I have entered the world of chickens.

[alistron1]

I have 2 day old chicks under a heat lamp in a 'cage' in my living room. Good lord they are adorable.

We have been lucky enough to borrow all the kit from a friend of DP's who is an experienced chicken person.

When we collected them this morning she had a gosling following her about, the most amazing outside set up and the most fabulous cochin chicken I have ever seen. I didn't know you could get chickens like that.

The only downside is that we were going to have roast chicken for dinner tonight, but it feels all wrong with beatrice and eugenie in the house. Actually there is another downside, I want about a million chickens of all kinds, sizes and colours. How have I managed for 37 years without a chicken in my life?

Feelin the love with you as we picked up our first chickens today - the 8 week old babies are just so cute! Enjoy your babies.

Chickens should come with a health warning they are totally addictive. Went to an auction last week and bought 16 girls of all shapes and sizes - Marans, blue marans, aracuanas, polands, fluffy footed ones would have bought more if DH hadnt physically torn the number from my grasp and forebad me from even breathing. Still, managed to sneak in 6 buff orpington eggs for the incubator - it is currently Day 6 in the big brother egg house!

I've decided to add a cochin to our mini brood this week What is it about them?! I have a cat and a hamster but the chickies and the prospect of grown up chickens are just captivating!!

If you are incubating eggs for the kids, try the blue eggs that crested cream legbars lay. They are autosexing, so the kids know from the day they hatch which ones are boys and which girls. If you dont want to keep and feed the cockerels until they grow up enough to be able to sex them, these are brilliant! Ark Birds and Bees Kent sell the crested cream legbar hatching eggs. They also visit Schools in Kent to do talks and hire incubators if your kids are interested.