Do you know it can take almost 24 hours for a baby chick to come out of its egg after it pips the first hole? In the article, we bring you more of these interesting facts, and not only that we will also help you in knowing how to hatch chicken eggs and care for the baby chicks afterward. Optimal temperature and humidity levels are essential for eggs to hatch properly.You can assist the baby chick prepare by doing the following: stop rotating the position of the egg on day 18 with the bigger end facing up in the coop. The chick will now arrange itself inside the egg in preparation for hatching eggs. This process of arranging itself inside the egg is crucial.Keep the temperature of the incubator at 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit (38.05 degrees Celsius), but raise the humidity to 70%. Keeping the right temperature and humidity in the incubator or on the right days is important for incubating eggs in the incubating box or an incubating room.An average young female chicken will come into play around six months of age.While some chickens start laying eggs early by 16 - 18 weeks others may take as long as 28 - 32 weeks to raise. Hens lay eggs within six hours of sunrise.Hatching chicken eggs is a very dedicating, and extremely rewarding experience. It requires a lot of patience, proper planning, and good observation skills. Chicken eggs have a natural incubation period till the hatch day. This incubation period is about three weeks or 21 days. They can be hatched using natural processes or using specialized incubators for incubation under carefully monitored conditions for their incubation period.After reading the facts about hatching chicken eggs, do read about how often do chickens lay eggs and when do chickens molt.How do you hatch chicken eggs at home?Hatching chicken eggs is not a cakewalk. It requires a lot of patience to wait throughout the incubation period, dedication, and a good amount of observation and proper planning.To hatch a chicken at home, the first thing you will need is a fertile egg. You can buy it at a store or get it online. You must select your eggs wisely. For the rest of the process, you can use a broody hen or an incubator machine. You must choose a good location and provide the eggs with favorable conditions in the incubator. Turn the eggs regularly, monitor the conditions, and record the dates. Egg turning is crucial to the process. You must candle the eggs after 7 - 10 days and then prepare well for the hatch with the help of an incubator.How to hatch chicken eggs using an incubator?In the incubator is an incubating room in which you place the eggs in the egg tray with the larger end facing up and the thin end facing down for incubating. Set the temperature to 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity of 50 - 55 %.Hatching eggs can be a complicated process. If the mother is a bit neglectful, chances are her babies will never hatch. In the worst-case scenario, the babies can be hatched with deformities. Modern chickens are not very effective mothers and can get distracted easily. This is why many people don’t trust incubation to their hen’s. This is where the incubator comes in handy.Here are the steps to hatch chicken eggs with the help of an incubator:Set up an incubatorThe price of an incubator varies depending on the number of eggs they can hold and also on their automation. In a good quality incubator, all you have to do is, put the eggs, close the door and wait patiently for three weeks for their incubation in the incubating room. It is advised that all incubators must accomplish these basic requirements.TemperatureThe eggs are required to be kept safely at a temperature of 99.5 degrees. A single degree above or low in temperature can destroy the embryos.HumidityFor the first 18 days, about 40 - 50 % humidity is required. While 65 - 75 % humidity must be maintained for the rest of the days before hatching eggs to keep the embryos safe. Make sure that the relative humidity in the incubator is right.VentilationAn incubator must have holes or vents to allow the free movement of the air to circulate so that the fetuses inside the eggs can breathe in the incubator. Yes, since the eggshells are porous. This property allows oxygen to enter and CO2 to exit the egg.Also, a high-quality thermometer and a hygrometer are very important tools for incubation to monitor the temperature and humidity. So you must make sure the incubator has a built-in thermometer and hygrometer combo with an external display to monitor the temperature and humidity. These things in the incubator are crucial for the process.Find Fertile EggsIf you happen to have a flock of hens with roosters, chances are most of the eggs that they lay are fertile. You can collect them sooner and transfer them into the incubators for chicks to hatch. But if you don’t have any natural source, you may get it from a farmhouse or a liable website or feed store that sells fertile eggs. Don’t worry, even these eggs have a hatch rate of up to 75 - 90%.IncubateOnce you have collected the fertile eggs, place them into an incubator for chicks to hatch. The temperature must be 50 - 60 degrees with around 75 % humidity in the incubator. At least three times a day you are required to turn the eggs over so the eggs are not resting continuously on the same side of the incubator. You can continue this process for 18 days in the incubator and then leave the eggs as it is for the rest of the days before hatching.HatchingYou must observe the eggs shifting on their own before hatching. Let the chicken complete the process of hatching and ignore your urge of helping the chicken to avoid causing unnecessary damage.The Importance Of Incubator HumidityExcessive moisture in the incubator hampers normal evaporation, resulting in a lower hatch rate, but this is rarely an issue in any tiny incubator. Excessive evaporation occurs when there is insufficient moisture, causing chicks to adhere to the shell along with shell membrane and hatch handicapped.Humidity inside the incubator plays a crucial part in the whole process.For the first seven days, around 70-80% humidity is required inside the incubator.For the early incubation, around 50-60% humidity is required inside the incubator to reduce the risk of dehydration.The same level of relative humidity is required for the development and hatching of chicken eggs.How to naturally incubate chicken eggs?Breeding chicken naturally is the best way to increase the number of chickens in your flock. You must know the best way by which you can successfully breed chicken naturally, in order to get a decent amount of healthy baby chicks.Given below are the steps you can follow to incubate eggs and hatch a chicken egg naturally:Select a Breed: You must select a good breed that has a high level of broodiness. The hens of these breeds spent their entire time sitting and brooding their eggs. Also, make sure both the males and female chickens are of the same purebred.Involve a Rooster: A hen may lay an unfertilized egg on its own. But to get a fertilized egg you would need a rooster as well. You are advised to keep at least one rooster per 20 hens in a flock.Inspect the hatching process: You must constantly monitor the egg and the mother well for hatching chicks. Also, know that not all the eggs will hatch, so you must constantly candle the eggs to see the conditions on the inside. Make sure you handle them properly.Try to feed them the same food: You are advised to feed both the hen and the chicken the same food as they spent most of the time together and are almost inseparable.Introduce the chicken carefully to the flock: Once the baby chicken is all ready to join the flocks, you must carefully introduce them to the flock and take good care of them.Egg Shell Color In ChickensChicken eggs are available in many different colors of shell. Whether it be white, blue, speckled, or brown, many different varieties of chicken eggs are easily available in the stores. It is well known that the quality or the taste of a chicken egg depends on many factors including the living conditions of the hen or its eating habits. But the color of the egg’s shell has a completely different story.The color of the egg basically depends on the mother hen’s genes. It depends on the chemical, the mother is laying down on the eggs. Mostly it depends on the type of chicken laying the eggs. Eggshells are made of the mineral, Calcium Carbonate. While the shells of the egg are made of the same stuff, the colors are added due to the various chemicals that either permeate the membrane or coat the shell. Breeding between different breeds of chicken can also result in different eggshell colors and can make a big difference.Here are explanations for different eggshell colors in chickens.White Eggs: These are the most common egg colors that can be found across the world. Since all the eggs are made of calcium carbonate. The natural color with no pigment added remains white.Brown Eggs: The pigment well known as protoporphyrin IX, which comes from the hen’s hemoglobin is responsible for the brown color of the egg. As the egg moves through the oviduct of the hen, the brown color gets coated on the outside of the egg.Blue Eggs: The blue color in the egg is possible all because of the anthocyanin pigment. The blue color eggs are laid by homozygous chicken which is controlled by an autosomal dominant gene.Green Eggs: When a blue layer and a brown layer hen is the cross bed the egg colors result in a green one. It is the result when the protoporphyrin IX layer is deposited over the blue enocyanin shells.Pink Eggs: The pink color is formed due to the natural “bloom” which is applied naturally when a white shell begins to form inside the hen’s uterus. These biological pigments start to secrete from the cells and give the eggshells a light pink texture.Speckled Eggs: When an egg rotates slower than usual during the pigmenting stage, it results in speckled designs. It may also be formed due to extra calcium deposits. They are pretty common and can be laid by any healthy hen.How do you help a stuck chick hatch?Once you have taken proper care of a fertilized egg, around day 21 a baby chicken is most likely to show up at your doorstep. As the baby chick pipes it’s the first hole in the eggshell it can take as long as 24 hours to hatch the egg completely and come out on its own. Though the baby chick may seem like a weak helpless creature, trust me it is all a part of the natural process. Hence you shouldn’t disturb the process in those 24 hours.Thus you should not try to interfere in this natural process even if they get stuck. The baby chicken has got this egg tooth, which is a sharp temporary projection. This temporary egg tooth helps the chicken to break free after penetrating the eggshell from the inside. No matter what happens, you should never try to help it within the 24 hours mark for breaking the eggs.Most of the time if left alone a baby chick will make its way out of the egg. Some chicken often takes longer than usual. They may take some breaks and rest in between the process of hatching chicken eggs. But sometimes, the baby chick might be too exhausted to complete the process of hatching eggs. Also, it could be ill or in distress and thus, if not helped, can simply give up and die. If there are any visible signs of injury or blood you can rush and help the chicken by breaking the shell. Chickens that show a sign of lethargy for more than two hours might have given up on the process entirely.In any case, you must leave the unhatched egg in its position to avoid causing problems for other chickens. All you are advised to do is let nature take care of all the rest. You can just inspect that everything is going naturally as it is supposed to be. You may increase the humidity so that the membrane inside the shell doesn’t become so hard that the chick is unable to penetrate it with its beak. Taking care of humidity levels is important.Caring For Hatched ChicksOnce you have properly cared for your fertilized eggs, within three weeks, in a period of 21 days these eggs would be ready to hatch. Around day 21, the fertilized eggs will turn into live, complete, and hopefully healthy baby chicks. But this doesn’t mean you can rest now, because the most crucial job has just begun. Caring for your newly hatched chicks will require the same amount of dedication and responsibility as the fertile eggs.Once the fertile eggs are collected and safely placed in an incubator they are likely to develop over the course of 21 days in the incubator. Once the eggs hatch, you will be required to care for the baby chicks and keep them warm, dry, and safe. Like all the other baby animals they are required to be kept clean and fed well. Most essentially you must make sure that the baby chicken has access to clean and fresh water all the time. Keep the area and the waterers clean. You are advised to feed them with chick starters. Make sure the baby chicks drink an adequate dose of water before eating their food. Make sure you provide them with good chick food.Even grains are not a good supplement for them. Grains may be high in calories but are low in proteins, vitamins, and minerals required by the baby chicks for good health and growth. You must provide them with a good feeder. Also, you can also add apple cider vinegar to their drinking water. Most importantly keep the area warm and clean and keep them in a safe place, away from predators. Choosing a warm area is important.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for how to hatch chicken eggs then why not take a look at why do chickens eat their eggs, or leghorn chicken facts.
Do you know it can take almost 24 hours for a baby chick to come out of its egg after it pips the first hole?
