Diary Of A Mad Chicken Farmer

January 18th 2010

Sarah the grey hen and her daughter Ella have been fighting over who gets to sit on some manky looking eggs in the corner of the hen house. When I went to feed the chooks this morning I heard cheeping and lo a small brown bumblebee had appeared. Collected both hens, chick and remaining eggs and put them in a hay lined cage in the woodshed. The two hens proceeded to argue over who got custody of the chick for the rest of the day.

January 21st 2010


Went out early to feed the chick and discovered another egg was hatching and a small wet black creature was struggling to emerge. Four hours later and it was lying stretched out on its side puffing. Didn't expect it to live but by the end of the day it was all fluffed up and looking perkily out of its small dark eyes. Sarah and Ella are delighted as they now have a chick each.

January 22nd 2010

Gine the bantam has been steadfastly sitting on some eggs next to the hen house. This morning four chicks hatched including one fluffy yellow one. By lunchtime the sky was turning black and threatening thunder so prepared another cage in the woodshed and transferred Gine, two eggs and the now eight chicks (four brown, two yellow, one black and one black and yellow). Just as well as within half an hour a torrential rainstorm struck and the nest was flooded out. Overnight 110 mls of rain fell in Tikokino.


January 24th 2010

Friends came to see the chicks and I discovered the two oldest ones loose around the shed and a little brown one from the other clutch hiding beneath its cage. Every day from this point on the same thing happened although the two older ones soon learned to go back in with their mothers when I opened the cage door to put their feed dish in. I cannot for the life of me work out how the other one escaped but assumed it jumped on Mum's back and shimmied through the wider cage mesh higher up.

Over the next few days we had several more unseasonable heavy rainstorms often accompanied with thunder and lightning. The remaining eggs in both clutches didn't hatch which made me wonder about the old wives' tale that thunder kills the young chicks before they can emerge.

1st February 2010

Poor chicks. It has rained so much I think they will be terrified when the sun eventually reappears and will probably run around thinking the world is ending- or the sky is falling...