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What's this blog all about?

Hi, I'm Nicola - welcome to a blog begun in 2012 about family travel around the world, without leaving the UK.

I love travel adventures, but to save cash and keep my family's carbon footprint lower, I dreamt up a unique stay-at-home travel experience. So far I've visited 110 countries... without leaving the UK. Join me exploring the next 86! Or have a look at the "countries" you can discover within the UK by scrolling the labels (below right). Here's to happy travel from our doorsteps.

Around 2018 I tried a new way of writing my family's and my own UK travel adventures. Britain is a brilliant place for a staycation, mini-break and day trips. It's also a fantastic place to explore so I've begun to write up reports of places that are easy to reach by public transport. And when they are not that easy to reach I'll offer some tips on how to get there.

See www.nicolabaird.com for info about the seven books I've written, a link to my other blog on thrifty, creative childcare (homemadekids.wordpress.com) or to contact me.

Sunday 15 June 2008

Romana is a mum

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 9, and Nell, 6, spent three happy months during summer of 2007 travelling around Britain. Now we’re home, but the travel bug is still there. Join us for the occasional sightseeing plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola

Romana, our handsome Aracuna hen – a Chilean breed that lays blue eggs – has successfully sat for 21 days on a dozen fertilized eggs and managed to hatch seven chicks. Three are Scots Dumpies (a rare UK breed) and four white trouser-feathered Silkies. The chicks are three weeks old now and we feel incredibly lucky that they’ve survived for so long given our previous experiences with foxes and hens (see the Clucking hell chapter in Pete’s book There’s A Hippo In My Cistern/Collins, #7.99).

We didn’t do this with an incubator: the eggs were bought off e-Bay, sat at Freightliners Farm, Sheringham Road, N7 for a while and even managed to avoid mishap when cycled home once Romana went broody.

3 comments:

Karin said...

How are the chicks doing? I guess they must be all grown up by now.

We've just got chickens. Hubby did start murmuring about them earlier last year, but after reading your hubby's book in September he became quite determined about the idea. I wasn't too sure to begin with, but now they are here, I'm pretty hooked, and it's not been quite a week.

Anonymous said...

Hi Karin, yes the chicks did well in 2008. All survived and grew. The Scotch dumpies were adorable, 2 cocks and a hen, altho one was a bit savaged by our other hen. Luckily Pete again managed to save a feathered friend's life, and that chick's pecked head healed. Fowl play? The chicks are now all living at Freightliners Farm because really Romana was their foster mum. Hope you continue enjoying your hens they will do some real good when the snails come. Nicola

Karin said...

I had assumed you were expanding your flock. A good way of dealing with a broody hen, I guess.

I'm hoping it's because they are still quite young, but when one of them found a snail it didn't know what to do with it and spat it out. Unless the snail was dead inside and didn't taste nice. I didn't take a look.

The eldest one seems most clued up and the other two don't always know what to do, so she takes advantage and often gets the best bits.