My son wants to hatch baby chicks what do I need to do?

Question

Okay so we have recently aquired 2 chickens and a rooster (keep in mind we have never had chickens until now...lol)

and they just started laying an egg or two a day now my 5 year old wants to see one of the eggs hatch and i'm thinking that this is a good educational thing for him but HELP..lol what do I need to do..we have considered getting an incubator and we will if we have to but what do I need to do to get it to happen naturally just leave the egg there and wait? I know it takes 21 days but is that it just wait 3 weeks to see if a chick appears? Any info would be helpful!!

Answer 1

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you can get much information in this website,stay a minute in website and check anyone link at a time,you can aslo get your answer in Google Search in this website, which has helped me alot

Answer 2

The websites should help!

Also, you could check out a book at the library and there's always a breeding/baby section in them!

Good Luck, Hope you have healthy little yellow fuzzballs soon! :D

Answer 3

I had exactly the same problem as you when I first got chickens.

First, watch the rooster and hens for a couple of days to see if the rooster is mating with the hens. I know it sounds weird, but of course they have to mate to have babies, right? He will jump on their backs and will, well, mate.

Now you know the eggs are fertile. Sometimes, but very rarely, a mother hen will become broody. This means that she wants to sit on the eggs and hatch them. I was lucky and one of my hens became broody. You know they are broody when they will not let you come anywhere near their eggs and will peck at your hands and will not leave the eggs, even to eat food. My dad had chickens all his life and not one of his hens became broody, so you have to be very lucky in order to get a broody hen. If you are a lucky person, remove the mother to a seperate nesting box to be in peace. She will incubate the eggs until they hatch and will take care of them. Why am I lucky to have a broody hen? Because you do not have to buy, install, and monitor the incubator, nor do you have to raise the chicks yourself. The mother does all this!

But since you only have 2 hens, the chances of a having broody one are near zero. So you have to resort to an incubator. You can buy ones in stores pretty cheap, or you can make one yourself for even less money. Here's a site on how to build and monitor one:http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/facts...

When the chicks hatch, keep them seperate from the adults, as they will surely eat or hurt them. They need to be kept warm and given chick starter feed and vitamin water for the first month of life. Once the chicks are the same size as the adults, you can introduce them to your flock. Do this at night when the others are sleeping because they'll wake up with the chicks being there and will think they were always there. I know, but chickens aren't the smartest birds around!

I hope all works out for you. Chickens are great pets, and if they do breed, it's a very rewarding experience to get something from practically nothing, except a little time and money.Good luck and have fun!!!