This is it .....

There is always a downside to having pets, and yes, my chickens are very much my pets. From the 18 eggs that arrived in the post, we incubated 17, 11 of them looked promising after 19 days when we candled them. There were two that Thomas and Lizzie were not quite as sure as I was that they would not hatch ..... but I was right. So from the promising 11 we now have 7 robust and healthy chicks. 2 almost made it and whilst we heard definite signs of life, they didn't actually hatch, and two others were too weak to survive.

It's been a learning curve for us all, me for doing something I would never have really chosen to do, I'll let you work out what that is, and for the children to make some grown up decisions altogether about 'doing the right thing'. We are not out of the woods yet, because unless anyone has any useful suggestions about what to do with the boys, when we work out from their plumage and vocal ability exactly who they are, there are some more unpleasant deeds to be done in a few months time.

I hope you have enjoyed this exciting week with me, I will do it all again and probably later this year, but it will never be quite the same again, mainly because next time I will thankfully know what I am doing.

A HUGE thank you to @simonpickles who has been on the other end of the twitter & texting airwaves helping me in my moments of need.