The Life of a Chicken: Chicken Life Cycle

Chicken Life Cycle

So have you ever gotten an actual answer to the question, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?”

Yeah, me neither. But here, we will start with the egg and follow the little bird’s growth to adulthood.

So why is it important to understand the chicken’s life cycle?

Understanding a chicken’s life cycle can help you become a better chicken keeper and provide better care for them and improve egg production.

With the cost of food rising, and more interest in growing your own food, raising a small flock or a few of your own chickens is a great investment.

Or, raising chicks is a great learning experience for children or those who have never cared for birds or livestock.

So let’s get into it and learn what happens after a chicken lays an egg.

Overview of the Chicken Reproductive Cycle

There are several distinct stages of the chicken’s life cycle.

• The egg is fertilized by male chickens (roosters), and laid by a female (hen).
• The fertile eggs are incubated (kept warm) by the hen.
• The baby grows inside the egg, and hatches.
• The young chicks go through different developmental stages: a hatchling, a chick, a pullet, then an adult.

Fertilization and Egg Formation

Going back to basic biology from school, in order for an egg to hatch into a chick, it takes both a male and a female.

If you don’t want to hatch a chick, you do not need to keep males in your flock. The female will still lay an egg even without a male around, but it can not become a new little bird without fertilization.

Many backyard chicken coops do not keep males, because they don’t like little surprises when they crack an egg in the morning. Or the rooster crowing at all times of the day and night. But having a male in the flock does have some benefits. The head rooster is usually tasked with the protection of the flock.

One of the most obvious benefits of having a male around is if you want to hatch some eggs.

Let’s talk about how it goes down: the chicken has to accept the rooster’s courtship. This involves a fancy courtship dance from the rooster.

He flares out one wing to impress the lady and hops on one foot and turns a quick circle. If she likes it, she allows him to fertilize the egg.

If she isn’t interested, she will usually run away quickly. But let’s be real. One rejection by the female doesn’t stop him from trying again.

So let’s say she is in the game. The sperm then enters the egg through tiny pores in its shell and then travels down to the nucleus, to the yolk, which contains the egg’s genetic material, or a chicken blueprint.

Once getting to the nucleus, the sperm fuses with the egg’s genetic material, which completes fertilization and creates a new embryo, or the beginnings of a new baby chick!

Like many other species of birds, chickens tend to brood between four and seven eggs at a time.

The eggs take about three weeks to hatch. During this time, the mother will protect her clutch from predators and keep them warm in her nest.

Once hatched, the chicks can survive on their own by foraging for food and are independent within just a few weeks.

The cycle of egg-laying then repeats again!

Stage 1: Egg Development

The first step in the chicken life cycle is, unsurprisingly, the egg.

Although most eggs come from commercial operations, it is possible to purchase supplies and incubate your own eggs at home. Some people choose this route if they want a bird bred specifically for a trait, such as color, personality, egg production, etc.

So how does a chicken make an egg?

The process takes about 24 hours in total. The hen ovulates, releasing the yolk into her oviduct. Then it will travel through the oviduct, where it will be coated in albumen and several protective layers.

This takes over three hours and then takes another 20-26 hours to solidify into a hard egg shell.

Once complete, the hen lays the egg within 24 hours of starting this process.

Chicken eggs have a protective shell made out of calcium carbonate, which helps to keep the developing baby safe.

Inside the egg are several nutrients and an embryo, which will eventually become a baby chick.

Stages of an Embryo

The first part of a chicken’s life cycle is incubation. This is when the egg is fertilized and the embryo develops inside the egg. Mother hens will sit on the eggs to keep them warm and make sure the embryo develops until hatching.

However, if you don’t have a mother hen, you can use an incubator to keep the eggs warm. These can be made, but commercially made ones can be purchased for good results, and ease.

The Embryo Grows in the Shell

Once the egg is fertilized, the embryonic development of a chicken begins. Or, in other words, the baby chick starts to develop in the egg.

A fertilized chicken egg goes through three distinct stages of growth before it hatches. As the embryo grows, so does its need for nourishment. The yolk sac in the center of the egg provides this nutrition until it is absorbed by the chick’s body.

• Stage 1: The single cell that was formed during fertilization begins to split and divide rapidly. This cell division continues until the embryo develops into a recognizable shape and begins to form various organs, limbs, and feathers.
• Stage 2: This is a period of accelerated growth, with more feathers and tissue being formed as well as the chick’s sharp beak and claws beginning to develop.
• Stage 3: More feathers and facial detail grow while fat deposits also increase in size so that the chick can survive outside of its shell.

After three weeks of growth, the fully developed chick hatches from its shell and enters the world.

For a fantastic video on how a chicken grows inside the egg, check out this video from Poultry Hub Australia.

Hatching

As the chick grows, its developing body absorbs calcium from the eggshell and produces an enzyme that helps it crack out of the egg.

New chicks will also develop temporary ‘egg teeth’, which is a sharp growth on the end of the beak that will help with breaking through the shell at hatching.

Generally, hatching can take anywhere from 21 to 24 days depending on the breed and chicken species being hatched. Most eggs hatch after about 21 days of incubat