Pairing the Egg to WiFi

The Egg uses your home WiFi to show coop status. Pairing happens once, during initial setup. After pairing, the Egg reconnects to that WiFi every time it powers up.

You will do this in two halves: first you will get a six-character setup code from the Portal, then you will use that code, along with your home WiFi name and password, in a setup form that the Egg itself serves.

The whole thing takes about three minutes if your home WiFi name and password are handy.

What you need before you start

The Egg, plugged in and powered up. The Egg should be showing a slow white pulse — this means it is advertising itself for setup. If the light is off, see Egg not lit.
A phone or laptop with WiFi. iPhone and Android both work, and so does a regular laptop.
Your home WiFi network name and password — the same ones you would type into a new phone or guest’s device.
A Portal account at portal.themotherhen.com, signed in, with your Controller already showing as online. If you have not registered yet, see Registering your system first.
About 30 minutes of working time. The setup code you generate is good for 30 minutes; if you take longer than that, you can just generate a new one.

1. Get a setup code from the Portal

Sign in to the Portal at portal.themotherhen.com on whichever device you will use for the rest of setup (phone or laptop — your choice).

From the main page, find Add an Egg. If you only have one Controller on your account, the Egg will pair with it automatically. If you have more than one Controller, choose which one this new Egg should pair with.

Tap Generate Setup Code. The Portal shows a six-character code — something like 7F3KMP. The code uses uppercase letters and digits but skips 0, 1, O, and I so they are not confused on paper or on screen.

The code is good for 30 minutes. A countdown timer below the code shows how long you have left. If you run out of time, tap Generate a new code — there is no penalty for regenerating.

Leave the Portal tab open. You will come back to it at the end to confirm the Egg shows up.

2. Join the Egg’s setup WiFi

The Egg broadcasts its own temporary WiFi network so you can configure it. On your phone or laptop, open WiFi settings the way you would to join any new network.

Look for a network named:

Mother Hen Setup Egg xxxx

The xxxx part is the last four characters from the sticker on the underside of your Egg. The setup network is open (no password). That is expected — the network is only on for a few minutes during setup, and only your Egg is on it.

If you have more than one Egg being set up in the same room, the xxxx value is how you tell them apart.

Join that network. The Egg’s light will change from a slow white pulse to a pulsing cyan — that is the Egg confirming your phone is connected.

What you will see on iPhone

iPhones do three things during this step that look alarming but are not problems:

A “Weak Security” or “Privacy Warning” notice will show below the network name. That is iOS noting that the setup network is unencrypted. It is expected — the network only exists for a few minutes during setup.

A prompt will appear that says “There is no Internet connection. Are you sure you want to use this WiFi network?” Tap Stay, not Switch. If you tap Switch by accident, iOS bounces you back to your home WiFi and you will need to rejoin Mother Hen Setup Egg xxxx.

A small captive-portal sheet (a mini browser) usually pops up automatically. If it does, you can use it — skip to step 3. If it does not pop up, or if it pops up and looks blank, dismiss it and open Safari manually; step 3 covers that path.

If your iPhone is set to Auto-Join your home WiFi, it may try to switch back to your home WiFi while you are still on the Egg’s setup network. If that happens, just rejoin Mother Hen Setup Egg xxxx and continue.

What you will see on Android

Android phones vary by manufacturer, but a few behaviors are consistent across recent versions:

A prompt or banner will say something like “WiFi has no internet — switch to mobile data?” Decline that. On Samsung phones, the toggle is called “Auto switch to mobile data” in WiFi settings — turn it off temporarily if it keeps trying to switch back. On Pixel and stock Android, declining the prompt once is usually enough.

Some Android phones (notably some Samsung and OnePlus models) ask “Connect anyway?” when joining an open WiFi network that has no internet. Tap Connect anyway.

A captive-portal notification may appear — something like “Sign in to WiFi network” in your notification shade. Tap it. It opens a mini browser to the setup page. If you do not see the notification, or if the mini browser shows a blank page, step 3 covers opening it manually.

3. Open the setup page

On most phones, a setup page opens automatically once you join the Egg’s WiFi. The page is titled “Mother Hen Egg Setup” with three input fields below.

If the page did not open automatically:

iPhone: Open Safari and type http://192.168.4.1 in the address bar.
Android: Open Chrome (or your browser of choice) and type http://192.168.4.1 in the address bar.
Laptop: Open any browser and go to http://192.168.4.1.

Make sure the URL starts with http://, not https:// — the Egg’s setup page is plain HTTP because the setup network is only on for a few minutes.

If the page still does not load, check that you are still joined to the Mother Hen Setup Egg xxxx network. Some phones silently switch back to home WiFi when they do not see internet on the new network. If you drifted off, rejoin and try again.

4. Fill in the form

The form has three fields:

WiFi network name — the name of your home WiFi (sometimes called the SSID). Spelling and capitalization matter; type it exactly as it appears when you join from a new phone.
WiFi password — your home WiFi password. Same spelling and capitalization rules. Leave this blank only if your home WiFi has no password (rare).
Setup code — the six-character code from step 1.

Tap Connect.

The page will show a brief “Connecting…” message and then stop responding. That is expected. The Egg has saved your settings, dropped the setup network, and is now joining your home WiFi.

5. Watch the Egg’s light

The Egg’s light tells you what is happening:

Pulsing white for 5 to 30 seconds — the Egg is connecting to your home WiFi.
Pulsing other colors briefly — the Egg is registering with the cloud.
Solid green (during the day) or solid blue (at night) — done. The Egg is online and showing the current state of your coop.

If the light is still pulsing white after a minute, the most common cause is a mistyped WiFi password. The Egg will keep trying for about 30 minutes; after that, it reboots and starts advertising the setup network again, so you can try once more.

6. Verify in the Portal

Switch back to the Portal tab. Your new Egg should appear in your device list within a minute, paired with the Controller you selected.

If the Egg appears, you are done — you can close the setup tabs on your phone, and the Egg now lives in your home as a coop-status display.

If the Egg does not appear, see Egg not lit. Most issues are either WiFi-related (wrong password, wrong network) or controller-pairing-related (the code was for a different controller).

Troubleshooting

The Egg never showed a setup network. Unplug the Egg, wait 5 seconds, plug it back in, and watch for the slow white pulse. If you do not see one within 30 seconds, see Egg not lit.

The setup page returned “code missing” or “ssid missing”. One of the fields did not get sent. Most commonly the setup code was empty — re-type it from the Portal.

My WiFi network name has special characters or emoji. The Egg supports standard WiFi network names (letters, numbers, spaces, common symbols). Emoji and unusual Unicode in network names occasionally cause problems; if pairing keeps failing, try temporarily renaming your home WiFi to something plain.

The 30-minute timer ran out. Generate a new code in the Portal and continue from step 2. The Egg will keep advertising the setup network until you finish.

Nothing on this page worked. Email support — see Contact support.

Last updated: 2026-05-15.