I’m sure you are probably wondering, “Why is there sharpie lines on the eggs?” Great question. I marked our hatching eggs when we saw we had our first broody hen for a couple of reasons. First: broody hens only leave their nests once a day for 21 days straight and during that time, when she is not on the eggs, other hens will lay new eggs in that clutch. Marking them shows me which eggs are being developed and which ones were newly laid. Second: we have multiple hens that go broody around the same time and sometimes they don’t always get back on the same clutch. Marking them differently for each clutch will tell me which hen is supposed to be where. This also helps me keep track on how long one hen has been sitting on eggs.

We are going into our second year of owning chickens and this is our first year with broody hens! So far we have two broody hens and one is hatching her eggs out any day now. The other broody hen just started sitting, so we will have a second set of chicks hatching in the next 21 days.

Let’s talk about all the lingo I’ve been throwing around for all you non-chicken owners:

Broody hen: “Going broody” is when a hen decides she would like to hatch some of her eggs and sits on them for an extended period of time, allowing her body temperature to increase and often consuming less food and water than she would normally. Broody hens only leave the nest once a day for enough time to drink some water, eat a little bit, and poop! (I can’t image doing that for 21 days straight, kudos to you momma hen.)

Clutch: A clutch is the total eggs a bird lays per each nesting attempt. Some birds have more than one nesting attempt per year. The average chicken clutch contains about 12 eggs and some hens can go broody up to 3 times a year! That means that 1 hen can hatch out 36 new chicks every year…and that my friends is chicken math.

Chicken Math: The phenomena in which no matter how many chickens you expect to own or for which you build your coop, you will end up with more than that number, even when you take into account chicken math. Anyone who owns chickens fully understands this…and it is a real thing. Chicken math is the very reason that we are making a new coop and expanding our chicken run. Chicken owners seem to get hypnotized by how cute and fluffy chicks are when they are little and then the next thing you know you have way too many chickens and more hatching somewhere on your property because you have a hen that hides her eggs and goes “missing” then may or may not show back up with 13 chicks… (as me how I know.)

Pip: On hatch day (day 18-25), the chick will peck until it breaks through the inner membrane. This is where you will start to see the very first chips or cracks in the shell. (see picture above to see our first pip)

We are excited to see a hen that we raised now raising her own chicks! The next few days will show us how good of a momma she is going to be. Fun fact: broody hens may leave the chicks once they are hatching or can even peck them until they die. We are hoping that this will not be the case with her so that we can experience this hands off, but if she isn’t good with them, then we will have to put them in our brooder and raise them ourselves (which is also okay with us).

Stay tuned to see photo updates of all the chicks that hatch out in the next day or so!

Blessings,

-Bradie

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