Hatching & Rearing Chicks pt 2 by Virginia Shirt

There is nothing like hatching a few eggs and rearing your own chicks! This is the second part of a two part article covers how to incubate fertile eggs with a broody hen. The first part can be found here: Hatching & Rearing Chicks pt 1

Virginia Shirt is the author of The Right Way to Keep Chickens available from Amazon and all good bookstores. She has lived with chickens for over 15 years so her knowledge is based on practical experience.

The book provides a comprehensive guide to keeping chickens and is an easy read from an obvious enthusiast.

Move the Broody Hen to the Broody Box

You can remove the hen to a broody box when you have the eggs ready. The broody box will be a small box or container that fits her in snugly with her eggs. You can of course make your own or adapt for example a small rabbit hutch. Just make sure it has one entrance/exit so that the hen feels secure and safe from predators. Once inside the environment should be dark and cosy.

Bed it with straw and place the hen inside and carefully place a pot egg under her to begin with (if you cannot source a pot egg you can simply hard boil an egg). Sometimes moving the hen can switch off the broody behaviour. I have never encountered this as the broody urge is usually so strong. However you just need to be sure. If she takes to the pot egg then you can place your real eggs under her. Mark on your calendar 21 days and wait.

Make sure she has access to food and water close by. She will not want to go far from her clutch. Keep the food and water just far enough away for her to have a little walk and stretch her legs.

Candle the Eggs

After four or five days you can remove the eggs and candle them. A candler is an electric lamp that has a hollow to sit the egg on. Place the egg on the candler and examine. If the egg is fertile then you should see the start of your chick. You will see a small dark spot with a series of veins coming from it. If nothing shows then the egg is infertile and should be removed.

Leave the hen quietly and let her do her job. Make sure you have chick crumbs in stock ready for the new arrivals. Once they have hatched after 21 days try not to interfere too much. It is so tempting and I am sure if you have tough, peck proof hands you will want to look at your chicks. It does not hurt to keep an eye on things once all the hatchings have occurred.

A day or two after all the chicks have hatched the hen will take them for a walk. This could be day 23/24 that she ventures out. The chicks can hatch as much as much as 24 hours apart and therefore they do not all appear on day 21.

Do not be alarmed if she walks away leaving un hatched eggs. The hen will know that there is no life inside it. Sadly some just don’t make the full term.

Remove the chicken food and replace with chick crumbs. The hen can then eat with her chicks and show them how it is done. You will be amazed how quickly the little chicks start scratching around. It is just so amusing to watch.

Make sure you have a safe area for them to go in once they are out and about. You need an area that is fox proof and danger free. You also need to be aware that chicks can be taken by magpies and other bigger birds. Chicks are very vulnerable in the first weeks of their life. They can easily fall into water buckets and get trapped in mud etc. Therefore you need to make sure their environment is as safe as you possibly can.

The broody hen is usually very good at protecting her chicks from predators. I have seen a broody chase my big dogs out of the path of her chicks. However she cannot fish her chicks out of water!