The springtime is one of the most exciting times in the chicken keeping experience. It’s all about new life! Our hens start laying again after their long winter break, baby chicks are popping up at feed stores, and in many homes you can hear the whirr of running incubators.
This post covers everything you need to know about hatching and raising healthy chicks. Topics include; keeping roosters for breeding, collecting hatching eggs, choosing an incubator, the advantages of a broody hen, hatching day and troubleshooting, brooding chicks and introducing those chicks to an existing flock.
Choosing Birds to Breed
These posts help you decide which birds to breed in your flock. It explains mating, how long a hen lays fertile eggs, how long she needs to be separated to get clean lines and how to set up breeding pens.
Incubation Series Part 2: Choosing Birds to Breed
Roosters
To hatch chicks you need to involve a rooster at some point. Learn all about the specific needs of the male of the chicken species. Roosters are magnificent. It’s a shame that so many cities have ordinances against them because for me they encapsulate the very essence of chicken nostalgia. Most of the time our roosters become our favorite chickens. They have such personalities and are usually the more elaborately colored of the breed. Learn all about them!
Fifi’s Story and the Unexpected Rooster
Smitten With Our Amazing Rooster
Something to Crow About, Reader Questions Answered
The Dark Side of a Chicken’s Nature
Q & A Why doesn’t my 6-month-old rooster crow?
Broody Hens
A broody hen is one of the best ways to raise chicks. “Mother knows best” and this goes for the chicken world as well. Learn about what it means for a hen to go broody, how to encourage this behavior if you want to hatch chicks and how to discourage the broody bug if you don’t want to hatch chicks. Read about the fascinating relationship between a mother hen and her chicks.
Broody Hen Success!
Brooding delivers a pullet to henhood
Recent Hatchings & Our Baby Steps Toward Sustainability
Encouraging Broodiness
Q & A: Can someone make a hen go broody?
Discouraging Broodiness
Breaking the Broody – Attempt #1
Breaking the Broody – Attempt #2
Incubators
If a broody hen isn’t a possibility for you to hatch out chicks, then an incubator is the next best thing. Learn how to use an incubator, how to care for your incubator to keep it working in good order for years to come, learn about different styles of incubators, and what an egg needs to hatch into a chick.
Incubation Series Part 1: Incubating Advantages
Incubation Series Part 3: Choosing an Incubator, Setup and Collecting Eggs
Cleaning and Storing Incubators
Hatching Chicken Eggs and Caring for Chicks: Incubator, Brooder and Feed Basics
Candleing
Candleing is an amazing and unique experience which allows you to see into the embryonic world with simple equipment. Learn how to candle an egg, what you’re seeing and how to determine if an egg is fertile and progressing.
Incubation Series Part 4: The Long Wait, Candling, and Hatching Day
A Long Story, Part I–DIY: Egg Candler
Hatching
Learn all about hatching. How to regulate your incubator, how long to keep chicks in an incubator after they’ve hatched, what do new born chicks need and some trouble shooting advice for difficult hatches.
9 Tips for a Successful Hatch Day
Reader’s Question: Hatching chicken eggs
Which Came First to Your Coop: the Chicks or the Eggs?
Hatching Chicken Eggs and Caring for Chicks: Incubator, Brooder and Feed Basics
A Happy and Proud Hatching Day
How Our Duck Hatched Chickens … Sort Of
Reader’s Question: Hatching chicken eggs
Our Silkies Hatched and a Spraddle (Splay) Legged
Recent Hatchings & Our Baby Steps Toward Sustainability
Brooding/Chick Care
After the chicks hatch you get to play mother hen. Learn how to set up a brooder and what are the requirements for raising healthy, happy chicks.
5 Ways to Better the Brooding Experience
Reader Questions: Heat Lamps and Baby Chicks
DIY Project: Make a Simple Chicken Brooder
New Chicks This Spring? How About Black Copper Marans?
Community DIY: Making a Dresser into a Brooder
The Importance of Roosts for Chicks
Product Review: Brinsea EcoGlow Brooder
How to Prepare for Successful Chick Brooding – Part One
Hatching Chicken Eggs and Caring for Chicks: Incubator, Brooder and Feed Basics
DIY Project: Make a Simple Chicken Brooder
Introducing teenagers
After your chicks have feathered out and the spring weather has warmed up, learn the best way to introduce your “teenage” chicks into an existing flock. Learn how to ease the process of pecking order, and how to make the transition easier.
5 Tips for Introducing Teenage Chicks
Introductions “What Would You Do?” Introducing New Chickens to the Coop
Reader’s Inquiry: Introducing New Hens To A Flock
An Unexpected Loss and New Additions
2 Comments
I read your post on turkeys, and I’m curious about letting the hen hatch her own clutch. I see about 7 or 8 eggs in the nest box, but the (Narragansett) hen doesn’t sit in there. We’re in northern MN, so it still gets cold at night. I suspect it’s too early for these eggs, but even so, I’m wondering whether the wild turkeys in the woods sit their eggs constantly, or can the nest stand to cool off?
Message*Dear Iron Oak Farm,Greetings,From across the seas Africa,Zambia, many thanks for the website and the information and the newsletters.Sincerely,Peter Mbewe.