INCUBATORS	The hatching takes 21 days. If you are going to raise your own chicken and the hen is not laying on the egg, you will need an incubator. An incubator keeps the eggs warm. Before the eggs are in the incubator, it needs to be warmed up to the temperature of 99.5 degrees F. Eggs need warmth, but be careful to not overheat them. Temperature should not be more than 103 degreed F. Another thing you will need is hygrometer. This is a measurement tool that measures humidity. This is extremely important because chicken eggs should be in 50% humidity until the day 18. Then, it should increase to almost 80% until the chick is born. One of the ways to keep moisture in incubator is to put a small paper cup of water in it. When water evaporates it will keep the moisture up. When you buy an incubator it should come with directions and you should definitely read them carefully. But, incubators can also be made. Here is the external link to some homemade incubators.
CANDLING THE EGG	Candling the egg is done to see if the chicken is developing in the egg. This can only be done with white shells with even colors. The reason people candle eggs is because not all eggs will produce chicken. Candling is done on days two or three.
TURNING EGGS	Eggs should be marked before you put them in the incubator, because you need to know which side is which. Eggs need to be turned at least three times a day.  Hens do this on their own. If eggs are not turned embryo inside could stick to the shell membrane and this can cause problems in development. It also allows embryo to move inside the egg. Eggs should be turned the first 18 days. Last three days they should be left alone to hatch.
JUST HATCHED	Leave the chicks in the incubator for 24 hours. They need time to get used to new environment, just like every baby. Before the chicken hatched, they got fed by the yolk. Therefore, they do not need to be fed for 24 hours.

SHELTER	Baby chicken feathers will not protect them from cold. Therefore, baby chicks should be indoors for at least five weeks. First place that chick lives is called a brooder. Brooder is simple to make because it can be a box, empty fish tank or a small cage. It should be lined on the bottom with newspaper or with mulch. This liner should be changed every few days so it is clean and dry. This is important to keep out the diseases.  The brooder should be big enough so that chicks can move and sleep and has enough space for food and water . Brooder can be home to more than one chick. It's important to keep the brooder warm, but it's also important for chicks to get used to outside temperature. Therefore you need to adjust the temperature of the brooder every week. Start with  90-100 degrees F the first week. Then, lower down temperature by 5 degrees every week until the chicks have feathers that will protect them.Often, temperature is kept by lamps. You can move them closer for more heat, or away for less heat.
FOOD AND WATER	Little chicks drink a lot of water. Always make sure there is enough. Also, clean the water as often as possible. Chicks leave droppings everywhere - even in their water dish!  As soon as chocks hatch, they start scratching for food. This can get messy, so a good idea is to get a feeder. This will keep food in one place. Just like with water, change is often! The first thing you should feed the chicks is called "crumbles".  Buy this in any pet or feed store. It has everything chick needs as well as medicine to prevent diseases that can kill them.
PLAY	Just like all babies, chicks need play time. They are curious and run around. But, they are babies and need to be watched carefully. If it is warm outside, you can take them out to play for a little bit. Make sure to watch out for cats and other animals!
BEAK TRIMMING	It is best to trim beaks of a baby chicken when they are one or two days old. Then you should trim  them again in few months. This is just like clipping fingernails. The reasons to clip the beaks is because chickens start pecking on each other and they are actually cannibals. This means that they will peck and eat other chicken. When they are trimmed they can't do it. Therefore, they lose the habit. Once they learn not to do it you don't have to trim them any more.

CLIPPING WINGS	Wings are clipped so that chicken does not fly. This does not hurt chicken because only the feathers are clipped. These feathers will grow back and you may need to clip them again. To clip the wings use scissors or shears that are really sharp. Then trim the first ten flight feathers on one wing. This makes the bird lose balance when they try to fly.
SHELTER	After you chick is done living in the brooder, it will need a home. Many chicken live in the chicken coops. Chicken coops can be any shape. You can buy them or you can build them yourself. The important thing is that is protects the chicken for weather and predators. It should have enough air and allow air in to cool it down when it is hot outside. The floor needs to be covered with sawdust or mulch. It should be kept clean, which is not always easy. Floors made of concrete are easiest to clean well because you can just clean them with water and droppings will not absorb in it.
FOOD	If you put adult chicken in the yard, they will find their own food. This may be grass, seeds or insects. But, they will need a lots of space to find this every day. Many free range chicken live only of this kind of feed and do fine. But, they also move around to look for food. If your chicken is just in the backyard it may run out of nutritious foods.  The simplest way to feed you chicken is to go to the store and get a bag of chicken feed. These are quite cheap and have all the nutrition you chicken need such as protein and grains.  Put the feed in the feeder (and clean it often). You can buy feed that has medicine in it to prevent diseases such as coccidiosis. This disease can wipe out your flock. But, if you do not want your chicken to have medicine, you can also buy feed without it. Some people think that store bought food may have hormones in it, but this is not correct. People stopped using these hormones decades ago. Store bought chicken feed is a good, safe and nutritious choice for your chicken.