Chickens My Pet and Me

-I'm Ferne.

-And I'm Rory.

-BOTH:

-And we love animals.

Tiny mice, shiny goldfish, clip-clopping ponies

and purring cats, all make good pets. And pets are great!

We love meeting you and your pets. What are you doing today?

I'm off to meet some new friends.

I'll be back to tell you about it later.

Would you like to come with me? Come on. See you!

# My pet My pet and me

# My pet My pet and me

# Down every street Are pets to meet

# Some big some small Some scaly some furry

# Some keep very still Some are always in a hurry

# Some have four paws

-# Some have sharp claws

-GIGGLES

-# Some quack

-some bark

-some purr

-some moo

-# Some grunt

-some squawk

-some cock-a-doodle-doo

# My pet My pet and me

# My pet My pet and me

# My pet My pet and me

# Have you met My pet and me? #

GIGGLES

Woof!

Today we're in Birmingham to meet Millie and her pets.

I wonder what they are? Come on!

-Hello, Millie!

-Hello, Rory!

-And you must be Mum, hello.

-Hi.

-And who's this?

-That's my brother, Ben.

-Hello, Ben.

-Right, where are your pets?

-Come on, in the back garden!

-OK.

Oh, wow! My absolute favourite -

chickens.

They're amazing. What are their names?

Well, this one is Matilda, that one's Cola, and that one's Chocolate.

They're lovely. Which one's your favourite?

-I'd say Chocolate's my favourite.

-So is she very friendly, then?

-Yeah.

-Shall we see if she'll let us pick her up?

-Yeah.

-Yeah? OK, let's try.

Good girl. I've got her.

-Got you.

-Oh, wow! Hello, Chocolate.

-Come here, girl.

Oh, thank you. What a beautiful chicken you've got.

Let's look at her feet, here. What's that on the end of her feet?

They're little claws that help her dig.

Of course. That's what they're good for, isn't it? Digging.

Chickens are omnivorous which means they like to eat seeds and fruit

and living things like worms and creepy crawlies.

These claws are perfect for digging.

Let me just hold her, and do you want to pull her wing out?

Very gently.

'Look at her beautiful feathers.'

Do you think they're good at flying?

No, they're not very good at flying.

Chickens only fly if they're scared or going for a little explore.

I called Chocolate a she there, but I don't know if it's a girl.

What is she, a boy or a girl?

-She's a girl.

-How do you know she's a girl?

-That's because she lays eggs.

-That's right.

Girl chickens are called hens, and lay eggs.

Boy chickens are called cockerels.

Now, what else can we see?

-Look at her beak there.

-Yeah.

-It's very sharp.

-What do you think that's good for?

-For pecking and eating worms.

Yes, pecking at worms that she's found with her claws.

Well, I think Chocolate is fantastic and I absolutely love chickens,

they're my favourite.

Ferne, can you give us some fun feathery facts

about our new friends here?

Of course, Rory.

A chicken can lay as many as 300 eggs a year.

Eggs have their own protective covering

which keeps out bugs and bacteria.

There are a huge variety of chickens and lots of people keep them.

They live all over the world, in and out of people's homes.

-Wow! Is this where the chickens live?

-Yes. And it's called a coop.

That's right, a chicken's house is called a coop.

-Can we look inside?

-Yes.

-OK.

Oh, wow. This looks fantastic!

Can you tell me about all these things inside?

This here is the perch. That's where they sleep.

And here is a box and that is where they lay their eggs.

It's very nicely decorated, did you paint that?

-Yes, I did.

-Wait a minute, I can see some eggs in there.

-Can we collect them now?

-No.

-Oh, I'm so hungry! What do we need to do?

First, we are going to clean out the pen.

What do we have to do now?

-We've got to get those trays and empty them into the bin.

-OK.

Excellent. Sweep all that in there.

Two empty trays.

Now, we've got to get the new woodchippings

-and throw them in the tray.

-OK.

-Do you think the chickens are going to like it, Millie?

-Yep.

-OK. Those are looking fantastic, aren't they?

-Yes.

-Right, now, surely we can collect the eggs now?

-No.

-Oh! What do we need to do now?!

-We need to change their food.

Oh, we feed the chickens first. OK, let's do that.

So, you fill that up

-to the very top with that food.

-OK.

You can feed your chickens special grains or pellets just like this,

but it's also good to let them peck around

to get something wild as well. Maybe some creepy crawlies.

-OK. Now can we collect the eggs?

-No.

-What do we have to do first?

-We've got to change their water.

-OK, that's important.

It's important to make sure your chickens

have got fresh water every day

and that their food and water containers are nice and clean.

-OK, NOW can we collect the eggs?

-Yes!

-Yes! Brilliant, let's go.

One here.

Two, three. Three eggs.

-When the chickens are laying eggs do they make some fun noises?

-Yes!

Bwuk! Buk buk buk brrr-awk! Buk buk buk brrr-awk!

MILLIE GIGGLES

Now that we've fed and cleaned the chickens,

-we're going to have some fun, aren't we?

-Yes!

We've got all these lovely eggs,

and some extra ones, that have been boiled.

-What are we going to do with them?

-We're going to paint them.

-Excellent!

I'll give you that one. And I'll take one.

-Now, let's get going, yeah?

-Yeah.

These are looking brilliant.

-What are we going to do now, put them in an egg museum?

-No.

-No?

Mum's going to hide them in the garden

and we're going to find them.

We're going to count to ten with our eyes closed.

-We're going to have a fantastic egg hunt. Ready?

-Yeah.

-Let's count.

-BOTH:

-One, two,

three, four,

five, six,

seven, eight,

nine, ten!

-Ready or not...

-BOTH:

-Here we come!

Let's go, let's go.

I found one!

Oh, well done.

'And look, Ben is joining in, too.'

I think I found one and it's the one that says 'Rory' on it!

Well done, Ben, that was brilliant fun.

But all that hard work's made me very hungry.

-Doesn't matter, Rory, it's lunchtime!

-Yes! What's for lunch?

Eggs, of course. Come on, let's go and wash our hands.

Pancakes are one of my favourite things to eat with eggs in.

-So are mine.

-So mine.

-Look, the chickens are having their lunch, too.

-Yes, they are.

You enjoying that, ladies?

My Pet And Me!

-I love all the sounds chickens make, don't you?

-Yeah.

What do you think Chocolate is saying?

She's saying, "Do you want to dig up some worms with me?"

-She loves digging, doesn't she?

-Yeah.

If your chickens could do anything, what do you think they'd do?

If my chickens could do anything, they'll be archaeologists

cos they're really good at digging.

They'll fly over trees and go underground

and find lots of things like dinosaur fossils and bones.

And they would dig big holes to different places, like China.

Millie's chickens just lay eggs for eating.

But sometimes chickens lay special eggs that are not for eating

and we've got some special eggs right here.

What's so special about these eggs?

Inside the eggs are little chicks and they're hatching.

-One of them has already hatched.

-That's right.

-We've got one just hatched out here.

-And one that is just about to hatch.

Yes, look, it's coming out now.

Can you see the feathers moving around inside?

That's amazing, isn't it?

They normally have a mummy hen to sit on them and keep them warm.

But they don't have a mummy hen, so we've got to put them

in an incubator that keeps them warm.

So the incubator is just like a mummy hen, isn't it?

-Oh, this egg is coming right out now, this chick is popping out.

-Yes.

-It's got its head out, it's hatched.

-Oh, wow, that's amazing!

How are the chicks getting out?

Everyone thinks they use their beaks, but they don't.

On their beaks they've got like a little tooth called an egg tooth

-that they peck out with.

-Oh, that's right.

If you look at an adult chicken

they don't have one because they disappear.

Yes, they sort of fall off.

So when they get older they lose their egg tooth.

How will you look after the chicks?

-After a few hours we put them in this warm box here.

-OK.

And that keeps them warm like in the incubator.

There's one that's a little bit older, isn't there?

-Yeah.

-Shall we go and hold that one?

-Yeah.

-Come on.

Wow! Here they are.

-Oh, it's lovely, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-So fluffy.

What's in the box here?

The box has got a big heat lamp here that's very hot

to keep the chicks warm. There's some water there with stones in.

The stones make sure they don't flop in

and their food is just a little bowl in the corner there.

They've got everything they need then.

-There's something important we've not done.

-What?

-We need to give the chick a name.

-Yeah!

-What shall we call it?

-I'm going to call it Snowy.

-Aw, lovely, what a fantastic name.

Snowy is just perfect.

Millie, I've had a fantastic day,

meeting your chickens and learning how to look after them.

-Hello, Ferne.

-Hi, Rory.

-Hi, guys.

-How was your day?

Oh, it was amazing. Wait till I tell you all about it.

Today we met Millie and her chickens.

We cleaned out the chicken coop and gave them fresh food and water.

We decorated some of their eggs and had an egg hunt in the garden.

We had pancakes for lunch. Mm-mm!

Millie had some eggs in an incubator and we got to see some hatch.

It was amazing! They were so cute.

Thank you Millie and Snowy, the chick.

That sounds wonderful. And you made some great friends.

Yeah, pets are great but remember, before you touch any animal

-make sure it's OK with the owner first.

-That's right!

But one pet you can play with is ours.

Go onto the CBeebies website and play the My Pet And Me game.

We've had a fantastic day. We just love meeting you and your pets.

-# Today we met

-OINK OINK

# A lovely pet

# We see how much you care for them

# Thank you so much for sharing them

# Time for us to just remind you

# After you've played with your pet Wash your hands

# Don't forget

# It doesn't matter what pet you've got

# You might have one You might not

# It's still fun finding out What having a pet is all about

# My pet my pet and me My pet my pet and me

# My pet my pet and me Come back and see

# My pet and me! #

-Bye...

-Bye!