Frequently Asked Questions

---

Heidi’s Hatchery aims to offer a wide variety of chicken breeds, including coloured egg layers, unique and specialty breeds as well as popular heat tolerant breeds. Each breed is carefully selected and chosen for excellent egg-laying ability, egg colour, temperament, and ability to tolerate our Broome climate.

There are a few ways to sex chicks, some are old wives tales or inconsistent and others such as vent sexing take years of training, is only 85% accurate and if done incorrectly, can damage or even kill the chick. We are not trained in vent sexing, nor do we wish to run the risk of trying to sex a chick using inconsistent/old wives tale methods.

Instead, there are a select few breeds that can be sexed at hatch from markings and down colour.

Auto-sexing breeds include Welsummers and Cream Legbar.

Sex-Linked breeds are chickens whose colour at hatching is differentiating by sex, making them distinguishable. 

Heidi’s Hatchery offers a selection of unsexed and sexed chicks to accomodate those who are after a specific breed that cannot be sexed at hatch and those who do not wish to gamble with the possibility of having a cockerel.

Heidi’s Hatchery selectively sources breeders from across Australia, often on lengthy waitlists in order to have access to high quality poultry lines. There are thousands of backyard breeders in Australia with lovely hens but Heidi’s Hatchery selects reputable breeders to ensure the quality of chicks hatched continue to be true to the breed.

We then pay for EggSafe packaging and express post as eggs are only viable for 7-10 days. Express posted eggs have a high risk of damage, sometimes deeming the eggs not viable from excessive handling, temperature fluctuations and time to arrive. We never expect a 100% hatch rate.

We then take into account the price of the fertile eggs, shipping costs and cost of equipment. Our aim is not to make a large profit, but to supply breeds to Broome that haven’t been readily on offer before.

Auto-sexing and sex-linked breeds have a slightly higher price as the hatch rate cockrel to pullet is 50/50. Supplying sexed pullets means paying full price as mentioned above for eggs, shipping and costs, and usually only selling 50% of the eggs. 

The price for a sexed day-old chick in Australia can range from $20-$65 depending on breed. Our prices for sexed and unsexed chicks match or are substantially lower than that of the sourced breeders own day-old chick prices.

Ready to order chickens or have questions about our hatchery? Contact us today! Our friendly and knowledgeable staff are here to help with all your chicken needs.