Random Musings

Yesterday did not go as I had planned. My goal had been to finish repairing the chicken coop and move the biddies outside. They've been jumping on top of the brooder box when I go to feed them, so it was more than time. And since yesterday was supposed to be our only good and sunny day, it made sense to do it then. Except I ran out of time. So I went to bed thinking that my window of opportunity was totally gone. But around 10:30 this morning, the rain stopped. I really only expected to have 15-20 minutes, but I have had ALL AFTERNOON outside working. :) Freckles wanted to help me move the biddies SO bad. It has been driving her crazy these last few weeks that she can hear commotion and chirping but cannot see what is going on. It doesn't help that my overly jealous dogs think they're getting treats and they're not. (No, I do not think mealworms would be a good treats for dogs!) She finally found a way to jump up and keep her head just over the opening as I was t...

Well, the flower bed is ready for some warmer weather so I can get the rest of my bulbs in the ground. And in the midst of moving things for the floors and hatching chicks, the table cloth covering the mess under the aquarium table was ruined, and after staring at the aquarium for a few weeks I decided it was time to set it back up. So I bought a backdrop for it this morning, and it is now acclimating and getting ready for future inhabitants. The filter pump still works, though it's very noisy. We bought chicks from the Little Birdie Hatchery to go with the 5 we hatched (the last 3 never fully hatched and 2 that did didn't last, hence the mess from the incubator on the tablecloth). They're all growing like weeds. I've handled these the least of any birds I've ever had, and it shows. They're also not the smartest birds we've ever had. Usually by now they know I feed them. These haven't figured that out and respond like I'm a monstrous hawk about...

After we lost our flock last month, I took 18 eggs that had not been refrigerated yet and stuck them in the incubator. I did as the instructions say, and removed the egg turner on Saturday, which was 3 days before hatch date. Sunday the hatching began, which really surprised and excited us! I thought since we had early hatching, everything might hatch early. But no such luck. We had five hatch Sunday through Monday morning. Then Monday we had one hatch with its embryo sack attached (meaning it didn't eat it) and that is not a good thing. It lasted until Tuesday, making me think it might make it. We had another egg pipe on Monday(the first cross-shaped crack the bird makes), but instead of continuing to peck all around at the egg so it could pop open, it made a hole big enough for its beak and stopped. 24 hours later there was no sound and no movement. During the night Monday we had two others start piping. One is still chirping and moving, though very slowly. The other cracked ov...