What are the stages in the life cycle of a chicken?

There are three main stages: egg, chick and adult chicken. A hen lays an egg and keeps it warm. After about three weeks a fluffy chick hatches out. The chick grows into a grown-up hen or rooster, and a hen can lay her own eggs, so the cycle goes round and round.

Do all chicken eggs become chicks?

No. An egg only grows into a chick if a rooster and hen have mated and a hen keeps the egg warm. Many of the eggs we buy in shops are not kept warm and will never become chicks — they are just food. To hatch a chick, an egg needs warmth for about three weeks.

The Life Cycle of a Chicken | Nature

Round and round it goes

Have you ever wondered where a fluffy little chick comes from? Or how a hen lays the eggs we eat for breakfast? Every chicken goes on an amazing journey from a tiny egg to a grown-up bird. We call this journey a life cycle, because it goes round and round, again and again. Let's follow a chicken all the way around its life cycle.

Stage 1: The egg

A chicken's life begins as an egg. A mother hen lays the egg and then sits gently on top of it in a cosy nest. She does this to keep the egg nice and warm.

Why does the egg need to be warm? Inside the shell, a tiny baby chick is starting to grow. The warmth from the mother hen's body helps it grow, just like a warm blanket. The hen keeps her eggs warm for about three weeks — that is around 21 days. She turns them now and then so they stay warm all over.

Stage 2: Hatching

After three weeks, something exciting happens. The chick inside is ready to come out. But how does it get out of a hard shell?

The chick has a tiny, hard point on its beak called an egg tooth. It uses this to peck and peck at the shell from the inside. Slowly, a crack appears. Then crack! — the shell breaks open and out wobbles a wet, tired little chick. This is called hatching.

The chick rests, and soon its feathers dry into soft, fluffy yellow down. Hello, little chick!

Stage 3: The growing chick

A newly hatched chick is small, fluffy and very hungry. It needs warmth, food and water to grow.

Chicks peck at tiny seeds and grain to eat.
They stay close to their mother hen, who keeps them warm and safe.
They cheep and peep to talk to each other.

Day by day, the chick grows bigger. Its soft yellow fluff is slowly replaced by proper feathers.

Stage 4: The grown-up chicken

After a few months, the chick is fully grown. Now it is an adult chicken.

A grown-up female is called a hen.
A grown-up male is called a rooster (or cockerel). The rooster is the one that crows "cock-a-doodle-doo!" in the morning.

A hen can now lay her own eggs. And when she keeps those eggs warm, new chicks will hatch — and the whole life cycle starts all over again! That is why we call it a cycle: egg, chick, adult, and back to egg.

Other life cycles

Lots of animals have their own special life cycles. A frog and a butterfly change shape in amazing ways as they grow. You can compare them in our lessons on the life cycle of a frog and the life cycle of a butterfly. Chickens are farm birds, too — meet more of their friends in animals on the farm.

Watch and learn

Here are some fun ways to explore the chicken life cycle:

Act it out. Curl up small like an egg, then peck your way out and "hatch." Flap your wings as you grow into a big hen, then crow like a rooster!
Make an egg-to-hen wheel. Draw four pictures — egg, hatching chick, fluffy chick and grown hen — in a circle to show how the cycle goes round.
Visit a farm. If you can, visit a farm or city farm with a grown-up to see real hens and chicks. Watch how the hen looks after her babies.

Now you know the secret journey of every chicken — from a warm little egg, all the way to a clucking, egg-laying hen. Round and round the life cycle goes!

The Life Cycle of a Chicken

Key takeaways