Hatching Chicken Eggs

The first thing to know about hatching chicken eggs is that it can be done without a mother brooding hen. There are a wide range of incubators on the market and they really range in price. We rent ours from a local farm for just $10 for the month. The farm owners homeschooled their children and offer the service now to other homeschoolers this time of year. The last two years we have done duck eggs, this year is our first year hatching Chicken Eggs.

Chicken Eggs take about 21 days to Hatch!

Under the right conditions, about 99 degrees, after about 3 weeks the eggs start to hatch. Most of them should all hatch within about 24 hours. Notice how I am not giving exact times, because much like human gestation, a due date is really just a guess date!

Different Colored Natural Chicken Eggs

 

Chicken eggs my children have learned come in many different colors and sizes. The children helped gather warm eggs from around the farm from many kinds of chickens. We can only guess right now though what kind of chicken might be inside what kind of egg.

    Candling Chicken Eggs

You can candle chicken eggs as soon as 3 days but be sure to not take any our of the incubator till you do so again at 7 days to make sure they are really not fertile. The darker the egg shell, the harder it can be to see the embryo inside. We candled at 4 days using a small light from our cell phones and have we think 19 fertile eggs. We will do so again in a few days and update with finale number of eggs going into week 2! Candling is one of the kids favorite parts.

The kids also like to help turning the eggs 2-3 times a day. My husband put letters on these eggs but really the purpose is to help simply remember to turn the eggs. Of course when you have 5 people in the house turning them and maybe not communicating that they did…. the eggs can get turned a lot. Our worry is under turning though at this point. Life gets busy and these eggs are quiet! For now!

    Contest!

I think we might set up a giveaway for those who might like to guess what eggs might hatch or how many we will have when they do hatch. With our duck eggs we managed a 50% – 60% hatch rate if I am remembering right. We have been told that chicken eggs are not as hard though so we will see. Check back for the contest and feel free to leave your guesses below if you would like!