Backyard Chickens

Chickens have been a regular fixture in our backyard for about 9 years now, and have provided us with many, many lovely fresh eggs. But it has only been recently that we have looked at their food producing capacity in a different light.

The first step was to procure a roster, which wasn’t too hard – our next door neighbour sourced one for us and popped it over the fence. One minute we had three chooks, the next, we had four, just like that.

He was really only a teenager and he hadn’t started crowing yet, but after a few months he found his voice and figured out what he was supposed to be doing. We thought we would wait until one of the hens went broody and decided to sit on some eggs, but in the end, we were way too impatient and set up the incubator.

Into the incubator went six eggs, two from each hen. After seven days we candled the eggs to see which ones were fertile and had developing embryos. Two were definitely developing, one we weren’t sure about because the shell was so thick it was hard to see through, and the other three looked like they were not happening.

Courtesy of Rachel Gay

At the ten day mark, we candled again. We decided to get rid of the three that weren’t showing any signs, and keep the other three.  We could see the embryos moving around in the two we were sure about, which was kind of freaky!

On the 19^th day, they started peeping. We could hear them through the shell and the incubator. Then, they started to pip, which is when they start breaking through the shell. It can take up to 24 hours from this stage for them to hatch out.

Day 20, one day early, two little soggy black chicks broke free from their shells. The third chick, in the shell that was so thick we couldn’t see through it properly, was the first one to pip, but was really struggling to get out of the shell. 24 hours after the first crack, we decided we had to help. You should only help if the chick really cannot get out on its own, otherwise you could hurt it.

We gently peeled back small sections of shell using tweezers and keeping the membrane damp using wet paper towels. After we had removed a section of shell, the chick was able to get a leg out, and from there it was able to do the rest by itself.

Now we have three little fluff balls that are getting bigger and more inquisitive every day! There are eight more eggs in the incubator, and we are looking forward to tucking into the first roast chook that has grown up in our backyard!

 If you are interested in having your own backyard chooks for eggs, meat or both, there is some great information at  Backyard Poultry, and there are many local groups that you can find by searching on Facebook. 

By EB