There is more to keeping chickens than fresh eggs for breakfast! There is nothing more gratifying, for those maintaining poultry as a hobby, than hatching chicken eggs and observing as the new arrivals grow and mature into adult hens.

Production of chicken eggs is a very simple and even any chicken keeper with very little experience can do it. There are, mainly, two methods of hatching chicken, either allow brooding hens to follow the natural process or hatch them artificially in an incubator.

The main worry when someone begins this task is to ensure that the breeding stock is healthy. This can be ensured by keeping them in a well-designed, protected and cozy coop house. They should be kept in such an environment where they are free from any strain or disorder. It is also critical to protect brooding hens from predators and pests.

Even any intrusion from rodents may tempt the hen to emerge from the nest and in that process, the developing eggs may rapidly cool and die. For better protection, it is essential to have a ‘roosting box’ inside the coop house together with proper bedding in which brooding chicken can form a nest.

Acclimatization of hens is the next vital aspect that one should put in place. This should be initiated well before gathering any eggs for hatching. In order to ensure that chickens are in robust health and the peak breeding condition, they should be fed with the superior quality chicken meal and allowed to move around in clean area for rubbing and grazing.

Chickens will also get a lot of supplementary nutrition through insects and worms when they graze in open field. It is important that the diet of egg laying hens contain fairly good amount of calcium. An insufficient calcium in egg laying hens can cause ‘egg binding’, an agonizing condition for the hens and will result in their death, if not treated in time.

The hens can also get calcium as nutritional supplement through the drinking water or by blending calcium powder with feed. Although well nourished and carefully looked after chickens will not require nutritional supplements, it is still worthwhile adding them to the chickens’ feed. All these measures are of no use if there is no ‘healthy cockerel’ among the fowls to ensure that the eggs laid are good and feasible.

Even though it is apparent, many persons not familiar with maintaining chickens overlook the fact that without a cock, the eggs will not be productive. If one does not have a cock among the flock, it would be prudent to include one, though the neighbors may not like to be woken up by him early in the morning!

The current trend is for people in towns and cities to have chickens in coop houses in their backyard. This type of maintaining chickens is called ‘urban chicken farming’. However those living in congested areas, excessive noises disturb chickens and therefore, in such a situation, it may not be possible to breed them.

In addition, regulations imposed in certain cities specifically prohibit keeping a cock in the area. It is, therefore, important to check with local authorities before setting up a ‘chicken farm’ in the backyard of the house. Another important aspect to consider before taking a decision on hatching chicken eggs is to know what one is going to do with the hatched and fully grown chickens.

If the intention is keep them, it is essential to provide additional space for new chickens on the basis of norms for space requirements or plan to extend the existing coop house. Alternatively, one should look for a suitable shelter for them. One should decide about this aspect before actually taking up breeding from hens.

Those who want a hen to hatch eggs should set up a ‘nursery’ in a separate enclosure. If the mother hen is not separated, there is a danger of either chickens or eggs getting damaged or eaten by other hens. In spite of taking adequate precautions, using a hen for hatching is quite risky. Instead it is better to use an incubator.

However, prior to placing eggs in the incubator, it is important to make sure that the incubator and its accessories, such as, preferably an automatic egg turner, candler, a particular light installed to view through the eggs to watch as they develop, and water and temperature gauge are in good condition and there is proper power connection to the incubator.

Although market is flooded with extensive range of incubators, it is better to buy a good incubator that is equipped with a water tray at the bottom to retain proper humidity, an egg turner that avoids manual turning and a fan for good circulation of air and maintaining a constant temperature. It is always necessary to wear gloves when handling eggs.

Here are various steps involved in incubation process:

Day 1

As eggs have a protective coating on them, they should never be washed. If they are washed, there is a danger of contracting disease. In order to monitor desired temperature, it is essential to ensure that the incubator has been operating for at least 24 hours.

If an automatic turner is not used, it is better to place the eggs with the same mark appearing. The same procedure can be followed even when an incubator provided with automatic turner is used. In any case, there is no need to touch eggs for 18 days. If the incubator is provided with a fan, the temperature can be reduced by 2 degrees.

In most of the poultry incubators, the temperature is adjusted at 37 degrees for fan and 40 degrees, if there is no fan. All eggs should be kept in the eggs trays with the point facing downwards. The majority of incubators are provided with instructions regarding adding water to maintain the correct humidity level.

There is no need to maintain high humidity till 3 days from hatching. It is better to have a calendar on the wall near the incubator so that the desired dates are marked on it properly. These dates should be reviewed daily.

Day 3

Water level in the tray should be checked every two days, though there may not be any need to add water. One should not miss a single day. It is, therefore, essential to mark these days on the calendar.

Day 7

It is the day for ‘candling’. This will enable removal of eggs that have not started developing. Candling is a procedure in which a light is shone through the eggs to observe whether embryo had started developing. If the egg is fertile, a black blob (the eye and the brain) and perhaps a few veins spread across just like arteries can be noticed.

If the eggs are not fertile, none of these will appear. It will have the same color throughout and none of the blobs are noticeable. At this point, non-fertile eggs should be taken out from the incubator. If they are retained in the incubator, these eggs will get decayed very soon and will result in total muddle in the incubator if they break. From this day onwards, only water level requires monitoring.

Day 18

Three days remaining for hatching: At this stage, turning of eggs should be discontinued. Those who have been performing this task manually are required only to stop turning. On the other hand, those having incubators provided with automatic turning feature should take out the turning tray and softly keep the eggs back in incubator.

As chickens require high humidity for hatching some more water should be added to facilitate the process. During this period, opening of incubator door should be avoided as this will release humidity.

Day 21

Hatching: At this stage, one can hear little chickens twittering inside the eggs and some of them will start breaking open. One should not open the door of the incubator. Chickens stay alive till 48 hours without feed or water, as everything is taken care of within the egg itself when they are hatching. Even after 48 hours if eggs are not hatched, it means that they may never hatch.

The standard and the bantam are the two categories in the sizes of chicken. When the usual range of the chicken is termed standard, the tinier version of the original size is the bantam size. Here the varieties of chicken are not the criteria to decide on standard or bantam and hence their hens can lay both types of eggs.

The Bantam eggs appears little than the standard eggs with their sizes in the range of quarter to half of the standard size. The said size variations in eggs occur due to the difference among varieties. The yolk is huge in size in bantam eggs and out sizes the albumen. Bantam eggs is similar to other eggs irrespective of its tiny size as well as it is edible. It can be hatched and are marketable.

The quantum of intake in human is high in the case of bantam eggs and this entire are due to its tiny size. The finer thing in bantam eggs is its cost that is lesser than standard eggs making it a most after sought one in the market. The egg is also not much differentiated with standard eggs.

When bantam eggs are hatched with the help of bantam hens, the procedure followed in preparing them to hatch is similar to be followed with standard eggs and the success rate of chickens hatched out of the eggs is high. Bantam hens adjust to well to the environment and be calm in solitary. The hens tend their eggs or chick with at most care and protect it from predators bravely.

The cocks in Bantam variety appear tiny in size but gives utmost care to their hens and chivalrous. Such a behavior makes it an ideal choice to rear them. Original varieties of bantam chicks are very much available. One among it is the Silkie variety and a very common one. Silkie are very much dependable in hatching chickens out of the eggs. However, they are poor egg yielding ones.

One another variety is Cochin bantams, which give a good yield of eggs. The quantum of eggs yielded by them is so high and wide in colors. They are very soft by nature and occupy lesser space in their nest. Such hens are very serious in nature and take care of their chicks well.

Bantams are common domestic favorites and some people raise them as a leisure time activity. Their lush, hatch able eggs are widely demanded by homeowners. Such a continuous demand for Bantams eggs attributes it for use of Bantam hens for culling as well as for nurturing them just for fun and time pass.

Bantam eggs are stocked in farms that are specialist in producing hatch able, lush eggs of bantam varieties. The bantam eggs that give out chickens with a surprising success rate of 90 % are available through online firms by a click of a mouse or by a phone call.

Incubators are also in use to hatch chickens out of bantam, lush eggs. The method followed for hatching chickens out of bantam eggs is similar to the standard varieties of eggs. If you are not well verse in the process of incubating, guides found in the internet are handy to bail out you out of it as well as good incubators can be shopped through Internet.

Bantam chicken eggs are not much different from the standard egg. The motive behind the rearing bantams is for egg yielding, nourishment, mode to earn extra bucks and a method of projecting one’s image. Bantam’s keeps the owner occupied and enrich his time as well shower him with nourishing tasty eggs.