Avoid Hatching Egg Scams

Scammers are stealing pictures of real eggs from other breeders, listing them as their own breeding work and requesting premium prices in order to scam you. They then take your digital payment and vanish. But before they do, they leave a trail of waving red flags that we’ll help you identify. Here is how to avoid hatching egg scams!

How to Avoid Online Hatching Egg Scams

Backyard chicken keeping has become wildly popular since the Covid lockdowns of 2020. Sadly scammers have infiltrated our quiet corners of the internet, hitting up unsuspecting buyers. I’m going to share all of the subtle tells and initial red flags that can alert you that you’re dealing with a scammer.

Your Impatience is What is First Used Against You!

Your impatience is what scammers are capitalizing on. I know, we don’t want to hear that a scam is in any way our fault but this is the truth. We see beautiful hatching eggs for sale online and we want them now, Now, NOW! The reality is that quality breeders with beautiful eggs often have long wait lists every spring. Stunning eggs that are available immediately during the Spring rush in unrealistic quantities (more than 2 dozen) is the first red flag. Presenting the idea that you are getting the BEST eggs RIGHT NOW while skipping ahead of everyone else who got on other breeder wait lists weeks ago is how the scammer will attempt to leverage your impatience.

Dark chocolate Black Copper Marans breed eggs in a stamped carton that reads Pastured Eggs Raised on fresh air and country sunshine the Silver Homestead — Black Copper Marans eggs laid by a hen purchased from Clucks & Waddles Homestead, who is a reputable NPIP breeder with a long wait list every spring. (This image is used to sell a stamp in my Etsy shop.) It took my one hen a week to lay these eggs. The eggs in the center were actually laid last.

Good Breeder Behavior vs Egg Scammer Behavior

Good breeders will schedule an egg collection window and ship date for you. She knows how long her specific number of hens will need to lay enough quality hatching eggs with time to ship them to you as fresh as possible. She won’t over-book buyers because she understands they will be frustrated. Her farm business depends on happy buyers and word-of-mouth referrals online.

Scam Red Flag: High Quantities of Eggs Available Immediately

The scammer considers none of these chicken breeder concerns. He has three dozen? four dozen? ten dozen? However many dozen eggs you want ready to ship to you TODAY if you will hurry up and pay! A high number of stunning colored eggs available immediately is a red flag. Hens who lay deep chocolate or speckled olive eggs still need 26-36 hours to lay each one and breeders do not have flocks with dozens of these unique girls. Most need a full week just to collect 1-2 dozen of the best eggs.

The Exception: A breeder who has had a buyer flake out on picking up eggs or who cannot ship an order because of an unforeseeable event (weather/local disaster) may have a gorgeous wait list order that is available immediately. These are generally sold for local pickup only if they are not offered to someone further down on the wait list. Check the breeder’s reviews if you are purchasing one of these rare and fortuitous finds! You can also ask to be on a reputable breeder’s “Flake List” to be shipped hatching eggs last-minute (purchased at full price) if someone backs out.

Speckled easter egger eggs, speckled olive egger eggs, black copper marans egg, pink egg, blue eggs and green eggs in a large egg carton stamped with Silver Homestead farmhouse happiness — If the images have no logo water mark, farm stamp or farm sign in any of the multiple images shown, they are likely stolen and being used by a scammer.

Stolen Images with Photography Styles that Do Not Match

Someone is posting pictures of the darkest chocolate eggs you’ve ever seen but something is off. The pictures look like they were all taken on completely different phones at totally different locations and with differing photography “styles”. Why is this? Likely because the scammer has stolen the pictures from various places online. Breeding for egg color is honest work that takes a significant amount of time, money and luck. Breeders are proud of their hard work! If NONE of the images have a farm logo digitally added to them or a farm name visible in the images, be wary.

Avoid Hatching Egg Scams — If egg photos have strange blurry areas, a weird “blip” or other digital oddities, chances are a farm logo or watermark has been removed because the image is stolen.

text reads warning: impossible colored eggs

a row of easter eggs in purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, seafoam, sky blue and primary blue colors

Impossible Colored Easter Egger Eggs For Sale

It pays to know what color eggs chickens can lay and what they cannot. Everyone wants a rainbow egg basket and scammers are quick to capitalize on this. They may show stolen pictures of egg assortments that have gray Cayuga duck eggs or speckled cream turkey eggs in them, claiming they are all chicken hatching eggs. Their lack of breed (and even species) knowledge can betray them. They may also use Photoshop on a stolen image to make the eggs look neon blue, wildly teal or impossibly purple. Beware of egg images that look too good to be true!

vibrant deep blue chicken pullet egg next to a whiting true blue breed powder blue egg — Shown here is the absolute darkest blue pullet egg a hen has ever laid for me. It is next to a full size Whiting True Blue egg from a hen who had been laying for several months. Only her first ever egg – too small to hatch – was laid in this dark shade. Beware of egg colors that are too good to be true.

Two speckled olive eggs, one speckled seafoam easter egger egg, an olive egg and a heavy bloom olive egg shown in natural light and with two Photoshop color filters applied to make them appear brighter to help you Avoid Hatching Egg Scams — This illustrates how easily egg pictures can be altered. I applied two adjustment layers to the image on the right in less than 10 seconds in Photoshop. Beware of these types of deceptions.

Fake Egg Pictures May Be Used, Too

Stolen breeder images are the most deceptive but sometimes scammers snag stock photos of decorator eggs (fake eggs) and offer them for sale, too! If the eggs look too perfect, too speckled or like they are painted or dyed in any way, you can be certain you are dealing with a scammer.

speckled gray decorator eggs in a carton shown to help you avoid hatching egg scams — Stock image of fake decorator eggs. See how the paint used for the speckles is unnaturally reflecting light on the far right egg? Click the image to view the original stock photo.

wood egg toy assortment of colors easter egger chicken breeds can lay — Do any of the “hatching eggs” for sale look like these? These are wooden toy eggs available on Amazon. (Affiliate link.)

different speckled brown, blue, pink and olive green eggs shown to help you Avoid Hatching Egg Scams — It is good to familiarize yourself with ceramic, decorator, speckled and vase filler eggs for sale on Amazon. They make adorable farmhouse decor but if you see them offered as “hatching eggs”, you will now know better! (Affiliate links.) NestBoxQueen.com has gorgeous ceramic eggs if you want them for your nest box!

Expensive Prices are No Guarantee of Safety

Scammers may be brazen, demanding $120-$200 per dozen hatching eggs. Paying large sums for hatching eggs is no guarantee that you will receive anything. If you are attempting to buy the most popular, trending breed you need to be especially careful as scammers have discovered that they can target this niche every Spring and quickly make off with thousands because of one breed’s current popularity.

a row of five speckled olive egger green eggs

Seller Cannot Provide PT or NPIP Paperwork

Requesting the hatching egg seller provide proof of PT testing or NPIP certification is a good way to reveal who is legit and who is not. A breeder who has paid for testing is happy to show you her testing results and her name/farm name will match what is on the papers. Do the legwork to search for the breeder’s name on her state’s NPIP registry if you are unsure or if the breeder has no reviews. (Be sure to scroll down to see all the small farm names after clicking on your state.)

Is Avoiding Paypal Fees a Scammer Sign?

No, a desire to avoid PayPal and cash app fees is not always proof of a scammer. The breeder who is housing, feeding, worming, lice dusting, and providing regularly refreshed straw for her hens to lay in is incurring multiple expenses before she ever packages and ships your hatching egg order, which will cost her even more money. If you insist on using any type of buyer protection, be prepared to also pay for the processing fees the breeder will be charged because she took your order. Sadly, scams run both ways and breeders who shipped good hatching eggs had recipients who still filed fraudulent PayPal claims so they could get the eggs “for free”. Because of this, some breeders no longer accept PayPal.

Your Stories Wanted!

If you hear of a scammer trick not mentioned here, please share in the comments below so we can warn others and help everyone avoid hatching egg scams!

How to Avoid Online Hatching Egg Scams

Your Impatience is What is First Used Against You!

Good Breeder Behavior vs Egg Scammer Behavior

Scam Red Flag: High Quantities of Eggs Available Immediately

Stolen Images with Photography Styles that Do Not Match