Chicken Keeping Secrets

“I just hatched out my first batch of eggs from an incubator. I have only had chickens for about a year, so I’ve been reading your newsletter to find out how to take care of them.

The incubator instructions said to discard eggs after 25 days, so on day 26 I started to throw out the last egg – that’s when I heard chirping coming from inside the egg. I put it back in the incubator. After 3 more days of watching it try to peck its way out and seeming to get weaker & weaker, I decided to “help it out” – I figured it was going to die anyway.

The chick had what appeared to be a dried yolk or something on it. I rinsed it under warm water and dried it with a hair dryer (very carefully). It is now 4 days old and seems to be as healthy as the other chicks that hatched by themselves. Do you know if it is OK to keep the chick with the other new chicks? It is eating and drinking just like they are. Is there any way to tell if it is defective?” ~ Marisakay, Texas

Marisakay,

I’m glad you wrote.

The first time you hatch your own eggs, it’s terribly exciting.

Actually, I think it’s always exciting but the first time is also filled with uncertainties which seem to heighten the experience.

As a general rule, your chicks should hatch by the 24th day but your sweet little chick seems to have had its own schedule.

It could be that the egg didn’t stay quite warm enough and therefore took longer than the others. This can sometimes happen in a more basic model incubator if it does not circulate the air uniformly.

The other thing that I wonder pertains to the remark you made about the chick having “dried yolk or something on it”.

The last thing your chick does before hatching is to draw the remainder of the yolk into its abdomen. It has been getting food and water from the yolk through the chicken equivalent of an umbilical cord. The chick needs to pull the yolk sac into its lower abdomen through the umbilical opening and grow the opening closed.

Simultaneously it will swallow the remainder of the egg “whites”.

I wonder if this step presented some type of a problem for your chick and could be the reason for the delayed hatch.

Regardless of the reason for the delay in hatching, I don’t think there is any reason your chick cannot be with the other chicks. (more…)

“I have 3 hens in various stages of motherhood. 2 have chicks already and one is setting. I am having a hard time with the hens fighting over the chicks and in fact they have even killed one chick. The hen that is still setting is elevated off the floor, how do I keep the other hens from “kidnapping” the chicks as the mother sets on the rest of the eggs? Should they be separated?”

Thanks to our reader for this question.

In short the answer to your question is yes, they do need to be separated.

You are in a bit of a predicament when you have numerous mother hens. Each mama, along with her chicks, should be kept separate from the others.

The challenge lies in getting the hen into the new space without breaking up her brood and causing her to abandon the nest.

One alternative would be to wait until her chicks start to hatch and temporarily adopt them until all have hatched. In this way, mama doesn’t have to feel torn between protecting her active newborns and staying on the remaining eggs. (more…)

“Can you ID the male and female chicks at birth, even as they get older I am still not sure, can you give us any guidelines?”

I’d like to thank our reader for this question and yes, the sex of day old chickens can be determined in a few different ways.

The first way is very difficult for the layman to accomplish with much success but I’ll tell you about it anyway.

“Vent sexing” relies on identification of the chickens sexual organs.

A chicken’s sexual organs are not located on the outside of their bodies like other animals but rather just inside their vent (anus).

The copulatory organ of a chicken is identified by shape. However, there are over 15 different possible shapes so determining male or female sex is very difficult. (more…)

In the last few weeks we’ve been discussing the transition from incubator to brooding area for your newly hatched chicks. This week in our “Basics Series”, we’ll talk about the first few days of a chick’s life if its mother hatched the eggs.

Although it’s true that when mama hen hatches her eggs, there isn’t as much for you to do, there are still things you need to keep an eye on.

If a few eggs hatch earlier than others, the hen will be torn; does she continue to sit on the eggs in the nest or tend to the needs of her new chicks?

If it appears that there will be too large of a gap between egg hatchings, consider temporarily adopting the newly hatched chicks so the hen can remain on her clutch. (more…)

Last week we covered your newly hatched chick’s need for water. This week we’ll move on to their feed and litter material. A chick will instinctively peck at and eat anything that is on the same level as their feet so before we address feed, let’s discuss their litter material.

Remember last week we talked about preventing spraddle legs by making sure the chicks can get traction when they walk until their legs are stronger? Again I need to reiterate that slick or slippery surfaces must be completely eliminated.

The best floor covering for the first few days would be rags or burlap sacks. Provide layers that can be removed as necessary when they are soiled because you’ll need to keep the brooder box clean at all times. Use only clean material that has been thoroughly rinsed of all detergent. Make sure the fabric has no loose threads in which the chicks could become entangled and be crippled or killed. (more…)