Sunday 2 August 2020

Adoptive mother


One of our hens unhelpfully decided to go broody in a rather difficult location on our livestock plot - in an old oil drum. We gave her three fake eggs to sit on. (Our experience of giving hens fertile hatching eggs is a bit mixed as they often get damaged when other hens have access to the nest on which the broody hen is sitting.) Her three weeks was up yesterday, so last night we removed the fake eggs and gave her four chicks that we recently hatched in one of our incubators. I'm pleased to say that mum and the children bonded!

We moved the hen and her chicks to the nursery unit in our back garden today. They will be there for about 3 to four weeks watch which point we will move them to the chick run.


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