Hatching chicks

A few months ago K’s school hatched chicks but unfortunately they hatched when the school was closed with snow!

I was speaking to a lady at a group I attend and she said she worked for somewhere which may hire the equipment to me as a childminder to hatch eggs at home. I was extremely excited and took her details.

We arranged to collect the equipment at the start of the summer holidays and I ordered some Norfolk Grey chicken eggs off ‘Ebay’…. I know how strange that they sell fertilised eggs on Ebay.

The process takes 21 days so we set the incubator up and waited….

On day 20 we started hearing cheeping from the eggs and they started to move and roll around a lot…

Over the next 24 hours all 6 eggs hatched.. we set up a camera to try and capture the moment they hatched. When we have previously  learnt about the life-cycle of caterpillars to butterflies we have always missed the moment the butterfly emerges.

Here is our video –

A few hours after hatching we moved them across to a larger box with some wood shavings, a brooder, some chick crumb (£6 from Pets at home for a large bag) and a water feeder.

K is very confident with them and has been handling them lots. The childminding children have really enjoyed watching and cuddling them.Benji has been peeping his head into the box but hasn’t tried to eat them so that’s been a bonus!

They are heading to their new home on Tuesday, they will be missed! Hubby and I had discussed the possibility of keeping them but we decided against it… we will hatch some more if we move to a bigger house with a bigger garden.

This has been an amazing experience for all of the family, we would highly recommend giving it a go if you ever get the opportunity.

Thanks for reading.

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