2 years ago
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Posted On: January 9th 2025, 05:45 pm
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Noah and I hatched our own chicken eggs back in November. We are now 9 weeks into the process.
It took us just over a week to collect 24 of the best-looking eggs from our own chicken coop. We began the incubation process in the first week of November. On Thanksgiving Day, our first chick hatched around 3 a.m. Throughout the day, each egg started hatching one after the other, with the last chick hatching early the next morning. Cooking the Thanksgiving meal with my family while watching the chicks hatch is something I’ll never forget💗 3 of the 24 eggs didn’t hatch, and 1 chick didn’t survive long after hatching. We were left with 20 healthy chicks.
We started them in a small bin for their initial brooder. They were fluffy and adorable. After about 4 weeks, we upgraded them to a larger trough, which they were thrilled about. During the last week or two of their time inside, Noah (with the help of his dad, my dad, and a few awesome neighbors) built a chicken coop from the ground up. On New Year’s Day, we moved the chicks to their new outdoor home. Now, a week later, we are working on integrating them with our existing flock (it will be a few more weeks before they can all be together).
At this point, we aren’t 100% sure which chicks are hens and which are roosters, but we’re expecting about a 50/50 split. Our plan is to add the 10 (ish) hens to our flock, which should increase our daily egg production by about 7-8 eggs. The 10 (ish) roosters will stay together in a separate space, where they’ll continue to grow to feed our family in the spring.
This entire experience has been incredibly rewarding. I’m proud of the step we’ve taken toward gaining more control over where our food comes from and the quality of it. We’re planning another round of hatching in the spring so stay tuned 🐣🐥
It took us just over a week to collect 24 of the best-looking eggs from our own chicken coop. We began the incubation process in the first week of November. On Thanksgiving Day, our first chick hatched around 3 a.m. Throughout the day, each egg started hatching one after the other, with the last chick hatching early the next morning. Cooking the Thanksgiving meal with my family while watching the chicks hatch is something I’ll never forget💗 3 of the 24 eggs didn’t hatch, and 1 chick didn’t survive long after hatching. We were left with 20 healthy chicks.
We started them in a small bin for their initial brooder. They were fluffy and adorable. After about 4 weeks, we upgraded them to a larger trough, which they were thrilled about. During the last week or two of their time inside, Noah (with the help of his dad, my dad, and a few awesome neighbors) built a chicken coop from the ground up. On New Year’s Day, we moved the chicks to their new outdoor home. Now, a week later, we are working on integrating them with our existing flock (it will be a few more weeks before they can all be together).
At this point, we aren’t 100% sure which chicks are hens and which are roosters, but we’re expecting about a 50/50 split. Our plan is to add the 10 (ish) hens to our flock, which should increase our daily egg production by about 7-8 eggs. The 10 (ish) roosters will stay together in a separate space, where they’ll continue to grow to feed our family in the spring.
This entire experience has been incredibly rewarding. I’m proud of the step we’ve taken toward gaining more control over where our food comes from and the quality of it. We’re planning another round of hatching in the spring so stay tuned 🐣🐥
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