Freeman Apou is a passionate animal welfare advocate and chicken expert from a lifetime of experience raising poultry on his family’s farm.  In his guest article below, Freeman shares his knowledge on egg hatching basics, walking you step-by-step through the process to a successful hatch of chicks.   

How to Hatch Chickens

If you’re looking to hatch your own chickens, you need the correct tools, knowledge, and confidence to do so. Hatching is loads of fun and you can get the entire family involved. Children absolutely love hatching chicks. If you’re a school teacher, start a class project. Incubating eggs is a fantastic way to keep children engaged in the process and teaches them responsibility.

Hatching eggs is wonderfully easy, especially if you’re using an electric, automated incubator. The total process of hatching chicken eggs takes only 21 days, so you won’t have to wait long to see the results. During the incubation process, you can candle your eggs, a technique to check growth of the chick embryo, although I recommend not doing this more than twice for the safety of the growing chick. Continue reading →