Accidental Chicks

[Kelsey Gravelle]

Hi there! We have 12 chickens and all but one are hens. I'm wondering what the chances are that we'll get new baby chicks. Our hens are 12 weeks old and will soon be laying. Is it possible that their 4-5 egg will be a chick? 🐔

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Technically their first egg could produce a chick if they're in contact with the male. But the eggs have to be incubated, or it's just a normal egg. Plus it's not a great idea to incubate eggs from a pullet

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Technically their first egg could produce a chick if they're in contact with the male. But the eggs have to be incubated, or it's just a normal egg. Plus it's not a great idea to incubate eggs from a pullet

I agree.

 

[Kelsey Gravelle]

So the possibility is pretty slim?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

So the possibility is pretty slim?

Unless you let a bird sit as a broody for 21 days on the same eggs, or purposely incubate yourself, the possibility is none

 

[Kelsey Gravelle]

Thank you for the info. It is very appreciated.

 

[BlueBaby]

When your girl's start to lay they will be small sized egg's. We call those pullet egg's. You should wait to hatch any until they get a bit bigger. A chick won't have enough room to grow properly in a smaller sized pullet egg.

 

[aart]

Hi there! We have 12 chickens and all but one are hens. I'm wondering what the chances are that we'll get new baby chicks. Our hens are 12 weeks old and will soon be laying. Is it possible that their 4-5 egg will be a chick? 🐔

So you have one rooster?
If so, eggs should be fertile, but they won't develop into chicks unless you incubate the eggs.
Gather all eggs daily, don't leave any in the coop overnight.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi there! We have 12 chickens and all but one are hens. I'm wondering what the chances are that we'll get new baby chicks.

As others have said, the eggs should be fertile so if they are incubated many should develop into a chick. You can get an incubator and incubate them yourself, that's the only way to control when you can hatch them or even "if" you can hatch any for sure. Many hens never go broody, you have no control over that. I like for my broody hens to hatch the eggs and raise the chicks but I also have an incubator to hatch when I need to and don't have any broody hens.

Our hens are 12 weeks old and will soon be laying. Is it possible that their 4-5 egg will be a chick? 🐔

This sounds like you expect the pullet to lay a live chick instead of an egg but I don't think that's what you mean. I think you are asking if that egg is hatchable. The answer to that is a strong definite "maybe".

There is a good chance it will be fertile. Not all pullets willingly squat for a cockerel, even when they start to lay. Many try to avoid the cockerel and run away. When pullets and cockerels go through puberty it can get pretty wild with him trying to mate them but them not wanting to be mating. That's not always easy to watch. Those first eggs will probably be fertile, but there is no guarantee. I've hatched pullet eggs and not all are fertile, some pullets are successful in avoiding the cockerel.

But there is a lot more to an egg hatching that just it being fertile. For a fertile egg to hatch the hen has to pretty much put it together perfectly. The internal egg making factory is pretty complicated, that's why you can get really strange eggs when they first start to lay. You can get no shells, really thin shells, really thick shells, double yolked eggs, no yolk eggs, or nothing but yolk eggs when they start. The eggs may be shaped pretty weirdly. And that's just the parts you can see. There are things you can't see that have to be right for an egg to hatch. Most of the time these problems are sorted pretty soon, the pullet's internal egg making factory soon works out the glitches. To me it's surprising how many actually get it right from the beginning.

The other issue is egg size. When they first start to lay the eggs are usually pretty small. There are not enough nutrients in that small egg for the chick to grow "big". So the ones that hatch are fairly small for the breed.

I hatch pullet eggs so I know they can hatch. Some times the hatch rate is fairly good, sometimes it is awful. The hatch rate is usually worse than the hatch rate with eggs from older hens. If the chick hatches from the pullet eggs it usually thrives even though it is small. But I've found that if I do lose a chick it is usually one that hatched form a pullet egg. Most of the times when a chick hatches from a pullet egg it is strong and active, they do well. But whether it is size of

I've found that if you wait at least a month after a pullet starts to lay before you incubate her eggs the hatch rate is much better. And the survival rate of the chicks is better. The egg sizes are bigger and the pullets have worked out the glitches in their internal egg making factory so the chicks that do hatch don't have as many birth defects that can kill them. It's just better to wait before you incubate.