Residents from an Andover care home have had the joy of watching ‘cute and fluffy’ chicks hatch from eggs and seeing them grow over two weeks.

Staff at Harrier Grange, which offers residential, nursing, dementia and respite care in Hawker Siddeley Way, arranged for Living Eggs in Reading to deliver an egg hatching kit - including 10 eggs and an incubator - to the home.

Residents enjoyed watching the progress of the hatching eggs and once the chicks were out they witnessed them developing over 12 days. They got to hold the chicks once they were old enough.

Harrier Grange head of activities Chris Martin said: “The residents, staff, and family members have all enjoyed holding the chicks and it's had a positive impact on our residents here by giving them something cute and fluffy to interact with.

“Animal-assisted therapy is recognised as an occupational therapy by experts and these chicks had the added benefit of bringing back lots of memories for many of our residents of the ‘good old days’ when many families had chickens in their gardens.

“Having seen the chicks hatch and grow, our residents felt a real connection with the chicks and loved holding them. This has been an all-around fantastic experience for them.”