Chat, chicks and camera

The last weekend of January saw the arrival of the first chicks of 2016. Just 21 days earlier I  had set the broody Silkie hen on clutch of 9 eggs, 7 were Pekin 2 were her own and are either pure Silkie or Silkie cross Pekin. All 9 eggs hatched although I must confess to going against my own advice and placing the last egg in the incubator after the hen had left it behind in the nest.This isn't unusual, if the majority of eggs have hatched and the chicks are ready to leave the nest a mother hen will choose to care for the hatched chicks rather than unhatched eggs.I was going to remove the egg but it was peeping so I popped it into the incubator where it duly hatched.The little chick is now back with the mother hen and its hatch mates.

We have set a remote camera in the broody pen enabling us to watch them  24/7. It has given us a fascinating insight into the behaviour.of a mother hen and her chicks. We are trying to set up the camera as a live webcam on here but are having a few difficulties at present.

With the start of the breeding season and the promise of finer weather many hens have started to go broody, this has brought about a succession of questions from those new to poultry keeping, with this in mind I have added new pages to the Information section. I have also set up a new Facebook group Chickens: it may be a silly question but...   a place to ask question and to share tips and information. So if you are on Facebook please do join in. We would love to see you there.