Volunteer April has recently carried out a great project with Blaise Weston Court, a local extra care scheme for the elderly.  She took an incubator and some eggs to the home, so they could see the chicks as they hatched. 

April described what she did – “I used an incubator to imitate a hen sitting on the eggs. It works by rocking the eggs gently over the day and monitoring the humidity which should be ideally between 40-50%. However, temperatures will fluctuate just like they would with a mother hen as she will sit for a

while then walk about, resulting in the eggs getting cooler.”

The project aimed to build a connection with the local elderly home and the farm.  “The residents loved it! They spent a lot of time looking at the eggs and checking when they were going to start to hatch.  They were very excited when it started to happen.” described April

The project also helped us to discover how fertile our cockerals are, and the new chicks will help us build up our flock.