All About Chickens | Everything you need to know about chickens!

Timeline of a Chicken's Life.

With thanks to chickenbox - http://www.kippengrabbelton.be/engels/

-21 days	start incubation		incubation day 1	incubation period
-20 days			incubation day 2
-19 days			incubation day 3
-18 days	blood vessels can be seen when candling the eggs		incubation day 4
-17 days			incubation day 5
-16 days			incubation day 6
-15 days	when you candle the eggs, you can see the foetus		incubation day 7
-14 days			incubation day 8
-13 days			incubation day 9
-12 days			incubation day 10
-11 days			incubation day 11
-10 days			incubation day 12
-9 days			incubation day 13
-8 days			incubation day 14
-7 days			incubation day 15
-6 days			incubation day 16
-5 days			incubation day 17
-4 days			incubation day 18
-3 days	no more turning of the eggs and raise humidity		incubation day 19
-2 days	sometimes you can hear the chicks peeping into the egg		incubation day 20
-1 day	the eggs are cracked from the inside by the unborn chick and after a few hours the chick is born		incubation day 21
1 day	vaccination against Marek's disease	chicks can be sexed by specialists	give water	keep temperature at 32°C ( 89.6°F)
2 days		give food	give chicken starter food
3 days	No chick tooth to see anymore
4 days
5 days	first feathers can be seen
6 days
7 days
8 days				keep temperature at 30° C (86°F)
10 days
12 days
14 days
16 days				keep temperature at 28° C (82.4°F)
18 days
20 days
25 days			give raising food	keep temperature at 25° C (77°F)
30 days				keep temperature at 25° C (77°F)
5 weeks	for some breeds difference between rosters and hens can be seen by looking at the combs			keep temperature at 22° C (71.6°F)
6 weeks	Mothers leave the chicks	mother starts laying eggs again		keep temperature at 22° C (71.6°F)
7 weeks	chicks have enough feathers to keep the own bodyheat	chicks can be outside during daytime
8 weeks	sofly first crowing for the young roosters
9 weeks	legfeathered breeds must be banded	no more problems with outside temperature
10 weeks
11 weeks	banding of the chicks
12 weeks
13 weeks
14 weeks
15 weeks	The upward growth is stopping and now the chicks start to become wider
16 weeks	deworm the chicks
17 weeks	growth of hackle feathers for the roosters		start with layers food
18 weeks
19 weeks	the comb and wattles are more red
20 weeks			laying of firts egg
6 months	first moult		laying stops
7 months
8 months			full laying, best year
9 months	a lot of breeds are now fertile
10 months
12 months
14 months
16 months
20 months
2 years			still a lot of eggs, but less than last year
3 years			still enough eggs
4 years			not so many eggs anymore
5 years			some eggs
6 years	the chicken is now an older lady		some eggs
8 years	The chicken is now at the age of retirement		from now on eggs are rare	chickens need extra warmth
10 years
12 years
15 years	exceptionel but it happens chickens become that age