My first pet was a chicken. Or a pair of Pekin bantams (small chickens!) to be exact. I was nine years old and must have been an unusual child. While my friends were getting my little ponies and smurfs, hamsters and guinea pigs, I had chickens.

I love all things small and fluffy and so was very excited when I got a hen house for Christmas last year, as I could have my own little brood in the back garden, and get fresh eggs as an added bonus. I borrowed a broody hen, did some hen research, and found some fertilised white Silkie bantam eggs on ebay. Three weeks later, and hey presto, out popped 5 lovely little lemon yellow chicks (the other 5 didn’t hatch, so were not fertilised). They are now 3 weeks old now and their first feathers are just showing, it will be nearly Christmas before we have any eggs (provided they are not all cockerels!) but we are well on our way to the good life! Just need a vegetable patch now…..

10 creamy white eggs before they went under the hen:

The first little hatchling three weeks later (chicks are born on time!):

A few hours later and they are the cutest little fluffy things ever:

You are not supposed to help chicks out of their egg. If they can’t make it alone, chances are nature is telling us something. But, being the softie that I am, I helped one little chick who had been dutifully pecking away for hours and hours and hadn’t managed to make much headway at all. He (or she, he is named Harry but this may change to Harriet) was very weak just after being born. The next morning, Colin bought a little weak, cold chick inside. I didn’t have much hope but made him a cotton wool bed in an old plastic container and put him on the boiler to keep warm. Colin was dispatched to get a jar of baby food (Mum mum was told years ago by a vet to feed an ill bird baby food so I though it would be the right thing to feed him), and I dug out an old syringe we had to worm the puppies (there was no needle, just the syringe!). The next morning, hey presto, Harry seemed to have gained strength and was cheeping enthusiastically. He went back out with Mum and siblings and is now doing fine.

Big brothers and sisters while Harry was inside getting 5* treatment:

One chick is hiding behind Mum:

Happy families, Harry included:

A happy ending!