1st timer at hatch eggs??

[BIG-BIRD]

I am new to hatching eggs, and have no clue how to, I have been rasing chickens for quiet a few years now and want to hatch my own eggs, I will be using a rooster to do it, not an incubator. can anyone guide me step by step to hatch eggs.

any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[silkiechicken]

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/hatch.htm

Uh... if you don't want to use an incubator, you have to wait till one of your hens go broody... a rooster will not sit on eggs like a hen does for the 21 days necessary....

 

[Silkie Sue]

Hi Big Bird,
As a newbie myself I can tell you that this forum has kept me from going mental over these darn chickens

I am learning new things every day from these people

What kind of chickens are you thinking of hatching?
By the way, I'm gonna have to agree with Silkie Chicken on the Rooster advise.

If by chance they are Bantys you should be in good shape because I've heard ( and I have a GREAT example) that they love to be mothers!
If you notice her laying an egg somewhere ( preferably safe) leave it and every couple of days she will come back and lay another one until she figures she has enough and then she will sit on them for 21 days. I'm gonna warn ya now ( and I will do this next time) only let her sit on 5 or 6 for her first time even though she may lay 12 or 13 before she is ready to sit.
All the eggs will lay dormant until she starts to sit and they will all hatch within a day or 2 of each other. ( NEAT)
That's about all I can tell ya about that.
Good Luck and keep us posted..
Oh, one more thing, I think it is getting late in the year, you mite wanna hold off til Spring

 

[chicknmania]

We had a hen hatch fourteen chicks December 1 last year. Granted, it was a warm December...but it made no difference when it turned colder, cause we had her and the chicks in an elevated pen with walls on three sides and gave them a heat light. They were toasty in there. She died, unfortunately, and the chicks needed a mom, still, so we brought them inside the house for the rest of the winter. Mom hen will keep them warm if it turns chilly on you before they're ready to leave her...she'll hover over them..they stay warm, and it's fun to see them popping in and out from underneath her.

 

[chicknmania]

PS..whoops, I forgot you don't have a mom hen, but you can still do the heat light thing or provide a heat source for them of some kind, once you figure out how to hatch them. We had a lot of fun with ours spending the winter in our finished basement.....they would watch tv with our kids, and to this day they are among the last to go to roost, since they grew up thinking chickens aren't supposed to go to bed til 11:00PM, or so!