Best Egg Trays for the GQF 1502 Sportsman: Chicken, Quail, Pheasant & Large Eggs

If you just unboxed a GQF 1502 Digital Sportsman Cabinet Incubator, you probably noticed something missing: egg trays. The 1502 ships with three turning racks and a hatching tray, but the racks are empty frames. Without the correct plastic trays, there's nothing to hold your eggs in place while the turner does its job, and that's the difference between a controlled, even hatch and a tray of rolling, cracking eggs.

This guide breaks down exactly which GQF 1502 egg trays you need, how many eggs each one holds, and how to mix and match them if you're hatching more than one species at once.

Quick Answer

The GQF 1502 uses interchangeable plastic trays that slide into its three turning racks. Each species needs a different tray size: quail trays hold up to 1,368 eggs (double-stacked), pheasant trays hold up to 354 eggs, chicken trays hold up to 270 eggs, and extra-large trays for turkey, duck, or jumbo chicken eggs hold up to 198 eggs. You can mix tray types across the three racks, so the 1502 can run a chicken batch on one rack and quail on another simultaneously.

Why the GQF 1502 Needs Separate Egg Trays

GQF built the Sportsman cabinet as a shared platform. The same incubator body, thermostat, and turning mechanism work for chicken keepers, gamebird breeders, and waterfowl hatchers alike. What changes is the tray that sits inside each turning rack.

Every GQF universal egg tray is molded to the same outer footprint so it locks into the 1502's rack rails, but the cavities inside are sized differently for each egg type. A quail egg tray has dozens of small, tightly spaced pockets. A chicken tray has fewer, larger cavities. This matters more than it sounds, because a tray with the wrong cavity size lets eggs shift during turning, and shifting eggs are far more likely to crack or develop unevenly.

This is also why the 1502 is sold as an incubator only, with trays listed as a separate purchase. GQF assumes you already know what you're hatching, so rather than bundling trays you don't need, they let you buy exactly the sizes your flock requires. If you're still deciding which incubator fits your setup, our Egg Incubator Buyers Guide walks through cabinet versus tabletop options before you commit to trays.

GQF 1502 Egg Tray Sizes and Capacities

Here's how the tray lineup breaks down. Capacities assume a full incubator using all three turning racks, and the 1502's separate hatching tray isn't included in these numbers since it holds loose eggs without dividers.

Note that quail is the only category where GQF trays double-stack, which is how the 1502 reaches its headline 1,368-egg quail capacity. Every other tray sits single-layer in the rack.

Chicken Egg Trays for the 1502

Chicken keepers get the most flexible tray in the lineup. The chicken egg trays for cabinet incubators hold 90 medium eggs each, with two trays fitting per turning rack for 270 eggs across a fully loaded 1502. Because the cavities are sized for medium eggs, these same trays also work fine for bantam and pheasant eggs if you're running a mixed small-bird batch and don't want to buy a dedicated pheasant tray just yet.

A set of six trays covers all three racks in one order, which is worth doing up front rather than piecing it together tray by tray. Running the incubator with only some racks filled works fine too; GQF's electronic turning arm doesn't care whether every rack is loaded, but you'll get better use out of the cabinet's capacity if you fill it.

Quail Egg Trays for the 1502

Quail breeders buy more incubator capacity per dollar than anyone else running the 1502, and the quail egg trays for cabinet incubators are the reason why. Because quail eggs are so small, GQF designed these trays to double-stack inside the turning rack, effectively doubling the eggs held in the same physical space compared to a single layer.

A full set across three racks with double-stacking gets you to the 1502's rated 1,368 quail eggs. That's a serious production number for a cabinet incubator this size, and it's part of why the Sportsman shows up so often in commercial and semi-commercial quail operations. If you're scaling up a quail program, it's also worth pairing your trays with a reliable thermometer and hygrometer, since quail eggs are less forgiving of humidity swings than chicken eggs given their smaller size and faster moisture loss.

Pheasant Egg Trays for the 1502

Pheasant, chukar, and other gamebird eggs fall in a size range between quail and chicken, which is why GQF makes a dedicated middle-sized tray. The pheasant egg trays for cabinet incubators hold 59 eggs per tray, and with two trays per rack across all three racks, a fully loaded 1502 handles 354 pheasant eggs.

Unlike quail trays, pheasant trays are not designed to double-stack in the GQF cabinet, so this 354 figure is the practical ceiling unless you're running additional loose eggs in the hatching drawer. Gamebird breeders running chukar alongside pheasant can generally use the same tray for both, since the two egg sizes are close enough that cavity fit isn't an issue.

Trays for Large Eggs (Duck, Turkey, Goose)

Turkey, duck, and jumbo chicken eggs need the widest cavities GQF makes for the 1502. The extra-large egg trays for cabinet incubators hold 22 eggs per tray, with three trays fitting per turning rack rather than two, bringing total capacity to 198 eggs across a full incubator. If you only need to replace one damaged tray rather than a full set, a single XL tray is sold separately. One tray per rack typically needs light trimming to sit flush in the GQF frame.

Goose, peafowl, and emu eggs are large enough that GQF doesn't make a dedicated tray for them. These go in loose, without dividers, which caps the 1502 at roughly 36 to 45 eggs of this size depending on exact dimensions. Because there's no cavity holding them steady, it's worth checking egg position after each turn cycle to make sure nothing has rolled together.

Can You Mix Egg Types in One 1502?

Yes, and this is one of the more underused features of the cabinet design. Because trays load per rack rather than per incubator, you can run three completely different tray types across the three racks at once, say chicken on rack one, quail on rack two, and pheasant on rack three, all under the same thermostat and turning cycle.

The catch is that temperature and turning frequency are shared across the whole cabinet, so this only works well for species with similar incubation requirements. Chicken and pheasant eggs both incubate at similar temperatures and follow similar turning schedules, so mixing the two is common. Reptile eggs or species needing very different humidity profiles should go in a dedicated incubator rather than sharing a rack setup.

How Many Trays Do You Actually Need

Most 1502 owners either buy for a single species and fill all three racks, or split racks across two species they hatch regularly. If you're hatching seasonally and switching species between batches, it's worth keeping at least one set of your primary tray size on hand plus a smaller backup set of whatever secondary bird you raise, rather than buying every size at once and letting trays sit unused for a year. Trays are lightweight and stackable for storage, so keeping a spare set takes up little space even if you don't use it every cycle.

Caring for Your Trays So They Last

Plastic GQF trays hold up well over many hatch cycles if you treat them right:

• Wash them with warm, soapy water after every hatch, not just when they look dirty

• Skip the dishwasher; high heat can warp the tray and throw off the cavity fit

• Let them dry fully before storing to prevent mold growth between uses

• Store trays flat and stacked in a dry area, away from direct sunlight, which can make plastic brittle over time

A quick scrub with an egg brush between batches also keeps residue from building up in the cavities, which matters more than it seems since dried-on debris can throw off how evenly an egg sits.

FAQ (People Also Ask)

Q: Do GQF 1502 egg trays fit the GQF 1500 too? 

Ans: Yes. The 1500 and 1502 share the same cabinet frame and turning rack dimensions, so every tray size covered here fits both models interchangeably.

Q: Are GQF 1502 egg trays included with the incubator?

Ans: No. The 1502 ships with three turning racks and a plastic hatching tray, but the species-specific trays that fit inside those racks are sold separately so you can order only the sizes you need.

Q: Can quail trays be used for anything other than quail eggs? 

Ans: They're sized specifically for quail. Very small bantam eggs sometimes fit, but pheasant, chicken, and larger eggs need a wider cavity to sit securely during turning.

Q: How many chicken eggs fit in a fully loaded GQF 1502? 

Ans: Up to 270 medium chicken eggs, using six chicken trays across all three turning racks at 90 eggs per tray.

Q: Do I need metal setting trays in addition to plastic trays? 

Ans: No. GQF's metal setting trays are an optional accessory for staging eggs before they go into the incubator, but they aren't required for the 1502 to operate. The plastic turning trays are the ones that actually sit in the racks.

Q: Can I run different egg types in the 1502 simultaneously? 

Ans: Yes, as long as their temperature and turning needs are similar. Chicken and pheasant are commonly run together. Species with very different humidity requirements are better hatched separately.

Q: Why did my eggs crack even though I used the correct tray size? 

Ans: Usually this comes down to overfilling a cavity meant for a slightly smaller egg, or a warped tray from dishwasher use. Check that each egg sits fully seated in its cavity before starting the cycle.

Whatever combination of chicken, quail, pheasant, or large eggs you're running through your Sportsman this season, matching the tray to the egg is the simplest upgrade you can make to hatch consistency. Browse the full egg carton and tray collection to build out your set, or head to the Learning Center for more incubation guides.