Thursday 19 June 2014

Tuesday 17 June 2014

(Mostly) warm and fuzzy

Turns out I know nothing about hatching chicks.  They don't break out of their shell and then start hollering; rather, it's the other way around: first they pip, then they break free.

Anyhoo, as of 8:20 this morning I can confirm that we've had three chicks successfully hatch.  Two are doing great, but one didn't make it.  We aren't sure if Phoebe committed infanticide or if the other chickens found it.  Phoebe had some fluff on her beak when I checked on her last night, but she was also eating the shavings in the nest, so I assumed she'd eaten some of the feathers she'd lined the nest with.  I figured she was hungry so I brought her some scratch, but she wouldn't eat it out of my hand.  I sprinkled it in a corner of the nest within her reach and decided to hope for the best.  I could hear little chirps, but tucking my hand under her sides, I found only intact eggs.  I decided against moving her off the nest and endangering the eggs that were potentially very close to hatching.  "They're pipping," I figured, and went inside to bed.  Then, seeing the fallout this morning, I lifted Phoebe's butt and found two chicks. Yay!  We tucked them into the brooder, quickly made plans for the other chickens (which involved kicking them out of that side of the barn, putting their water outside, and opening the other side of the barn for them if they wanted shade or somewhere to roost - we'll hunt for the eggs tonight), and brought the chicks back to Phoebe... who proceeded to peck them.  I had hoped that she was trying to scoot them back under her wing, but she was starting to peck harder, so we put the little ones back in the brooder.

Jordan will keep an eye on Phoebs during the day, and move any new chicks over to the brooder as soon as he finds them.


What we'll do differently next time:

If we decide to let Phoebe hatch another clutch, we'll move her to the brooder pen as soon as she starts setting.  This will isolate the nest from the other hens, and will (hopefully) minimize any losses once they start hatching.  She's a great brooder, but at this point, we aren't sure if she's a good Mom.

We could also pick up a mechanical brooder when we decide to next hatch.  This has multiple advantages: we pick the timing, we monitor for humidity and temperature, and the chickens can't sneak into the machine and lay more eggs at odd intervals.  We're home each day (of course), so we can easily handle the turning of the eggs; alternately, we can splurge on a fancy brooder that automatically turns them.

Monday 16 June 2014

I think I hear...

... an egg cracking!  Not normally cause for excitement (though our eggs are pretty darn awesome) but this egg just happened to be under Miss Phoebe at 7:00 this morning!  I am stuck at work, but Husband has assured me he will check this afternoon when he wakes up.

Stay tuned for updates!!!!! :D


Phoebe on the nest last weekend, looking suitably pleased to be disturbed. She says, "Rrrrrrrrrrrr........" :)

Sunday 15 June 2014

Super quick update!

So today is day 21 for a third of Phoebe's eggs - we had refreshed the eggs in the nest over three days after Phoebs started sitting on week-old eggs. We've checked her multiple times today, and it's difficult to resist the urge to kick her off the nest to see what's going on. I may have heard some pips at the last check, just over an hour ago, but it's difficult to tell as the other chickens are still in the same coop/stall. We should have moved Phoebe within a few days of her setting and then provided fresh eggs, but we'll call this a learning experience and hope for the best. We've got the brooder ready, with food for the chicks and some layer mash up higher for Phoebs, though if this doesn't work then she can eat chick starter along with her babes. At this point, we are too late to order chicks for meat (and the minimum order is 25 chicks) so if these chicks don't work out, then we won't be processing birds this year. I'm okay with that, since we have a bunch of other things going on (as per usual).

We're looking at staining and chinking the house this year, so we have a few appointments this week to get some rotten log ends fixed, get the propane unhooked, and get a quote for mediablasting (which is sandblasting on steriods). We looked in to stripping the old stain ourselves, but that would require pressure-washing the logs. To avoid getting water in the house, since we are living in it and our important possessions are in it, we would have to chink. But if we chink first and then apply the stripping compound and start pressure washing it off it will peel the stain under the chink as well, so it would ruin the brand new chinking job. We would much rather deal with particulate in the house than water, or redoing the chinking, so we'll see what a few different mediablasters have to say. So we've purchased the majority of the supplies for chinking, and we hope to get started soon.

Most of the garden is in, and we've been picking away at it over the last few weeks. Our peas, which went in first, are starting to come up. This is the most heartening part of this garden so far, as some of the peas I planted were seeds we saved from last year.  We also have carrots, beets, cabbages, and potatoes in. Today I planted the five pumpkins we started from seed. As I was planting them, I was on the phone with Dad (Happy Father's Day!!!) and he mentioned digging tires into the garden we had when I was growing up to encourage the pumpkins to grow, so I quickly tossed tires around three of the five pumpkins. As the idea is to keep them warmer, and our garden slopes down toward the south, I picked the three southernmost plants, and I'm leaving the two northern plants without the tires as a control group.

Zim's training is going great, he's clever and enthusiastic. Some days he gets too excited and it's a challenge to get him back on track and focused on me and what I'm asking him to do, but I am developing strategies to keep him engaged and on task.

Well, off to bed - I've got to be up a bit earlier than usual to check Phoebe before work.