Chicken News

Last month all three of our hens were broody so my sister sent me four eggs for them to sit on. One hatched last week so we now have a lovely fluffy little chick. As soon as we discovered the chick we moved it along with the hen who hatched it to an empty rabbit hutch as the other hens tried to attack it as soon as they saw it. My sister had warned us that they may over mother it and kill it as they were all broody.

The chick is a sablepoot which looks like this but hopefully ours will be a hen so we can keep it. The sablepoot cockerel is the photo is Gorgeous George ( before he grew his full tail ) who lived with us for a while. Last year my niece hatched a clutch of sablepoot eggs and ended up with one hen the rest cockerels so she asked if we wanted one. I said on condition they have him back if he starts making too much noise (I live in a residential area so I don't think being woken by a cock crowing would go down to well with the neighbours). It took him quite a while to find his voice and for a little thing, he was very loud. Also he started to attack us which didn't hurt us at all because he could only reach our legs. He was becoming very protective of his girls and didn't like us hand feeding them which while we knew to keep an eye on him, he could easily get Little L in the face so we set him back to my sisters. He's settled in well and hangs about with their sablepoot hen. Our chick is from those two getting together so at least my sister knows George is fertile.