Chick Diary: Hatch(H)-21

I never thought I would be thinking about family planning again. I have two small children and I thought that would be it for me. But standing in front of a strange contraption that resembles a cross between a lamp fitting and a bucket I found myself thinking – I might actually be a dad again.

Not a dad in the traditional sense you understand, but the responsibilities are remarkably similar. Here I was with my egg incubator and a slack handful of bantam eggs ready to be incubated. I had done a bit of studying for this and my new role as dad meant that I still had to look after an maintain the egg incubator (mum) throughout pregnancy, still had to make sure the chicks were fed, watered and given shelter and still had to make sure they went to bed on time. Yes the similarities were striking. So it was not without trepidation that I placed the eggs in the incubator.

So here we are cracking on and expanding my little chicken family. Bantams should take around 19 days to hatch and I’ll be letting you know how my journey goes, from egg to ‘point of lay’, I’ll be reporting on the ups and downs of my new foray into fatherhood.