WOW!! We have babies YAY!!

Well, I’m pleased to announce we are the proud parents of 5, YES FIVE cute cuddly little chicks….

I really thought we were NEVER going to have any chicks at all.

I mean our hens just haven’t been interested, then all of a sudden THREE go broody at once, reminds me of waiting for a bus, none when you want one then three turn up at once!!

Going broody is one thing, sitting on eggs is another matter all together.

Moptop, the darling started by sitting on 12 eggs under the branches we had cut down and left in the middle of the paddock.

Well she was well hidden but open to all the elements and we were having a run of dreadful storms.

We actually moved her to the old rabbit hutch after a huge storm, wet and bedraggled she was, but fearlessly determined to stay put on her eggs.

She put up a fight and let out such a squawk, but settled down on her eggs in the warmth of the rabbit hutch.

I was afraid to move her in case, she decided enough was enough and not continue to sit on the eggs, but no she fussed and puffed herself out again and there she sat, never moving.

She successfully, hatched 7 little chicks, but unfortunately, 3 died in a sudden cold spell. The weather had warmed and I put the chicks outside in a brooder but the weather turned foul one day and by the time we returned home in the evening some little dears had died.
I felt awful, so in the bedroom came the remaining 4. (they are still in there..)

I had taken all the live chicks out of the nest as Moptop made a great incubator of eggs but was at a loss when it came time to play mother.

She ended up squashing a couple of the chicks as they were born, she didn’t realise she had to get off the nest and continued to sit there for a good 24 hours after the last chick was born. What a trouper!!

Cleo, on the other hand, went broody but the poor dear wasn’t sitting on any eggs. Well we gently moved her and popped some under her, 4 in all.

She managed to hatch 3 of the eggs, things were going well and the chicks thrived under the scrutiny of a devoted mum, but she took her eyes off them for a second and they wandered into the dogs area and Flynn pounced on two, sadly squashing them.

My little nutmeg, sat in the nesting box in the middle of the coop and suffered all the other hens laying around her, or sometimes pushing her out of the nest to lay their eggs!!
I think she ended up with 18 in the end.

We kept a daily check on the broody girls leaving them water and food near by.

Now, Cleo?s little chick, named Pearl, for she is creamy white and growing well, in fact, she can fly up on the perch every night to be next to ?mum? who snuggles up to her baby and puts a wing around her. It really brings a tears to my eyes.

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