Chicken Breeding
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Courting & Mating:
When a rooster finds food he may call the other chickens to eat it first. He does this by clucking in a high pitch as well as picking up and dropping the food. This behavior can also be observed in mother hens, calling their chicks. In some cases the rooster will drag the wing opposite the hen on the ground, while circling her. This is part of chicken courting ritual.
When a hen is used to coming to his "call" the rooster may mount the hen and proceed with the fertilization.
Going broody
Sometimes a hen will stop laying and instead will focus on the incubation of eggs, a state that is commonly known as going broody. A broody chicken will sit fast on the nest, and protest or peck in defense if disturbed or removed, and will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust bathe.
While broody, the hen keeps the eggs at a constant temperature and humidity, as well as turning the eggs regularly. At the end of the incubation period, which is an average of 21 days, the eggs (if fertilized) will hatch, and the broody hen will take care of her young.
Since individual eggs do not all hatch at exactly the same time (the chicken can only lay one egg approximately every 25 hours), the hen will usually stay on the nest for about two days after the first egg hatches.
During this time, the newly-hatched chicks live off the egg yolk they absorb just before hatching.
The hen can hear the chicks peeping inside the eggs, and will gently cluck to encourage them to break out of their shells. If the eggs are not fertilized and do not hatch, the hen will eventually grow tired of being broody and leave the nest.
Modern egg-laying breeds rarely go broody, and those that do often stop part-way through the incubation cycle.
Some breeds, such as the Cochin, Cornish and Silkie, regularly go broody and make excellent mothers.
Artificial incubation
Chicken egg incubation can successfully occur artificially as well. Nearly all chicken eggs will hatch after 21 days of good conditions - 99.5° fahrenheit (37.5°C) and around 55% relative humidity (increase to 70% in the last three days of incubation to help soften egg shell).
Many commercial incubators are industrial-sized with shelves holding tens of thousands of eggs at a time, with rotation of the eggs a fully automated process. Home incubators are usually small boxes (styrofoam incubators are popular) and hold a few to 50 eggs.
Eggs must be turned three to five times each day, rotating at least 90 degrees. If eggs aren't turned, the embryo inside will stick to the shell and likely will be hatched with physical defects.
This process is natural; hens will stand up three to five times a day and shift the eggs around with their beak.
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