Breezee BarnsHatching chicken eggs. If someone would have told me that 5 years ago, I would have laughed at them. I never in my mind thought I would be the one involved with chickens. I’ve never been around a farm when chicks were born, so I had no idea what I was getting into. Prior to moving, I had purchased an incubator for Papa and Uncle D. I was told that Papa and Uncle D wanted chickens and ducks on the farm, so I bought the incubator for them. Lucky me, I was delegated the task.
When I was growing up, my grandpa never had chickens or ducks on the farm. He had cattle that I can remember being loaded on a truck. I know pigs used to be on the farm years ago because we have aerial photos of the property with the pig houses. Plus, I have discovered handwritten notes from my grandmother who kept track of piglets being born. At some point chickens must have been on the farm since a coop is still here.
Eggs Arrived
So here we are, bringing back chickens. I finally found a hatchery that I felt like we should order from. I ordered 16 eggs and got a bonus egg as well. 17 eggs in total.
The eggs arrived and the incubation began. I had bought a rotating incubator, so that made things easier. We loaded each egg carefully and set the display for chickens. I had never incubated eggs, so this was a whole new experience. Literally. I used this as part of our homeschool curriculum.
Every few days, we would candle the eggs, and someone would document our findings. We had to monitor the humidity daily. It could not get too low or too high. When we saw the humidity low, we added water to the base unit. About a week before they were to start hatching, we took a plug out of the base to allow the humidity to get a little higher. We also carefully removed the eggs from the rotator and placed them on a rack so they could hatch. Now we just waited patiently for them to hatch.
Right around day 21, some eggs started moving and little cracks appeared. Our first chick hatched June 15th, 2022. By the morning of June 16th, we have 4 more. By June 17th, the last of our eggs hatched. We started out with 17 eggs and had 13 that hatched. Not bad for our first attempt at hatching chicks!!
How are the Chicks Today?
Out of the 13 that hatched, 12 survived. Of those 12, 8 of them turned out to be roosters. Our 4 little hens spent their days get chased, so they flew up on the beams of the coop to get a break. We hope to rehome some of these roosters since we have way more than we need. They like to keep everyone up all night long. Did you know that roosters can crow all hours of the day and night? We did not!
With this crazy weather and bullheaded roosters, our little flock is has lost a few more. We were worried when the temperatures got super cold the were going to freeze, but we were able to keep them warm. We have hay and alfalfa in the coop for bedding and added heat lamps too. They like to sit on perches and crow. Unfortunately, our roosters on the other hand, just could not leave our hens alone. As much as we tried, we were unable to save 3 of the girls.
As the roosters got aggressive, we pulled the girls out and put them in our basement. Yes, I allowed chickens in the house. I really didn’t have a say, the girls and their dad just showed up and took them downstairs. The stress and trauma those little hens got just was too much for some of them to handle.
Yes, they are little sassy things. The girls have named the roosters after Stranger Things characters and our hen has been named Bethany. It is always fun to watch them run up to the fence line and greet you when you visit them. They love getting their treats. Their favorites are cabbage, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and mealworms.
We are looking forward to spring to stay warm so our chickens can be out roaming freely on the farm. They need to run around and have some fresh greens.
I have to say that since it has almost been a year since the chickens hatched, I’m actually impressed we have kept them alive this long! We had no knowledge of what we were doing, but luckily we have been able to learn.
What is Next?
Well, guess what?? I just ordered 22 Buff Rock hens and another 16 black hens (8 Black Star and 8 Bielefelder). They will be arriving in the next few weeks (end of May and beginning of June). I had contemplated incubating more eggs, but since we hatched too many roosters, I did not want to chance getting any more. These chicks will be different breeds from what we hatched, so it will fun to add new colors. It is insane how hard it was to find female chicks available, especially for spring. This is what happens when people were trying to find a way to get eggs are a reasonable price.
As for the roosters, well they have to go. We have tried to give them away, but to no avail. We broke down and bought a chicken plucking machine (we bought a Yardbird) and in the next few days, they will no longer be around. The plan is to have them removed before the little ones arrive.
Raising chickens has been interesting. We have had to learn a lot and continue to learn. Now we get to test our knowledge and see what we remember as we have our new chicks arrive!
