How to Hatch Chicks

If you're lucky, you have a hen that will handle egg-hatching duties. Otherwise, an incubator will do. Here are the basics on both hatching methods.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Chicken Coops
• Chicken Feed
• Chicken Feeders
• Chicken Waterers
• Hatching Eggs
• Hen Nesting Boxes
• Egg Incubators
• Chicken Dusting Powder

Hatch with a Broody Hen

1. Prepare the nest with lots of bedding in a quiet, dark area of the shelter.
2. Place eggs (8 to 10) under the hen or in the nest when she's feeding.
3. Check to see if she's going to "set" eggs. Remove her a few times and see if she returns to nest.
4. Provide feed and water close to the nest.
5. Separate her from the other hens if there seems to be a fight over the nest.

Incubate Eggs

6. Gather eggs from a flock of hens with a rooster in the pen with them. It takes one rooster to every ten hens to produce fertile eggs.
7. Store eggs in a place that's between 50 and 75 degrees F until they're placed in the incubator.
8. Read the incubator instructions and follow its guidelines.
9. Keep the incubator indoors where it's easy to maintain.
10. Start the incubator a few days before you place eggs in it in order to adjust the temperature, humidity and airflow.
11. Place an "X" with a pencil lightly on one side of egg. This will tell you if you have turned the egg.
12. Turn eggs at least two to three times a day for the first 18 days. Do not turn them the last three days of incubation.
13. Test for infertile eggs by "candling" the eggs.
14. Clean and disinfect the incubator after all the eggs have hatched.

Tips & Warnings

• Broody hens are easily recognized by their behavior. They spend most of their time on a nest and, when you get close to them, they ruffle their feathers and cluck.