So you want chicks...

The (relatively) easy way or the hard way?

The easy way is under a broody hen, although even then it can be tricky! Some broody's will snap out of being broody halfway through incubating the eggs, meaning you should try have an incubator on hand in case of emergencies. Usually though having a broody hatch the eggs is much easier; she will sit on them, keep them at the right temperature, and turn them. She will communicate with the chicks inside, and help peck away the shell when they are pipping and making their way out.

Once the chicks are born, mum will keep the babies inside underneath her for a day or two until they are completely dry (usually takes 24 hours). She will show them how to eat, and will drop food directly in front of them and cluck for them to eat it. If you throw her treats she will run over and call to her chicks, picking the food up and dropping it for them, encouraging them to eat. She will keep a close eye on them and constantly call them to her. She will teach them to scratch, peck and eat bugs.

Hens make fantastic mothers, and are fiercely protective of their babies. When Milly had chicks, one day a cat came into the garden. The chicks were only about a week old, and Milly ran up to the cat and launched herself at its' face with her talons out!! Hens will care for the chicks until they are old enough to care for themselves, but will usually turn on them around 4 - 7 weeks old. After that the hen will give up all maternal behaviour, and if the chicks go near her she will chase them away - very confusing for the poor chicks!!

Milly was a spectacular mum, and actually kept her chicks (three huge hulking Buff Orpingtons) sleeping with her until they were 11 weeks old. It was hilarious! She was already laying eggs again by then (after hatching chicks hens don't begin to lay for about 6 weeks until the chicks are gone), and she would drag all three chicks into the nest box with her whilst she laid! A night they would still try sleep under her wings, even though they were the same size as her, and could only fit their heads under!!!

Here she is with her babies





So, you're still thinking of hatching chicks the hard way?! Okay, well, bare in mind that statistically you are more likely to end up with over half the chicks as roosters, and under half female. If you can't keep a rooster, or can only keep one, you will need to be prepared to find the rest of the boys loving homes.

Well, you need an incubator of course. You need to put the eggs in the 'bator (if you got the eggs through the post leave them to settle for a day or two) and set the temperature for 37.7 C. Humidity isn't as crucially important as temperature, but should be around 50-55%, increased to 65% in the last few days.

You will always need to turn the eggs daily, just as a mother hen does. This is to stop the developing chick sticking to the shell. You need to turn the eggs an odd number of times each day (otherwise the chick will stick on one side), and the more the merrier. So turning the eggs 7 times is better than 3.

From day 19 onwards (slightly earlier for banties as they tend to hatch around day 19) you need to stay away from the incubator and do not open it for anything! Opening the 'bator now and letting the temperature and the humidity drop could be disastrous, so better safe than sorry and STAY AWAY!

At this point you will want to look for a "pip" in the egg, that is a small hole that where the chick has punched through the shell with their egg tooth, a small bump on their beak that disappears when they are a few days old. You will want to see the chick hatch out immediately, but unfortunately it can take easily up to 24 hours for a pipped egg to progress! As much as you may want to help a chick at this stage, DON'T!

If a pipped egg shows no sign of improvement after 24+ hours, and the peeping and movement is lessening, you may need to help. Be warned this is dangerous and can result in the chick's death...but if the chick is struggling and needs your help it will die either way, so you need to weigh up the risks. You will need heat (room warm as possible), clean hands, dull tweezers and warm water that you can mist the egg with. You need to carefully peel the shell nearest to the pip away (NOT the membrane). Help the chick 'zip' the shell at the end where it has pipped (it should be the large end but some pip at the wrong end), mist the membrane with warm water often to stop it drying up, but careful not to drown the chick. If you see blood at any point STOP, and put the egg back in the 'bator with extra humidity. After you've helped create a zip partway around the egg, put the chick back in the 'bator and wait to see if it can make it on it's own. If nothing has happened after an hour, repeat the process taking off the rest of the zipped part. Put the chick back and see if it can get out. If it's still struggling, you can attempt to take the entire shell of yourself (keeping the membrane very wet) but I really wouldn't risk it...

As the eggs begin to hatch, you will see something similar to this






The chicks need to have been in the 'bator for a minimum of 24 hours after the last chick has hatched. Don't worry about food or water, the yolk that the chicks have absorbed will keep them safe for a few days. Once the chicks are dry and fluffed up, you can move them to the brooder you should have set up. This should be small area with substrate (nothing slippy, such as newspaper. Paper towels work, but avoid wood shavings until the chicks know what their food is - you don't want anyone getting impacted!) , food (chick crumbs - medicated will prevent against the deadly coccidiosis), a shallow water bowl with marbles in the bottom to prevent drowning (you can add a little sugar to the water to help weak chicks), and a heat lamp to keep the temperature around 35 - 37 C for the first week. A red heat lamp is best, as chickens don't see red light...if you use a standard white one, they will be afraid of the dark the first time it is turned off!

For a brooder you can use pretty much anything, we used a plastic storage box for the first few days!!



As they grow older you will need to move them into bigger pens, still indoors. Their pen will need cleaning every day, and young chicks are VERY VERY dusty!! Expect to have to sweep the room they are in several times a day, especially as they grow new feathers though! They need providing with stimulation; things to climb, mirrors, toys - egg boxes with marbles in and chick crumbs scattered in the marbles works well! Every week, drop the temperature by 2 C, until they are 6 weeks old. At 4 weeks old they can have the heat off at night, providing they are somewhere warm indoors and it isn't winter!



As you can see, we used an inflatable 4 foot paddling pool to house the chicks in until they were about 4 weeks old. We had to add netting around it to stop them escaping!



A small plastic tray filled with a mixture of sand and soil made for a perfect place to dust bathe, and meant they had chance to build up some immunity to germs in the soil before living outside full-time



Me with one of the chicks, Paprika, when he was about 4 weeks old. You can see even in this photo that he is a boy by the larger pinky-coloured comb.



And for comparison, 4 week old Sunny, the sole girl of the group!



Once they hit 4 weeks old they can start going outside, when the weather's nice and the sun's shining. At six weeks old they are ready to move outside and live out there full-time, providing their sleeping compartment is warm and draft free.



At the age of about 6 weeks you should switch their chick pellets to growers pellets, and feed them that until they're about 12 - 14 weeks old. Then you can switch them to Layers pellets. Expect them to stay chirping until about 12 weeks old, and it will then turn into honking until about 16 weeks old when they will finally begin to cluck!

When they hit about 8 weeks old, you should definitely be able to tell the boys from the girls, as long as the combs are visible and standard. The girls comb will remain very small and white right up until they are getting ready to lay at 16 weeks old. The boys develop larger, redder combs anywhere from 4 weeks old onwards. They can also start to crow as young as 4 weeks old (a bit strangled! ) although most don't start until 14 weeks plus. Here's a 9.5 week old Sunny



And her brother Scotty at the same age



Good luck with your chicks!!

Red

Things can go wrong when hatching eggs, and it's important to remember this. Not all the eggs will hatch - a good hatch is when 3/4 of the eggs hatch successfully. Some eggs will be infertile, will die young, other chicks will be fully formed but will just not pip.

Sometimes chicks can hatch with some of their insides hanging out their bottoms. Depending on how bad this is, some may die from it. In other cases (and this happened to one of my chicks Scotty, who lived happily ever after) the insides will get magically sucked back inside the chick, and there will be no problems as a result of this.

Watch the chicks, make sure they are all eating and drinking, walking and looking lively. Don't worry though, like all babies they will spend a lot of time sleeping! Don't keep your chicks on slippery surfaces, such as wood or newspaper, as it can result in spraddle leg. This is where the chicks legs are wide apart at a 180 degree angle, and you will need to form a splint to hold them together.

Also watch out for a condition called pasty butt, where the poo clogs around the chicks' vent. If a mother hen was watching the chicks, she would peck it off for her baby and free it up. As a human 'mum', this is your job! Use damp, warm kitchen roll to gently wipe it away, and carefully pick it off. It's usually relatively easy, but it does need treating - lucky you!

There's a disease called coccidiosis, which can be deadly and can wipe out all your chicks. You can buy medicated chick crumbs which will build an immunity to cocci. Cocci is picked up in the soil and from other chickens' poops; symptoms are diarrhoea with blood in, sluggish chicks and anorexia. Cocci can result in death, so if your chicks are gonna be around other chickens, feed the medicated food! They will eventually build up an immunity to cocci naturally.