Egg hatch date calculator (chicken, quail, duck, goose)

Put the date you set the eggs and the species in, and get the hatch date, the lockdown date, and the day candling is worth doing. The two dates people miscount are lockdown and Muscovy — both are handled here.

Incubation periods by species

Incubation length is set by species and barely moves with breed. What does move it is temperature: a forced-air incubator running a degree cool will hatch a day or two late, and a degree warm will hatch early and produce more unabsorbed yolks. If your hatches are consistently off by a day, calibrate the thermometer before you change the schedule.

What lockdown actually is, and why the date matters

For the last three days the chick moves into hatching position and starts breaking into the air cell. Turning after that can leave it malpositioned — the classic result is a chick that pips at the wrong end and cannot get out. So turning stops, humidity goes up so the membrane does not dry onto the chick, and the incubator stays shut.

Opening the lid during lockdown drops humidity in seconds and the membrane can shrink-wrap a half-hatched chick. This is the single most common way a good set goes wrong at the last moment, and it is always well-intentioned.

Why the eggs did not hatch on the day

A day early usually means the incubator runs warm; a day or two late means it runs cool, or the eggs were stored a while before setting. Eggs older than about a week lose hatchability steadily, and eggs stored below about 12 °C or above 18 °C lose it faster. None of that changes the species number — it changes what arrives on the day.

Set a batch and stop counting on your fingers. Farm Planner puts candling, lockdown and hatch on the day they fall, records the hatch rate against what you set, and starts costing the batch from the moment the chicks are dry. Free while in early access. Create your free account

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