IT’S THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHICKAM!

Chickam is a live web broadcast, with sound, of baby chickens hatching, and then the next 8 weeks of them growing up! The camera is always on, so you can watch them 24/7!

It's 2018 and the time for Chickam is fast approaching! This year we set eggs in the incubator on March 10th & 11th, with planned hatch dates of March 31-April 1. The idea is to stagger the hatch a bit so that more people get to see chicks hatch! This year the breeds we hope to hatch are: Dark India Cornish Bantams, Polish and Brahma/Heavy mix (with possible Frizzles) and Bantam Cochins (with more possible Frizzles), along with some of our own eggs. I will candle the eggs after 10 days of incubation to see how many embryos we have! When there are bantam eggs in there, they typically hatch up to 2 days early--so check here beginning March 29th--if you see eggs, the hatch has begun! We'll update here, on Twitter, on my blog and at jackshenhouse.com with details.

Viewers can suggest names for the chicks, we’ll draw a name out of a hat for each chick as it hatches—so please dream up some wierd and fun chicken names to suggest, your name might get chosen! Since we’ve been doing this for 10 years, as you can imagine typical names such as ‘Dinner’ and other droll suggestions have been used long ago—so be silly and get creative!

During the rest of the year, we will also occasionally put the cam out in the yard with the adult chickens throughout the year (weather permitting) on Saturdays or Sundays, sometimes aimed at the nest boxes...or stuck inside of a hollowed-out pumpkin for a hilarious 'foods-eye view' of the chickens eating!

Chickam is very educational and fascinating for children, especially those studying the life cycle of animals. In the past I have given several educational live chats with question & answer segments for school children, and am happy to do so at no cost.

We live in a suburban-ranch community of Gardnerville, Nevada where we keep a small flock for pets and eggs. We've been broadcasting the hatch of baby chickens on Chickam annually, in the Spring, since 2008. A couple of years ago someone suggested that we also run the cam on the weekends weather permitting, so we do!

Our chickens are of various breeds, including Giant Cochins, Australorp, Americanas, Barred Rock, New Hampshire, Red Star, Easter Egger, Brahmas, Belgian d'Uccle, Krainkoppe, Frizzle and bantam Cochin varieties. We usually have at least one hatching each spring and raise the chicks to adolescence before taking our pick of the litter and rehoming the extra roosters and hens.