Raising Chickens

Raising chickens has been one of the most fun things I’ve done with my kids! We have one bantam rooster and lots of hens and let’s just say he stays busy. 😜

Sometimes I’ll collect eggs with the intent to eat them and sometimes I stick em in our incubator!

My favorite ones to hatch are from our little bantam hen that we’ve had for three years now. She lays beautiful, little blue eggs and her chicks come out so tiny and they stay little even when full grown because both mama and daddy are bantams. These two that Salem is holding are ones that we’ve raised from the incubator and they’re about ready to start free ranging along with two others. If you want to do this with your kids it’s pretty easy, even if you don’t live on a farm.

You’ll need:

1. Some eggs that are possibly fertilized (from someone who has hens and roosters) side note: people ask how I know if they’re fertilized... we don’t. We just eat them anyways.
If we decide to incubate them we wait a few days and check them in a dark room with a flashlight. We place the light under the egg and if we see an embryo forming we know it’s growing into a chick! It’s incredible to watch.

2. An egg incubator! You can get one on Amazon!

3. A small coop to keep them in! Also on Amazon! Or tractor supply!

4. A heat lamp. Tiny babies will need to be kept indoors in a cardboard box for a week or so with the light and then can be moved outside with the light.