn the protein levels of different types of grain. Remembering these levels are an indicater. Grain percentages can change between varieties, and growing season. Drought etc…
• Wheat approx. 10%
• Lupin 28 to 30% if dehulled can be higher.
• Canola seed 20 to 21% but if used in oil production can increase as a meal to 42%
• Sunflower 21% Can differer between grey, black season dramatically
• Barley 10 to 15% differ greatly between varieties.
• Oats 11 to 15%
Also remember digestible protein, whole grain can easily just go straight thru without absorption, while crushed grains a lot more absorbable nutrient. Also remember whole grains the biggest more dominant hens can eat the good stuff leaving the lower value feeds behind for the rest of the flock.
Once you get this all evaluated you need to think about quantities, too much of one grain can cause others not to absorb, or give birds the runs, you need a balance so birds can absorb everything they need. One of the other important things is amino acids play a huge role in digestion. So if you go down the rabbit hole of mixing own feed, you need a good pre-mix, with balanced amino acids, and vitamins and minerals not just straight grain.
So if producing fertile eggs for incubators to get the best hatch rates, you need to pay attention to your breeding stock health very carefully. If selling fertile eggs, you need to keep hatching test batches thru the season to ensure eggs are hatchable. Not only test batches but you need to open unhatched eggs and check the yolks can hold their form, membranes haven’t got thin, so they can stand up to the riggers of posting. Otherwise there is so many disappointed customers.
