Hello everyone in the wonderful homesteading community. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. One of the best feelings of being a homesteader is when you reap the results of your hard work. Nothing is free even in Freetown. You have to put in a lot before you can see good results.
A few days ago, I shared an article in the community, where I talked about my local chicken. I’ve been rearing local chickens for some years now, and I can proudly say I know a lot about them.
Chickens are very productive; they produce meat and egg, and I think every homesteader will love rearing them.
After 21 days of Incubating, my chicken finally hatched Its eggs.
I woke up very early to check up on it because I had done the calculations and I knew it’d hatch. When I got there I noticed a change in its behavior; it was very defensive. I couldn’t touch or even carry it, so I called my mom to help me out.
The chicken laid 7 eggs (unfortunately, two of them broke). Out of the remaining 5 eggs, it hatched just two. Although I was a little bit disappointed, I was still happy because I got something. Recently, someone in this community asked me if chickens hatch all the eggs they lay. The answer is “NO”, while some of them might hatch all, others won't. Poor hatching is caused by some factors like temperature. If the chicken wanders off for too long, the embryo cools off thereby damaging the eggs and rendering it infertile.
The health of chicken is also another factor that causes poor hatching. That is why you should take care of your chicken and provide it with water and feed while it is incubating.
This last reason amuses me. My friend's grandmother is also a homesteader who rears local chickens on a large scale. She has been doing that since she was a youth, so she knows a lot about chickens (she’s a genius in that area).
When I started rearing chickens, I asked her why chickens don’t hatch all their eggs and her response was quite amusing and educative. She said the chicken might not have been able to cover the eggs (temperature) with her feathers, so those eggs that were uncovered would be wasted. Another thing she said was that the eggs will never hatch if the chicken had no access to a rooster while the egg is inside it.
Now that my chicken has hatched her eggs, what is the next step
This stage is a very crucial stage for them, because they are small, fragile and can easily be killed by other animals like snakes or eagles. This is why I keep my newly hatched chickens in the cage with the mother hen, until they're old enough to start wandering on their own.
Recently, I lost 8 of my chicks (one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced since I started rearing chickens. About 2 weeks ago, one of my chickens hatched 8 colorful chicks. They were very beautiful. The next day, 2 out of the chicks went missing. I was very surprised because I made sure they didn’t leave the compound. The next day, another 2 went missing, this time I was very furious and I started accusing my cousins. 2 kept disappearing everyday until they all vanished. I later found out my German shepherd dog (a puppy) was the culprit.
This time, I’ll have to be very careful. The last time, I allowed the chicken and her newly hatched chicks wander around the compound, but this time, I put them inside a cage.
Thanks for reading.
All Images In This Article Are Mine.
