‘Broody brilliant’ – balmy weather chick births in Mayo village

Midwinter poultry births are a rarity in Ireland in the absence of incubators but one Mayo mother and her son welcomed eight chirping chicks into their lives over the new year.

Veteran poultry keeper Annie Keaveney (85) and her son, Michael, firmly believe that the unseasonably warm weather of recent weeks is responsible for their unforeseen delivery.

“It’s very rare for us to have newly hatched chickens so early in the new year,” explained Michael as he tossed morsels of rolled barley like wedding confetti at the new arrivals and their mom, Matilda.

“It’s been like spring, really, for many weeks, with temperatures on some days rising above 11 degrees centigrade,” he added.

The Keaveneys, who live in open countryside at Cloonkeash, Turlough, near Castlebar, have a number of hens, ducks and geese, which they keep as a hobby.

When neighbours drop in they are regularly gifted with hen and duck eggs which, they say, ‘cannot be beaten for taste’ due to the fact they are organic in nature.

However, the Keaveneys have a continuous challenge on their hands keeping foxes and, more latterly, mink, away from their prize poultry specimens.

Some years ago, a mink which had cheekily nested and given birth to three babies in one of the Keaveney outhouses, killed 22 chickens before Michael stopped its ghastly gallop by trapping him.

“Mink and pine martens are a particular problem for rural poultry keepers these days,” explained Michael. “In fact, they are a worse curse than foxes ever were.”