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Hatching & Rearing Chicks pt 1 by Virginia Shirt

There is nothing like hatching a few eggs and rearing your own chicks! This two part article covers how to incubate fertile eggs with a broody hen.

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.

There is nothing like hatching a few eggs and rearing your own chicks!

Of course there are pit falls, as with anything. The major one being that you won’t be able to guarantee the simple replacement of laying stock as approximately 50% of the batch will be cockerels. Having learnt the hard way I often ended up with many cockerels to cater for. If you are able to deal with cockerels and find homes for them then go for it.

Fertile Eggs

This may sound obvious but you do need to have a cockerel running with the hens if you are considering hatching eggs. I have known people that think an egg comes out of a hen fertile even without a cockerel! Oh well it’s an easy mistake. The cockerel must be running with your hens for 3-4 weeks before you collect the eggs for hatching.

Watch out of course for the broody hen. The one that refuses to leave the nest getting rather hysterical when you go near. It is always nice to give the broody hen a clutch of eggs. You can then watch her fulfil her ambition of becoming a mum. You don’t have to use her personal eggs as she will at this stage sit, hatch and rear anything that comes in a shell.

These days you can purchase fertile eggs to put under your hen. You can find them on the internet or you can ask around your local area, allotments etc. I have also seen fertile eggs advertised in pet shops. It will be worth looking in the poultry section of farming papers. Purchasing fertile eggs is a good method if you do not want a cockerel. This method also allows you to rear fancy chickens and rare breeds if you so wish.

Picking the Eggs to Hatch

Continue to remove the eggs from under the hen daily. Do this in order to pick out the best eggs you can find. The shell should be smooth and strong. They should be free of blemish and of an average size. Avoid very large eggs as these could possibly be double yolks. Double yolks are of course twins. Incubation of twins could lead to fatal problems when hatching takes place. Two chicks inside an egg can often be in the wrong position to pip out of the shell. This will sadly lead to them dying inside the shell.

Store your eggs carefully in an egg box in a cool dark environment, doing this until you have the number eggs you wish the hen to sit upon. An average size hen will happily sit eight to twelve eggs. However make sure that the amount you put under are well covered by the hen.