hatching chickens

by suzy
(Benin, west africa)

I am lazy when it comes to hatching chicks and so I just stick all my eggs that I want to hatch under a brooding hen and let her hatch them.

Then on the 20th or 21st day when the chicks start to hatch I snatch all the chicks out as well as the unhatched eggs and take them indoors where I put them in a plastic tub with a rolled up piece of fabric where I place them.

Depending on the temp outside,(where I am it easly gets to 100 in the house) I put a heat lamp and a therometer and let them do their thing.

I don't leave them with the mother because 1. I have an old hen who snatches the newly hatching babies out of the nest to eat but she is the only hen of her race so I keep her.

2nd my hens have a bad habit of leaving their babies when they are still too young to fend for themselves and I end up having to chase wild chicks. So for 4 weeks I can take care of them and tame them.

3rdly I have a cat who likes to chase baby chicks. So all in all it is handier to raise them in their box and send them out a back outdoor hall that protects them also from the sickness that sometimes sweep through my chickens.

But I let the mother hen hatch and if you get them out of there before she gets off the nest and or before the chicks hatch they are not used to her voice and won't be calling for her.

I make sure I talk to them and call them as I want to call them. ie if I want them to come I make sure that each time I poke my nose in or pass I say chick chick and also tap my finger to show them food and they pattern now after my voice and come running.

I was able to get them all into their box in the middle of a rain storm because i called chick chick and the all came running and jumped in and i was able to get them out of the rain without chasing them all over.