For chicken farmers, mastering brooding chickens is essential to raise backyard chickens successfully.
Understanding the process of poultry egg incubation will be helpful whether your goal is to raise baby chicks into laying hens or to manage a mother hen that is attempting to brood her clutch of eggs.
This guide provides guidance into raising chicks.
You can follow several key strategies to see your flock begin to expand.
• How long do chicken eggs take to hatch? (Spoiler: 21 days.)
• Learn how to stop brooding chickens when broodiness disrupts your flock.
• Brooder temp for chickens
• Brooding boxes for chickens
• Food and water
• Heat plates
• When do you move chickens from brooder to coop?
Read on to learn how to support young chicks as they grow. As you manage the pecking order in your coop, you’ll take your poultry project to the next level!
Why Brooding Chickens Matters
Brooding chickens is the process of providing young chickens with the care and conditions they need during their early, vulnerable stages of life.
This includes ensuring they have warmth, feed, water, and safety until they’re ready to join the flock.
This can happen naturally with a mother hen or artificially in a brooding box for chickens.
For chicken farmers, mastering brooder chickens means healthier chicks grow into strong flock members. A broody hen, driven to hatch fertile eggs, can be a blessing or a challenge if she stops laying eggs.
Whether you’re building brooder plans for chickens or wondering what to do with a broody hen, this guide equips you to raise backyard chickens with confidence.
Keep reading to become a brooding pro!
How Long Do Chicken Eggs Take To Hatch?
A top question for chicken keepers is: How long do chicken eggs take to hatch?
Standard Timeline
Fertile eggs take 21 days to hatch under optimal conditions, whether with a mother hen or in an incubator.
Variations
Breeds or temperature fluctuations can extend this to 22-23 days. Poor conditions may prevent a chick from hatching.
Mother Hen Role
A broody hen sits on fertile eggs for 21 days, leaving briefly to eat and drink. She turns eggs to ensure each hatching chick develops evenly.
Mark fertile eggs to track the clutch, as other hens may add eggs and disrupt the 21 days. For artificial incubation, maintain 99.5°F (forced-air) and 50-55% humidity, turning eggs three times daily until day 18.
Knowing how long chicken eggs take to hatch helps you prepare for raising chicks in a brooder for chicken.
The Process of Brooding Chickens:
From Egg to Coop
Brooding chickens involves nurturing baby chicks as they grow, whether through a mother hen or a brooder for chickens.
Below, we detail:
• What to do with a broody hen
• Natural and artificial brooding
• Tips to break a broody hen or stop brooding chickens
What Is a Broody Hen?
A broody hen is hormonally driven to hatch fertile eggs, triggered by prolactin. She stops laying eggs and exhibits several key behaviors.
1. Nest Obsession
Sits on eggs (fertile or not) most of the day.
2. Physical Signs
Plucks breast feathers for a brood patch and puffs up defensively.
3. Behavior
Growls or pecks when disturbed. Eats/drinks less, risking health.
Chicken varieties like Silkies are prone to broodiness, unlike Leghorns. Knowing what to do with a broody hen is vital for managing brooding chickens.
Help Your Chicks Thrive!
Topics Include:
— Supplies
— Brooder Tips
— How to Properly Use a Heat Plate
— Effective Chick Care
Download Our Brooding Chicks Guide!
Learn how to support young chicks as they grow!
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Natural Brooding: The Mother Hen’s Way
Natural brooding relies on a mother hen to incubate and raise young chicks.
Here’s the process.
1. Egg Clutch
The hen gathers 6–12 fertile eggs.
You should ensure they’re viable for chick hatches; unfertilized eggs won’t work.
2. Incubation
(21 Days)
The hen maintains ~99.5°F and turns eggs for even development.
Be sure to provide a quiet nest, ideally separated, to protect fertile eggs.
Mark eggs to remove extras from other hens.
3. Hatching
Each hatching chick pips over 24–48 hours.
The mother hen guides baby chicks to feed and water.
4. Rearing
(6-8 Weeks)
The hen keeps young chicks warm and teaches foraging.
Make sure food and water in the coop are low and accessible.
Separate if flock members disrupt the pecking order.
Pros of Natural Brooding
The hen’s natural attention toward the chicks means low effort for you and natural socialization for chicks as they grow.
Cons of Natural Brooding
Depending on the level of broodiness, there is a risk of egg abandonment.
Artificial Brooding: Crafting Your Brooder
Artificial brooding uses a brooder for chicks to mimic a mother hen.
Follow these steps to raise backyard chicks without a hen.
1. Set Up a Brooding Box
Build brooding boxes for chickens, e.g., wooden box or tote, with hardware cloth for ventilation and predator protection.
Use pine shavings for bedding; avoid slippery surfaces.
Brooder Plans for Chickens: A 2×3-foot brooding box for chickens fits 10–15 baby chicks. Include heat plates or lamps, feeders, and waterers.
Brooder Temp for Chickens
Week 1: 90-95°F, reducing 5°F weekly until young chicks are feathered (6-8 weeks of age).
Use heat plates (energy-efficient) or 250W red heat lamps. Huddling means too cold; panting means too hot.
2. Incubation (If Needed)
Incubate fertile eggs at 99.5°F, 50-55% humidity, turning three times daily until day 18.
Raise humidity to 65-70% during chick hatches (days 19-21).
3. Chick Care
Provide 18-22% protein starter feed and clean food and water. Add electrolytes to feed and water for stress.
Check baby chicks for pasty butt and clean gently.
Offer 16-18 hours of light to encourage feeding.
Pros of Artificial Brooding
You can maintain control over raising chicks in a scalable process that can grow your flock.
Cons of Artificial Brooding
The required equipment and vigilance can increase your workload.
When Do You Move Chickens From Brooder to Coop?
Chicken farmers often ask: When do you move chickens from brooder to coop?
Follow this timeline: After 6-8 weeks of age, young chicks are fully feathered and can regulate body temperature.
- • Outdoor temperatures should be above 60°F. Gradually lower brooder temp for chickens weekly.
- • Introduce baby chicks to the coop during the day, using hardware cloth to separate from older flock members to avoid pecking order issues. Provide heat plates at night if needed.
How long do chickens stay in a brooder? They need to remain until they are about 6-8 weeks of age, depending on feathering and climate.
How To Stop Brooding Chickens & Break a Broody Hen
When a mother hen stops laying and goes broody, poultry farmers may need to break a broody hen to restore egg production or protect her health.
Step 1: Prevention
- • Collect fertile eggs daily to prevent clutch-building.
- • Choose non-broody breeds, e.g., Rhode Island Reds.
- • Reduce cozy nesting material.
Step 2: How To Break a Broody Hen
1. Remove Eggs
Take eggs and gently remove her from the nest multiple times daily.
2. Cool Her Down
Place a frozen water bottle under her or soak her belly in cool water (10-20 minutes) to lower body temperature.
3. Chicken Jail
House her in a hardware cloth cage with food and water but no nesting material for 3-5 days. Airflow cools her brood patch.
4. Introduce Chicks
Slip day-old baby chicks under her at night to satisfy instincts.
How to stop chickens from brooding repeatedly? Shorten daylight to 14 hours, rotate coops, or monitor broody-prone breeds. Prolonged broodiness can cause malnutrition, so prioritize hen health.
Bonus Tips for Raising Chicks Successfully
1. Sanitation
Clean brooding boxes for chickens to prevent disease. Remove broken fertile eggs from nests.
2. Hen Health
Offer broody hens protein-rich feed and water, e.g., mealworms.
3. Pecking Order
Monitor flock members during chick integration to avoid bullying.
4. Brooder Plans for Chickens
Use hardware cloth in DIY designs for safety.
5. Community Wisdom
Join groups for tips on raising chicks.
Next Steps: Thrive With Brooding Chickens
Brooding chickens is a cornerstone for chicken owners looking to raise backyard chickens.
From the 21 days it takes for a chick to hatch to setting the perfect brooder temp for chickens, you can see your flock steadily grow if you take the right steps.
Whether you’re crafting brooding boxes for chickens, deciding when to move chickens from brooder to coop, or learning how to break a broody hen, you’re ready to support young chicks as they grow.
Did you know that raising chickens can be an effective way to serve communities in need?
Convoy of Hope, a faith-based nonprofit organization intent on combating poverty and hunger around the world, sees chickens as a valuable tool in that mission.
At Convoy of Hope’s Global Headquarters & Training Center, 25 acres are dedicated to resourcing, teaching, and equipping farmers in the U.S. and all over the world through Convoy’s Center for Agriculture & Food Security.
The Center for Agriculture & Food Security increases Convoy’s capacity and expertise, accelerates progress toward feeding more children and helping more farmers, and provides resources to assist local partners with agriculture-related questions and issues.
Learn about Convoy’s Agriculture program in Colombia by watching the video above!
Additionally — to be good stewards of the harvest produced at the Center for Agriculture & Food Security — Convoy provides local food pantries with fresh produce to distribute to people in need.
Just as they use the farm to research, test, and demonstrate the best crop-growing practices, the team at the Center for Agriculture & Food Security raises chickens and goats to determine and share the best animal husbandry practices.
In its large chicken coop, chickens are protected from predators and can safely grow, lay eggs, and provide food.
Currently, the coop houses 35 broiler chickens and 18 laying hens, with room to house 100 chickens overall.
Help Your Chicks Thrive!
Topics Include:
— Supplies
— Brooder Tips
— How to Properly Use a Heat Plate
— Effective Chick Care
Download Our Brooding Chicks Guide!
Learn how to support young chicks as they grow!
"*" indicates required fields
