First It Was Cheep! Cheep! Now It's Cluck! Cluck!
This true story began on the 20th March 2015.
Just after 9 a.m. on the 20th March I received a 'phone call from my son. He said he had just taken my granddaughter up to her Primary School and he was having a chat with the Janitor whom I knew well and the Janitor wanted to know how I was and what I was doing now.
When my son told him I now had an aviary and had lots of birds and was even incubating eggs-- I'm sure that's when the two of them put their heads together and did some plotting 
.
Now this 'phone call really wasn't about someone enquiring about my health there was another motive involved: it concerned TEN, 10 day old chickens.
One of the infant classes in the school had been incubating hens' eggs as part of a project but could only keep the chicks for 10 days after hatching and the janitor said I would be the ideal person to take the chicks and give them a good home.
So the next part of the phone call went something like this:
Son: "How would you like some 10 day old chickens Mum?"
I found it hard to believe what I had just heard!! now this is my son who had been lecturing me to stop going to bird sales and pet shops and to stop buying more birds- something was odd here-- then a little bell clicked HE had always wanted to have chickens but he was going to have to wait until he retired in a few years time before that would happen 
Me: "No way! I'm not wanting 10 chickens!"
Son: "Mum! That's not like you to refuse 10 lovely tiny chicks you wouldn't want to see them being homeless?"
Me: " The answer is still No! In any case I've no place to keep them."
Son: " Yes you do! Meantime, you could keep them in the large rabbit hutch you have just had re-roofed.
I can come up and move it to where you want it to be in the garden and you have the chick crumbs
that you were feeding the young quails so you have feeding there for them as well"
At this point the Janitor joined in to remind me about when I taught in the school how I had an incubator and incubated hens eggs and even had a broody hen and her chicks in my classroom.
'Blackmail' wasn't a strong enough word for this!'
Well I guess you'll know what happened - Yes! within 2 hours I was the new mum to 10 chickens!
Why did I give in?
To be honest, even now, although my family are all married with grown up children of their own I still look on them as my 'wee bairns' and like to see them happy - after all that son is the 'baby' of the family and I just had to let him get the chickens
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The chicks in their new surroundings: 
This was to be their sleeping area but the chicks had different idea and slept in the other part of the hutch which I believed would be cold for them during the night so out came the doggy heating pad again.
chicks using the heat pad at night.
I didn't take long for the chicks to settle in and to tell the truth I had already fallen in love with them but I still wanted to find out more about them.
So I 'phoned the school and had a chat with the teacher involved. She was very pleased I had taken them and asked me if it would be possible to keep the school informed about the chicks' development so the information could be passed onto the children- I thought that was a great idea and promised to send photographs, videos etc
It was during this conversation I discovered that if nobody had wanted to take the chicks they would be taken back by the organisation that had supplied the fertile eggs, incubator, brooder etc. and the chicks would be taken to a farm.
( odd how the Janitor and my son conveniently forgot to mention that part!)
I was told the chicks had hatched out on the 10th March but she had no information regarding the type of breed they were.
However she did tell me the person who supplied the eggs had told them the sex of the chicks!!! Four of the chicks were a light brown colour and the other six were yellow.
Next piece of information had me asking myself just what had I done to deserve this!
The 4 brown chicks would grow to be hens and the 6 yellow ones COCKERELS!! 
There was no way I could keep even ONE cockerel never mind 6 of them!
I had a good many sleepless nights worrying about this because I didn't want them ending up on someone's dinner table.
Finding homes for the cockerels was definitely going to be a job for my son.
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16th June 2015
Re the cockerels I found a web site (Homes4Hens) where they rescue hens after the hens have been used to mass produce eggs in horrible conditions. They then rehome them where they will live out the rest of their lives in freedom. I did enquire about the cockerels to find out if they could be rehomed and they would have taken them only problem was it was too far away for me to deliver them.
Time was passing and the cockerels were growing fast-
At 12 days old
At 4 weeks old
Showing the comb beginning to appear on its head.
enjoying themselves n the garden
Just look at me now!
It was about this time I discovered that one of the 6 cockerels was in fact a HEN! GOOD!
Now I had only 5 cockerels to find homes for -one good point was- they still hadn't started to crow BUT they had started to think I would taste good on their menu! From then on at feeding time for the cockerels - I dressed appropriately : Thick jacket with long sleeves, heavy duty gardening gloves and trousers tucked into socks! Yes!! and I still got pecked 
The hens were OK-- but after all they were female and like all females, they were very obedient and loving
My son eventually found a person who was looking for cockerels and with a sigh of relief they have finally been delivered to their new home with the assurance from my son that they would not be killed.
I was to get photographs of the cockerels in their new surroundings to prove they were still alive -but so far I'm still waiting!!
22nd June 2015
I'm still waiting for the photographs of the cockerels!?!
Now they have been rehomed I had to get the hens sorted out so I bought a large hen coop (ebay) it was a German firm and the hen coop was actually posted from Germany (free postage).
My son and my two grandsons agreed to built it up for me but when it arrived the instructions and the fixtures, screws etc. for assembling it were missing but mistakes do happen and when I emailed the firm they apologised and immediately posted the screw etc. and emailed me the instructions for assembling it.
When I had printed off the instructions just couldn't help laughing ---they were in German. but I told my son just take his time and look a the diagrams and he should be able to work it out --- I'll not print what he said in reply.
About 1 1/2 hour later after studying the instructions and re-opening the four boxes to check the parts they discovered there was also a panel missing and the metal bar for opening/closing the door to the sleeping area.
Once more the email I sent stating the problem was answered immediately but it meant this time there would be a delay in getting the missing panel etc.
At first I thought the hen coop would be better next to the outside flight so to save time later they decided to assemble the coop in that area and the missing parts could be added when it arrived.
Now my son is used to me changing my mind where I would like things put and after a lot of thought I decided it would be better in the back garden where there's a bit more shade - it was a good job he agreed with me this time :biggrin:.
He had to cut down some fir trees, bushes etc. then he laid down slabs which was great, making it easier for me to keep it clean. When the missing panel etc arrived they moved the coop into the back garden.
I'm really pleased with the end result and the hens seem content with their new home.
The new hen coop.
The four hens now inside
chick at 12 days old Look how I have grown!
. 
When the weather is OK I take the hens out (have to carry them one at a time ) to the outside runs I have in another part of the garden and they spend the day there and they get carried back to their coop at night.
They also now have a new feeder and drinker but I'll talk about them later
to be continued:
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January 30th 2016
Well it's almost 7 months since I added anything here. So far my 5 hens are doing well and are keeping everyone supplied with eggs. I get 4/5 eggs every day now. I thought they would have stopped laying when the weather got colder but so far that's not happened.
One good thing I don't have to carry them out to their run anymore, in fact they haven't been in their run for a while because when I'm out in the back garden and the dog is in the house!! the hens get to run free in the back garden. .
They have grown up to be very clever hens so I had a thought , instead of letting them try to dig down to Australia in their run I would teach them how to do some gardening.
I have two plum trees in the back garden and I wanted the weeds/grass removed from around the bottom of the trunk of the trees so I could put down fresh top soil then pea gravel on top. I chose Susie, she is the calmest of the 5, to be leader and I took her to the tree and explained to her what to do and told her to get the others to help and they maybe find some worms too..
Soon the five of them were busy scraping the weeds away then they went on to hollow the area and smooth the ground ready for the top soil. Must admit they were almost black when they had finished but they seemed to have had a great time.(lol) (Once the snow has gone I'll take a photo of their handy work!)
The other job I gave them was to scrape together all the fallen leaves I had missed unfortunately they must have misunderstood what I had said because they had the time of their life scattering all the fallen leaves I had gathered ready to put in the compost bin.
Now they have been rewarded for their work (lol) I have bought each of them a lovely waterproof jacket, which also keeps them warm but there was another reason for them getting the jackets (but I didn't tell them .lol) when it gets dull/dark I can find them in an instant and don't have to go searching for them
They must get their jacket off before going to bed!!
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There are 3 pink coats and two yellow coats and they get turn about . When two are wearing the yellow coats they are on henpatrol duty and have to make sure the other three don't go down the driveway to cross the road! 
(So far -- I haven't been locked up yet lol)
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