One prairie chicken egg is laid per day. Each nest or clutch has an average of 12 eggs. The eggs are laid in mid-April to mid-May.
Prairie chicken eggs need incubation to keep warm so the chicks can continue to develop in the egg. The eggs hatch in 25 days. The hatching prairie chicken chicks have an egg tooth on their bills, to help them peck in a circle. Then the cap pops off of the eggshell. The chicks go right out with their mother and forage for food.
The mother and chicks are called a brood. At night, the mother pulls out her wings and little chicks get under them to keep warm.
The mother and chicks squat down and are hard to see when the mother sounds an alarm. The mother also has brood calls to gather her chicks.
Fifty percent of the prairie chickens' nests are destroyed by predators. Egg predators are snakes, foxes, coyotes, and especially opossums, raccoons, and skunks. Fifty percent of the remaining chicks will die.
Around 1990, inbreeding became a problem, so prairie chickens from other states were introduced to increase genetic diversiry.
