While it is true that we mostly have contact with hens and chickens because we feed on them, following the customs of past generations, it is also true that we are developing an increasingly greater awareness of these processes. Do you know what gestation period for chickens ?
Based on this, in this article we want to dwell on some of the most important details about the gestation period of chickens and how chickens are formed in order for you to discover certain peculiarities that will surely catch your attention.
The first thing to mention is that, from the moment of birth, these birds already have all their ovules, the necessary reproductive cells, of which one manages to pass through the reproductive system to become the eggs that we all know.
Without participation of the rooster
It is important to clarify that the process occurs in hens, as is obvious, but also that the participation of the rooster is not required, although in those cases an egg will hatch without the possibility of a chick . Only when rooster and hen meet will the egg carry a chick inside.
How to know if an egg is fertilized?
Basically, the eggs that are marketed in supermarkets are eggs that do not produce chicks, because they come from farms where the hens do not have contact with the roosters. That means there is no risk that they are fertilized.
Meanwhile, home-made eggs that are increasingly fashionable and that are generated in farms where hens and roosters coexist naturally , they can present some fertilized units. Thus we have the gestation period of the hens.
Of course, those who want to be precise in this regard can use some tools specially designed for this, such as an ovoscope, which illuminates the egg so that its interior content shows through, and allows to guess if there is a chick inside.
In the egg, each chick remains for approximately 21 days, during which time it develops as long as the sensitive conditions required for it are met.
Already in its last days inside the egg, the chick adopts the morphology that will accompany it for the rest of its life, with well-defined beaks and wings, which helps to distinguish them.
After about 24 hours breathing on its own, the chick tries to hatch for a few hours , until it finally succeeds, being born in a state of absolute fatigue, responsible for its extreme vulnerability during the first moments of existence.
