Our Chickens

The 9-day old chickens in their new cage.

On 14 March 2011, ten living eggs joined our school and great excitement filled the air.

Two days later the first egg hatched. Over the next few days we were gradually joined by more chicks. We were able to follow the action on the live web cam streamed directly from our website.

Whilst watching the action from the ICT suite, the Year 6 children were so delighted when ‘Charles Chickens’ hatched that they broke into a spontaneous round of applause. When the time drew near for the chicks to return to their owner, the process of research into the possibility of keeping the chicks began.

Mrs Pawley and Mrs Duquette visited another school who keep chickens and with their support and advice the decision was made – we are going to keep some of the chicks and nurture them as chickens!

A competition has been launched; all of the children have been invited to decorate an egg with the chance of winning a prize … watch this space to see some of the winning entries.

The Chicken Updates

January 2012

A makeover for the chickens.

The chickens have been treated to a makeover of their area. The ground around their eglu was becoming very muddy and difficult to work on so a local landscaper has barked the whole area.

It is much better now.

January 2012

Goodbye and good luck Rambo!

Rambo has been a true Abbey success story. When he tried to hatch out in the incubator last year, he had immense difficulty. He struggled to break free of his egg when hatching and had to be nursed through his first few days of life.

When the time came to keep the chickens and send the cockerels back to the farm, we just couldn't say goodbye to Rambo. Rambo remained popular with the chickens and over the Summer holidays grew immensely; becoming the fabulous proud cockerel we have come to love. Everyone took great delight in his loud 'cock-a-doodle-doo' throughout the day. However, Rambo's job was to protect his chickens; this sometimes meant he could be a bit grumpy and not want to share the chicken pen with children or staff.

Rambo has now moved to an allotment in Manchester to look after seventeen chickens. Whilst we will all miss him and his 'good morning crowing' we're sure that he will settle into his new home very well.

Rambo's new home in Manchester.

Some of Rambo's new housemates.

October 2011

The chickens have been expanding rapidly and need more space, they have been treated to an extension to their eglu. Year 6 monitors supervised the construction of the new run and soon the chickens were free to enjoy their extra space.

Beginning construction on the new run.

The chickens at home in their new run.

September 2011

During the summer holidays I attended Marmadukes summer club, and I helped to look after the chickens. While I was feeding and cleaning them I noticed there were two eggs lying there. It was the first eggs they have ever laid! It was so exciting! We took them home and enjoyed them. On the following Monday there were twelve eggs waiting in the hen houses.

Report by Shannon, Year 5

28 July 2011

Our first egg!

Eggciting news! The chickens have laid their first egg. They waited until the Summer break started!

Marmadukes staff and pupils were the first to notice that there was an egg awaiting them when they tended to the chickens.

May 2011

The chickens have changed quite considerably since they were born. They are now wearing individual coloured tags so that they can easily identified. Nugget has a pink tag, Paddy has green, Tandori's is yellow and Rambo has a blue tag.

Unfortunately, one of the harder part of keeping pets is when you have to face the loss of one of them. Sadly, Yolko is no longer with us, as she has died from natural causes.

Nugget.		Paddy.
Tandori.		Rambo.

March 2011

The first few days after our chicks were born.

Day 2: Our first eggs hatch.		Day 8: Year 1 learn about new life.
Day 10: all the chicks are asleep.		The chicks love being handled.
Rambo helping out in the office.		One of the chicks attempts to fly (they aren't flight birds they can clear garden fences and pens).
Clipping the flight feathers on one side of the bird prevents them from achieving a balanced take off.

Chick Watch Video Clips

Relive the wonderful moments of new life entering our world by re-viewing highlights of our 'Chick Watch' right here!