After everything was ready, we waited for the chicks to hatch.

Xu Han has both hens and roosters at home. Because she needs a large number of chicks, she plans to try hatching them herself.

This saves a lot of money on buying chicks. And we don't have to go to the county town to buy chicks anymore.

Xu Han didn't collect the eggs laid by the hen during this period, in order to fertilize them and then hatch the chicks herself.

However, eggs that have been stored for too long are also not good, as they are prone to spoilage. Eggs should not be kept for more than ten days; seven to ten days is ideal for hatching.

This time, Xu Han not only hatched chicks, but also ducks and geese at home, and prepared some hatching eggs to hatch together.

That day, Xu Han cleaned all the collected eggs and prepared to begin incubation.

Because incubation requires a certain temperature, Xu Han used the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) in Yunhua House for incubation.

First, place the wooden trough made by Lu Chuan on the kang (a heated brick bed). Line the inside of the trough with a layer of old clothes, and then lay an oilcloth on top. Xu Han was afraid that the oilcloth would leak, so she specially laid two more layers.

After laying the cloth out, add water to make a waterbed. Because hatching chicks requires temperature control, and Xu Han was worried about not being able to control the temperature well since it was her first time hatching, she added more water to the water tank. More water makes it less likely for the temperature to drop and makes it easier to control.

After adding water, lay a layer of oilcloth on top of the water, then place the prepared hatching eggs on top, and cover them with a cotton quilt.

Since it was her first time hatching chicks, Xu Han didn't prepare too many eggs, fearing they wouldn't hatch well and would be wasted.

We prepared a total of 50 chicken eggs, 20 duck eggs, and 20 goose eggs.

Chicks typically hatch in 21 days, while ducklings take longer, approximately 28 days. Goslings take even longer to incubate, up to 30 days.

Once everything is ready, the rest is up to time.

During incubation, the eggs must be turned every day to ensure they are heated evenly. Special attention must be paid to the temperature, which must not exceed 38 degrees Celsius. If it exceeds 38 degrees Celsius, the eggs will die from the heat. If it is too cold, they will not hatch.

Throughout the incubation period, Xu Han paid special attention to the eggs, checking on them frequently.

Furthermore, they specifically retrieved a thermometer from the space to better control the temperature.

Since the eggs were placed on the incubation bed, Xu Han has devoted most of her time to this task.

She was even more serious about it than when she raised her two children, and she even took the initiative to record the incubation process.

On the sixth day, Xu Han couldn't resist checking the hatching progress that evening.

Normally, you can see the blood vessels inside the hatching egg in about 4 days, but Xu Han wasn't sure, and she had heard that chicks hatched by candling the eggs too early were more likely to die, so she hadn't dared to candle the eggs before.

Xu Han eagerly pulled Lu Chuan into the incubation room, lit candles, and wanted to see more clearly.

Xu Han held a hatching egg close to the candle and looked at it, and sure enough, she saw red blood vessels.

"Lu Chuan, Lu Chuan, look! There really are chicks in here."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chuan quickly came over and looked in the direction Xu Han pointed. He saw that there were indeed blood streaks inside the eggshell, like a spider web, covering the entire eggshell.

"Haha, it seems the method is correct, it really can hatch chicks."

Xu Han picked up another hatching egg and looked at it; sure enough, it contained one.

While canning the eggs, Xu Han said to Lu Chuan, "Go get a small basket. I reckon there will definitely be some white eggs or weak eggs in here. We need to pick those out."

White eggs are unfertilized eggs. Without fertilization, they cannot be hatched. Weakly fertilized eggs also need to be picked out. If they are not picked out, they will slowly die during the later stages of incubation and will not hatch.

Upon hearing this, Lu Chuan immediately went out, and when he came back in, Xu Han had already picked out several.

Lu Chuan looked at the eggs he had picked out and asked, "So many?"

Xu Han continued to examine the eggs without looking up. "Hmm, these should all be eggs laid that day, and haven't had a chance to be fertilized yet."

After a series of operations, a total of 11 eggs that could not be hatched were selected from all the eggs.

Xu Han sighed, "The hatching rate is too low. Eleven were picked out at once, and that doesn't even include the ones that couldn't hatch later."

Lu Chuan put the selected eggs into the basket and comforted Xu Han, saying, "It's okay. It's the first time incubating. As long as they hatch, that's fine. If it doesn't, we can incubate them a few more times."

"Yes, I've accumulated quite a few hatching eggs these past few days. Could you make me a wooden trough tomorrow, and I'll give it another try?"

"Okay, I'll make a few more tomorrow."

Xu Han thought for a moment and said, "No need, just make another one, a bigger one. After the waterbed is finished, we can just put any eggs in it to incubate."

"Okay, whatever you say."

The two walked out while talking, and about ten more days passed. To her surprise, Xu Han heard the chirping of chicks.

Xu Han was even more excited about this discovery. She even called her two children over to see the chicks that were hatching.

Mu'er leaned closer to listen, her face full of wonder. "Mommy, there really is the sound of chicks chirping. Are the eggs going to turn into chicks?"

Xu Han patiently explained, "Yes, inside an egg is a chick. After the eggshell is opened, there is no edible yolk or egg white left. These things become the chick, and the yolk and egg white are absorbed by the chick."

"Really? That's amazing!"

Xu Han patted Mu'er's head. "The chicks should hatch around tomorrow. You'll see for yourself then."

"Okay, I'll see if there really are chicks."

Ze'er was also standing nearby, pointing at the eggs and saying, "Honey~ eat, you have to eat eggs."

Xu Han picked up Ze'er and said, "Haha, my silly son, you can't eat this. The chicks inside are about to come out. If you eat it, there won't be any more chicks. How about Mommy boils you an egg instead?"

Ze'er patted Xu Han's arm and said seriously, "Don't eat this, eat the egg."

"Okay, let's go, Mommy will cook you some eggs."

Recently, Xu Han has been saving all the eggs in our house for fertilization, so we haven't really eaten eggs much lately.

Even when she occasionally boils eggs for her two children, she uses eggs that she has saved up beforehand.

When Xu Han went to check the eggs again at noon the next day, she saw two or three chicks lying on the quilt as soon as she lifted the quilt.

Seeing this, Xu Han quickly called everyone in. Lu Chuan smiled and said, "Haha, it's done, it really is done."