The Life Cycle of a Chicken

2.L.1 Understand animal life cycles.

• 2.L.1.1 Summarize the life cycle of animals including: birth, developing into an adult, reproducing, aging and death

• 2.L.1.2 Compare life cycles of different animals such as, but not limited to, mealworms, ladybugs, crickets, guppies or frogs

1. Birth

Chickens can lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs. Once the steps for reproduction have occurred, an egg is fertilized, and the chicken has laid the egg, life begins to develop.

While in their eggs, chicks are getting nutrients ans slowly developing.

Here is a blog that follows a farmer and educator who incubated her own eggs.

If you are interested in seeing what a chick looks like at each stage of its development, check out this resource. (Parents may want to preview this resource before sharing with students)

Here is a video about our chickens and the eggs they produce:

2. Adolescence

Chicks begin the next phase of their lives once they hatch from their eggs:

Once chickens hatch, they quickly develop right in front of your eyes!

After hatching, these chicks must dry off and begin to explore their surroundings. They eat and move their bodies to develop their muscles. Over time, you can begin to see changes in their size, coloring, and development.

Here is a video of our chicks:

At this phase in their lives, our chicks do not show many signs of their sex. It is difficult to tell whether they are male or female. As the traits of these chickens develop further, it will become more obvious what type of bird and what sex each animal is.

In between chicks and adulthood, we refer to chickens as "pullets" if they are female and "cockerels" if they are male. They are almost like teenagers--not quite little kids anymore, but not mature enough to be adults.

Take a look at our pullets:

By the time chickens are this age, it will be more obvious what sex they are.

Can you tell the difference between the two chickens below?

Chickens will be considered pullets or cockerels until they are one year old. After that, they are considered adults.

3. Adulthood

As adults, chickens are fully grown, fully developed, and have distinguishing characteristics to help identify them as male and female.

What differences do you notice between the younger chickens and these adults?

Here is a video of one of our adult hens:

4. Reproducing

For new chicks to be born, as we previously discussed, a hen's eggs must be fertilized. A rooster can fertilize the hen's eggs and provides genetic material to the baby developing in the egg.

You can see the traits of a chick's mother and father based on their appearance, size, and other aspects:

Most hens only lay eggs for the first two or three years of their lives.

5. Aging and Death

Chickens can live for approximately eight years.

Many people regularly eat chicken, so a chicken that has died may become a meal for a family or a predator, if not raised in a coop or other protective structure.