Hello everyone in the wonderful homesteading community. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. It is so exciting to watch this community grow day by day. Kudos to the members who share their wonderful experiences and also the moderators who work behind the scenes to make sure things go well.
A few days ago, I wrote an article about how I raised my chickens and how I prepared a place for them to lay eggs. It is so nice to see that one of the chickens laying eggs had started incubating. In this article, I'll talk about the things I did to make sure the chicken stays healthy and hatches her eggs safely.
One of the most interesting parts of being a homesteader is that you learn new things everyday and you also get to enjoy them more than others. Just yesterday, my cousins and I decided to prepare a Nigerian dish, to make it more delicious we decided to source things up with the biggest chicken in the cage. I've never killed a chicken before, although I've seen people do it, but I can't do it. My cousins call me a lazy ass. But one day I know I'll get rid of my fear of killing chickens.
After laying 10 eggs, my chicken sat on her eggs to brood them. Brooding is when a chicken sits on her eggs (after she has finished laying all her eggs) to incubate them naturally. The natural incubation takes about 20-21 days.
What signs of brooding did I notice/ what are the signs of brooding in a chicken?
As I said earlier, brooding is when a chicken sits on its eggs to incubate them naturally.
The first sign of brooding I noticed is that it stopped laying eggs and sits under her eggs (the ones she already laid). When brooding, a chicken can sit on its eggs all day.
More aggressive; brooding chickens become more aggressive when you move close or try to touch their eggs.
For a successful incubation, you need to consider the following.
The first thing I did to make sure the brooding hen stays in a comfortable place, was to pour sand on her nest (I did this to keep the chicken and her eggs warm and also to prevent the eggs from rolling off).
Provision of feed for hen; you don't expect your chicken to starve for 21 days (or more/less) without eating anything and at the same time, you don't want your brooding hen to leave the eggs to look for feed (this may cool the eggs off and thus, damaging the embryo). What you need to do is to provide enough feed for it. You don't need to provide too much, because naturally brooding hens eat less.
Provision of water; this is a very important thing to do. The brooding chicken will need enough water to make the eggs warm. She picks the water with her beak and splashes it on her eggs. Don't put the water in a place where it can pour and damage the eggs.
The only problem I have right now is my molly, my German Shepherd dog. She keeps going to the nest to disturb the brooding chicken 😂. Well, the chicken is ready to protect her eggs at all costs.
The eggs can also be incubated artificially. Although I've never tried this, I've heard so much about it, and I hope to try it one day. Just like the natural incubation, the artificial incubation also takes 21 days (or less).
All images in this article are mine.