Today we have some chicks hatching out in the incubator. So far, we have two Light Sussex bantams – one of which hatched yesterday and the other overnight last night. It’s rather late in the year to be hatching again but we have ambitions for a Welsummer bantam cockerel out of this batch and some more Ixworths (allegedly the tastiest chicken on the planet but we haven’t got to that stage yet). Watching chicks hatch out just never loses it’s fascination. Must resist the temptation to ‘help’ those chicks struggling to get out. I did this the last time and they were weaklings as everyone said they would be. Still I can’t just stand by!
If you struggle to stand and watch the weak chicks break out of their shells, I can’t possible imagine you eating them! Beware: I once rented part of a farmhouse as a holiday let where the owners had gone “self-sufficent”… but then found they became attached, so couldn’t bring themselves to kill anything. They were over-run with chickens, geese, tame sheep and the like!!
I’m hoping the satisfaction of letting them live to around 20 weeks rather than 6 if they were a supermarket bird will help. And the fantastic taste of Ixworth meat. Some one told me that Jamie Oliver uses Ixworths as they are so tasty! Hope my cooking skills can do them justice!