Chicken in a box...

We have been keeping an eye on Harriet and I was getting a little nervous everytime she left the nest. I guess I should be trusting her animal instincts for hatching eggs but I would rush to the eggs and feel to see if they were still warm. I didn't think they were warm enough and thought she was being neglectful, but still hoped that all was well. She was sitting in a different way the other day and a little higher than usual. Next day when we checked there were two wee chickens chirping away....yes...she did it! They are now rushing every where with Mum, always seem to be busy and in a hurry.

Welcome home, we're back

It's been a while but we are back in Fairlie and the chooks are still alive. Counted them as we came up the driveway and all were present. Harriet and Henrietta the hens, Trevor the very large, proud and hansome rooster and Brian, the white scrawney rooster that no one seems to like, so of course he is my favourite. A couple of days after arriving Harriet went missing and I was a little worried that something had taken her, or she had died of old age somewhere. I had no cause for alarm as she was sitting on eggs in the chook house that we had cleaned the last time we were here, all cosy with 17 eggs underneath her. It takes a bit to get used to the idea that there are no predators in New Zealand and these chooks can roam free day and night.
We stole 12 of the eggs so we could have breakfast, but I'm afraid that every egg I cracked had been fertilized and wasn't edible, so we just suceeded in prematurely hatching nearly all our potential new chickens. Harriet has the royal treatment now, with breakfast in bed every day, while we patiently wait.