Egg hatching calendar

Pick your bird, enter the day you set the eggs, and get the candling, lockdown and hatch dates. Download them to your phone's calendar with reminders.

How to read the dates

• Day 0 is the day the eggs go into the incubator (or under the broody hen). Day 7 is seven days later.
• Candling means shining a bright light through the egg to see whether an embryo is developing.
• Lockdown is when keepers stop turning the eggs and stop opening the incubator, and raise humidity as their incubator manual says, so the chicks can hatch.
• Hatch dates are averages. Chicks can hatch a day early or late depending on temperature, humidity and how the eggs were stored.

This calendar is a general guide, not veterinary advice. Follow your incubator's instructions and check with your local extension office or a veterinarian for any concern about a bird.

Sources and where they differ

The milestones on this page follow the schedule below. Incubation lengths for chickens (21 days) and ordinary ducks (28 days) agree in every source we checked, and quail (17 to 18 days) agrees in the Mississippi State and Maryland sheets. Muscovy ducks, geese and one quail figure are where sources differ:

• Mississippi State University Extension, The Avian Embryo: chicken 21, duck 28, Muscovy 33 to 35, goose 29 to 31, Japanese quail 17 to 18; candling on days 7, 14 and 18; do not turn during the last three days. extension.msstate.edu/publications/the-avian-embryo
• University of Maryland Extension, Hatching Eggs at Home (FS-1114): chicken 21, duck 28, quail 17 to 18, goose 30; stop turning on day 18 for chickens. extension.umd.edu/resource/hatching-eggs-home-fs-1114
• Cornell University duck research laboratory, Hatching Duck Eggs: Pekin ducks 28 days with eggs moved to hatching trays on day 25 and candling around day 7; Muscovy about 35 days. vet.cornell.edu/.../hatching-duck-eggs
• Oklahoma State University Extension, Artificial Incubation: lists longer periods for Muscovy (36 days) and goose (32 days), and a shorter one for Coturnix quail (16 days). extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/artificial-incubation

This page uses 35 days for Muscovy and 28 to 30 days for geese. The extension sheets above give slightly different ranges for geese (29 to 32 days), so allow a day or two extra for geese and Muscovy. The lockdown days for Muscovy (32), quail (14) and geese (about 25), and the goose candling days, come from common keeper practice; the pages above do not spell them out. Check these dates with your incubator manual. Sources last checked September 2026.