NannyP's Hens

So, then I decided that I wanted to hatch some eggs in an Incubator After persuading Mark that I wasn't really mad, a good friend sent me his Incubator, and another good friend sent me some eggs from her flock. She posted them from The Shetland Isles on Friday lunchtime, and they arrived here in Devon the following morning 

I left them to settle for several days, whilst I awaited the arrival of the incubator, which finally arrived on 18th may, just as we were about to leave home for 2 days. So, we put it together, turned it on, didn't (as instructed) wait for it to reach it's optimum temp, and placed the 4, green eggs in, very carefully.

21 days ( 3 anxious ones) later, out hatch 4 beautiful chicks.

This is them at about 24 hours old.

3 of them look mostly like this at a week old

And this one is more colourful and I'm pretty certain is a cockerel.

In fact, they're now 2 weeks old and growing fast and it seems that 3 are cockerels, so will either have to find them homes or  grow them on and eat them 

No more photos at the mo, they are going through a very scruffy stage whilst feathering up, they have spent 2 or 3 days in the Ark in the garden during very hot weather, and then come back indoors into a vacated indoor Guinea Pig cage under a heat lamp at night.

They are pooing and eating for England 

Okay, so the beautiful chicks, grew into beautiful cokerels and one less beautiful hen. They moved out to the Ark, and lived on their own out there in the garden from about 10 weeks old, eventually joining the flock to freerange in the garden.

This is Redroo, a beautiful cockerel taken in Sept 2005 at about 13 weeks.

Another unamed cockerel at the same time 

Next photos are taken in October

We now had 14 chickens in the garden, which even though is quite big, was beginning to become a pooey mess 

We also had 4 cockerels, which in such a small flock, is not viable. I had known that I would have problems trying to find

homes for the excess cockerels, so had arranged with a friend (before risking incubating and hatching unwanted birds) to

cull them for me.  So at the beginning of November, she came round and culled the Shetland cockerels for me 

She kept one and we had the other two back to eat. Not an easy decision ( and sorry for those who are shocked) but

it is the only responsible way to hatch and raise chickens.

So, of the Shetland hatch, we only have Henny left, who joined the main coop a few weeks before her brothers were culled

And, early in December she produced her first egg, pictured below.

Her next egg, a couple of days later was a big one and when we opened
it, it was a double yolker.  I think this was a shock for her, I haven't seen
a green egg since Despite how it looks in the photo, the egg is more green
than blue, known as Duck Egg Blue I think.