This is Edith, one of my
pekin bantams.
Ever since I began keeping chickens, I have thought how lovely it would be to hatch a few chicks, our very own little
pekins. So I have been waiting for one of my five girls to go broody and Edith has begun. She started sitting in the nest box whilst the other girls would wait at the door wanting to lay. I kept turfing her off, but within minutes she would be back tacking up her
position reminiscent of a pancake on imaginary eggs. So I then moved her to a large empty rabbit hutch, set her up with food and water and a couple of non fertile eggs to see what would happen. She
immediately took to those eggs and proceeded to sit tight. So then the hunt was on for some fertile hatching eggs. After searching through the chicken breeders online, I opted for a breeder I had visited when I was buying my chickens, I put my order in and a couple of days later very safely packaged the eggs arrived.
When eggs have gone through the postal system you have to
leave them to rest point down for 12 to 24 hours. This done, I very carefully picked up a sleepy Edith and removed the dud eggs and replaced them with a mix of gold partridge and
millifleur pekin eggs.
Now the waiting begins. Hopefully in around 21 days we should hear the patter of tiny chick feet, fingers very tightly crossed.
Whilst waiting for eggs to arrive and then rest, I dug out my paper clay and set to work on a little doll. more pictures soon on her progress.
We had rain last night, first proper rain for weeks and more is forecast for today with the odd rumble and flash thrown in for good measure, the garden is very grateful.
Hope you are having a great weekend sun or rain, thank you for all your lovely comments, I love reading them. J x
My heart is lost, these chicks are the sweetest thing , we have six now. I am amazed as I had convinced myself they wouldn't hatch as the eggs were quite soiled and this can cause the eggs to fail because of bacteria getting through the shell, but no such worries here, six delightful fluffy chicks for Edith.
I haven't managed to photograph all six together yet as they are being kept snugly warm under their mum, but these two seem a bit more adventurous and have even been tasting the chick crumbs.
