Backyard Chickens: Guide to Raising and Breeding Your Own Chickens by Joshua McPherson

Author:Joshua McPherson [McPherson, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

HATCHING CHICKEN EGGS

A common question is whether a chicken could hatch from an egg purchased at the grocery store. This is typically not possible. For a chicken to develop from an egg, it must be fertilized. Most eggs sold commercially in the grocery store are from poultry farms and have not been fertilized. Now that that question is answered, let’s get to the business of babies.

If you want chicks, you’ll need a rooster!

As a rule of thumb, 10 to 12 hens per rooster is a good ratio. While you could build an incubator and supervise the development of the eggs, it’s easiest to let the hens take care of hatching.

A hen that is getting ready to nest becomes “broody.” This means that she wants to hatch her eggs. She’ll sit “tight” on the nest and resist having her eggs collected, whereas a non-broody hen will let you reach under her to collect eggs. A broody hen may even peck or screech at anyone coming near. There are ways to discourage broodiness, but why would you? The hen does all the work of hatching and raising—and you get free chicks!

If you do decide to get an incubator, a forced-air model with an automatic egg-turner is recommended, as eggs will need to be turned four to five times a day. The temperature inside the incubator should be between 99° and 102°F, while the humidity should remain between 55 and 60%. Chicken eggs will hatch after approximately 21 days.

Farm chickens can live 4 to 7 years and lay eggs for most of that time. Every year they go “off-lay” (stop laying eggs) for several months. This happens over the winter, when there’s too little daylight to trigger egg-laying. They’ll begin again in the spring.

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