It's 6:16 am and there is a hole in one of the eggs! I woke up early, and was lying on the couch with Marc when I joked about hearing cheeping from the incubator. Then, we DID hear cheeping! It's early for the chick, too, as they aren't due until tonight! There's a tiny little beak peeking out of the broken egg shell, and every once in a while it cheeps. Oh my goodness, it is beyond adorable!!!
Marc is hovering over the incubator (ah, so this is why it's called The HovaBator), and thinks the first chick hatched should be named Adam or Eve. Fitting. Actually, we found another egg that has a bigger hole on the side of it that we hadn't noticed before. Marc wants to put a little dab of food dye on the head of the first chick hatched, so we can see how he/she does.
Stay tuned...I think this will be a busy day here in The Chicken Diaries. I'll be home most of the day, hovering (See? See?) over the incubator, oohing and aw'ing. I am going out for lunch with friends, and I am making a pledge right now not to spend the whole time talking about my chicks. Seriously. Okay, I'll at least try...
I'll let you know when the first chick has achieved freedom from his/her egg.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tomorrow is hatching day!
Tomorrow Marc and I are going to become parents! Apparently the whole hatching thing is pretty precise, which means that it should start sometime tomorrow afternoon and finish sometime tomorrow night. We have decided to put the incubator in the middle of the kitchen table, to facilitate the compulsive checking that we will be doing. After all, there's no point in fooling ourselves. We will be hovering over those eggs in manic anticipation all day, like Cruella Devil over a litter of dalmatians. Only with better intentions. Well, except for the roosters. Oh, let's not go there now.
Marc built a feeder for the chicks on principle, after going to the local pet store and and recoiling at the thought of paying $25 for one. He also built a plastic dome to go over their little pen. He did buy a heat lamp bulb, because even he can't create one of those, no matter how much duct tape and barbed wire he uses.
It occurred to me last night, what if only one hatches? Anyone wanna bet that one chick will become an ultra spoiled rotten diva of the chicken world? More than the hens we already have, I mean. And Marc bought a 80 kilo bag of chick starter. Whoever comes, I hope they're hungry!
I am quite excited. I probably don't need to write that, it being obvious, but I think repeating myself is a symptom of extreme excitement.
Have I mentioned how excited I am?
Marc built a feeder for the chicks on principle, after going to the local pet store and and recoiling at the thought of paying $25 for one. He also built a plastic dome to go over their little pen. He did buy a heat lamp bulb, because even he can't create one of those, no matter how much duct tape and barbed wire he uses.
It occurred to me last night, what if only one hatches? Anyone wanna bet that one chick will become an ultra spoiled rotten diva of the chicken world? More than the hens we already have, I mean. And Marc bought a 80 kilo bag of chick starter. Whoever comes, I hope they're hungry!
I am quite excited. I probably don't need to write that, it being obvious, but I think repeating myself is a symptom of extreme excitement.
Have I mentioned how excited I am?
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Two more days to Hatch day!!
Two more days to hatch day! Awk! I am getting excited, and a little nervous. What if none of them hatch? What if they're all male? What if they all hatch?? What if, what if, what if...I wonder if hens go through all of this when they are sitting on eggs. Probably not. I am literally being out-serenity'd by a chicken. Sigh.
Marc is busy building a chick nursery. I think he's pretty much McGyvering it, but he's a genius at stuff like this, so I trust him completely. Sort of. ;)
The kittens are doing well. They are growing at an amazing rate. They have this obsession with drinking out of the dog's water bucket instead of their own smaller dish, and as the weeks past they have gone from having to stand on their tippy toes in order to reach the water when the bucket is full to being able to drink from it when it is only at half mast. They spend most of their days wrestling. As they get older, their wrestling moves have come to include full body slams as well as throwing each other off of various surfaces. They have just started going upstairs, so it won't be long before they start tossing each other down the stairs for fun. At least they are evenly matched, in size and strength as well as propensity for evil.
The chickens are also thriving. The antibiotics seem to work, as there is now no sneezing or sniffling in the coop when I go in at night to close the door. Just soft snoring. I love seeing them on the front lawn, or in the fields scratching for worms. They look very peaceful and pastoral. Especially now that Bruce the rooster has stopped with the attacks. The other night the light was left on in the porch and the next morning there were at least 10 June bugs lying on the porch floor. I picked them up and flicked them out to the chickens. Apparently June bugs are the equivalent of Scooby snax to chickens. And no, I didn't feel guilty. Years ago, I somehow got a June bug stuck up under my hair during the last 30 seconds of a Canadians play-off game, and my husband at the time, Grace's dad, suggested that I wait until the game was over before he responded to my hysterical screams of "Get it out! Get it out! GET IT OUT!!!!" Since the Bible says I have to forgive my husband, I've been taking it out on June bugs ever since. Beasts. But the chickens love them.
Marc is busy building a chick nursery. I think he's pretty much McGyvering it, but he's a genius at stuff like this, so I trust him completely. Sort of. ;)
The kittens are doing well. They are growing at an amazing rate. They have this obsession with drinking out of the dog's water bucket instead of their own smaller dish, and as the weeks past they have gone from having to stand on their tippy toes in order to reach the water when the bucket is full to being able to drink from it when it is only at half mast. They spend most of their days wrestling. As they get older, their wrestling moves have come to include full body slams as well as throwing each other off of various surfaces. They have just started going upstairs, so it won't be long before they start tossing each other down the stairs for fun. At least they are evenly matched, in size and strength as well as propensity for evil.
The chickens are also thriving. The antibiotics seem to work, as there is now no sneezing or sniffling in the coop when I go in at night to close the door. Just soft snoring. I love seeing them on the front lawn, or in the fields scratching for worms. They look very peaceful and pastoral. Especially now that Bruce the rooster has stopped with the attacks. The other night the light was left on in the porch and the next morning there were at least 10 June bugs lying on the porch floor. I picked them up and flicked them out to the chickens. Apparently June bugs are the equivalent of Scooby snax to chickens. And no, I didn't feel guilty. Years ago, I somehow got a June bug stuck up under my hair during the last 30 seconds of a Canadians play-off game, and my husband at the time, Grace's dad, suggested that I wait until the game was over before he responded to my hysterical screams of "Get it out! Get it out! GET IT OUT!!!!" Since the Bible says I have to forgive my husband, I've been taking it out on June bugs ever since. Beasts. But the chickens love them.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Of Chickens, Antibiotics and Kitten Love.
It's Monday today, and the chicks are due on Friday. Marc found that the temperature in The HovaBator was a bit low today and had to turn it up. It snowed here yesterday and Marc put the coal stove on, and it heated the house so much that he had to lower the temp. of the incubator. He forgot to turn it up again. We are hoping that the chicks will be okay.
Everyone else is doing well. The chickens are on day 4 of antibiotics. That was an adventure. There are a few of the hens that have been sniffling and sneezing lately, and one that came down with a full blown sinus infection that was so serious we ended up having to put her down. We have been trying to find poultry antibiotics around here for a while, but have had no luck. I ordered some on-line, from a great place called Jeffer's, and it came last week.
Now, I am a fairly intelligent person. I do have a tendency towards apparent flightiness due to the fact that my head is always full of wonderfully distracting things that seemingly have nothing to do with day-to-day life, but I can make my brain work when I need to. Still, I had a devil of a time figuring out how much antibiotics to give to the chickens. It came in a plastic bin, and the instructions seemed designed to dose hundreds of chickens at a time. I have eight.
First it said to make a stock solution, presumably gallons of the stuff. Then, I was to "meter" the stock solution into their drinking water at an ounce per gallon, or something like that. And the stock solution does not last past 12 hours. I was, like, huh? So I did what I usually do when I am stumped. I wrote "how to give poultry antibiotics" into a search engine. I essentially got the very same instructions that are on the plastic container my antibiotics came in. One lady did suggest putting bread in the solution to make sure they eat/drink it all, which I thought was just short of genius.
I appealed to my sister for help, as she has been through this before with her chickens. Her instructions helped. I ended up putting a bit of the antibiotic powder on the tip of a teaspoon and mixing it in 4 cups of water and giving it to them with bread or crackers crushed up in it. They eat the majority of it right away and then drink the remaining water for the rest of the day. It is really difficult to get free range chickens to drink from only one source. They have the dog's water, the rabbit's water, not to mention puddles and ditches and yesterday's snow. No one had died yet, so I hope I am doing it right.
The kittens are growing magnificently. Mini is still not impressed, although she does take the time to sniff their bums on a pretty regular basis. Yesterday they figured out how to get upstairs, and spent some time playing under Grace's bed after she had retired for the night. They play, eat, drink, poop and sleep. And we derive no end of pleasure watching them. It really is quite odd, but we don't question it. Some things in life are not to be analyzed, but simply enjoyed.
To close, a bit of kitten wisdom ~ A brother who has just been biting your toes, cheeks, ears, throat, and tail should still be trusted to clean your bum. This is, though, a one chance deal. Even kittens have limits...
Everyone else is doing well. The chickens are on day 4 of antibiotics. That was an adventure. There are a few of the hens that have been sniffling and sneezing lately, and one that came down with a full blown sinus infection that was so serious we ended up having to put her down. We have been trying to find poultry antibiotics around here for a while, but have had no luck. I ordered some on-line, from a great place called Jeffer's, and it came last week.
Now, I am a fairly intelligent person. I do have a tendency towards apparent flightiness due to the fact that my head is always full of wonderfully distracting things that seemingly have nothing to do with day-to-day life, but I can make my brain work when I need to. Still, I had a devil of a time figuring out how much antibiotics to give to the chickens. It came in a plastic bin, and the instructions seemed designed to dose hundreds of chickens at a time. I have eight.
First it said to make a stock solution, presumably gallons of the stuff. Then, I was to "meter" the stock solution into their drinking water at an ounce per gallon, or something like that. And the stock solution does not last past 12 hours. I was, like, huh? So I did what I usually do when I am stumped. I wrote "how to give poultry antibiotics" into a search engine. I essentially got the very same instructions that are on the plastic container my antibiotics came in. One lady did suggest putting bread in the solution to make sure they eat/drink it all, which I thought was just short of genius.
I appealed to my sister for help, as she has been through this before with her chickens. Her instructions helped. I ended up putting a bit of the antibiotic powder on the tip of a teaspoon and mixing it in 4 cups of water and giving it to them with bread or crackers crushed up in it. They eat the majority of it right away and then drink the remaining water for the rest of the day. It is really difficult to get free range chickens to drink from only one source. They have the dog's water, the rabbit's water, not to mention puddles and ditches and yesterday's snow. No one had died yet, so I hope I am doing it right.
The kittens are growing magnificently. Mini is still not impressed, although she does take the time to sniff their bums on a pretty regular basis. Yesterday they figured out how to get upstairs, and spent some time playing under Grace's bed after she had retired for the night. They play, eat, drink, poop and sleep. And we derive no end of pleasure watching them. It really is quite odd, but we don't question it. Some things in life are not to be analyzed, but simply enjoyed.
To close, a bit of kitten wisdom ~ A brother who has just been biting your toes, cheeks, ears, throat, and tail should still be trusted to clean your bum. This is, though, a one chance deal. Even kittens have limits...
Friday, May 7, 2010
Seven days to The Hatching!
Tonight it will be seven days until The Hatching. Yesterday, I got a 5 lb bag of chick started food in the mail. I went to the local feed mill, and asked for prices. I can get a 40 kg bag of chick starter for a little over $10.00. But 40 kg??? My chicks will be eating chick starter for years! It kind of defeats the whole starter part of the Chick Starter.
I've still no idea how many chicks we'll get. I swing between expecting them all to hatch (eeep!) and fearing that none will hatch.(double eeep!) Life will, mostly likely, meet me somewhere in the middle.
We found a nest of about 10 eggs in the shed, behind some boards. We've been collecting 5 or 6 eggs a day, and the fact that there is a stockpile means that more of the hens are laying than we thought. We have 7 hens. One, Uhura, we've just never expected anything from, egg-wise. She has always been a bit fragile, shy, scruffy, sort of like the snot-nosed kid in grade school that always gets bullied and hangs out in the library at lunch time. Last summer, I used treats and coaxing to get her to come out of the coop, and she is pretty much as free-range as the rest now. She has special privileges, though. When I'm giving the chickens bread, she sits right by me and gets hers hand fed to her. Sometimes she'll sit on my lap for treats while the others scramble to grab the bits I throw out to them. When Uhura was more timid and bully bait, she didn't do well in the melee for treats. Now she probably could hold her own, but she's a pampered princess and doesn't need to anymore. She has only started laying eggs this spring, which is good news.
When we were choosing eggs to go in the incubator, Marc and I both wanted to make sure that we had some of Uhura's eggs to add in. It's a bit odd, as she is not the finest specimen of chicken-hood. But she was needy and a bit weak and so we put more effort into her and so she's special. We want to see her chicks. High tech geneticists, we're not.
If the chicks hatch next week-end, we'll be in the midst of the busiest week-end that we've had in a long time. It figures. It will all work out, though. I love new experiences. Especially when they involve fluffy, wobbly new creatures.
Mini, as dog of the family, protector and on-duty big sister, will most likely be adopting a permanent air of martyrdom. It's going take a lot of Scooby snacks to make up for kittens AND chicks....
I've still no idea how many chicks we'll get. I swing between expecting them all to hatch (eeep!) and fearing that none will hatch.(double eeep!) Life will, mostly likely, meet me somewhere in the middle.
We found a nest of about 10 eggs in the shed, behind some boards. We've been collecting 5 or 6 eggs a day, and the fact that there is a stockpile means that more of the hens are laying than we thought. We have 7 hens. One, Uhura, we've just never expected anything from, egg-wise. She has always been a bit fragile, shy, scruffy, sort of like the snot-nosed kid in grade school that always gets bullied and hangs out in the library at lunch time. Last summer, I used treats and coaxing to get her to come out of the coop, and she is pretty much as free-range as the rest now. She has special privileges, though. When I'm giving the chickens bread, she sits right by me and gets hers hand fed to her. Sometimes she'll sit on my lap for treats while the others scramble to grab the bits I throw out to them. When Uhura was more timid and bully bait, she didn't do well in the melee for treats. Now she probably could hold her own, but she's a pampered princess and doesn't need to anymore. She has only started laying eggs this spring, which is good news.
When we were choosing eggs to go in the incubator, Marc and I both wanted to make sure that we had some of Uhura's eggs to add in. It's a bit odd, as she is not the finest specimen of chicken-hood. But she was needy and a bit weak and so we put more effort into her and so she's special. We want to see her chicks. High tech geneticists, we're not.
If the chicks hatch next week-end, we'll be in the midst of the busiest week-end that we've had in a long time. It figures. It will all work out, though. I love new experiences. Especially when they involve fluffy, wobbly new creatures.
Mini, as dog of the family, protector and on-duty big sister, will most likely be adopting a permanent air of martyrdom. It's going take a lot of Scooby snacks to make up for kittens AND chicks....
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
An Evening Walk Down The Lane...en masse!
Last night we had our friend, Mark Tasse, over for Lost night. Every Tuesday night we all have supper together and then watch Lost, which is coming close to the end of it's last season. Last night was heart-breaking. It's an surprising event when the sadness of the happenings in the show trump the confusion of it all, but what can I say. We're junkies.
After supper but before Lost came on, there was a gorgeous double rainbow outside. I wanted to go for a walk down the lane, and the Marc(k)s accommodated me and came along. We also took Teddy, my friend's dog that we were keeping for the night, our dog Mini, the rabbit and the two kittens.
The dogs "get" the walk thing like no one's business. They love it. They live for it. It is air and water to them. Pippin the bunny enjoys walks because the dogs are there. He could do without a traipse down the lane, but he can't do without Mini, so along he comes. He has a habit of stopping in the middle of the lane, usually on the way back, for an emergency paw cleaning. There is only so much lane mud a bunny can handle. It takes a bit of coaxing to get him moving again, if not a gentle boot in the behind, but he is learning to co-operate.
The kittens are a different thing all together. I worked out a plan to acclimatize them to walking the lane. I was going to take them out, one at a time, teach them the drill, work them up to eventually walking the whole thing by themselves. Yada yada yada. We couldn't all go and leave one behind. We'd be hearing the wails of despair all the way down. Talk about putting a damper on things.
So we scooped up both kittens, walked partway down the lane, and put them on the ground and hoped they would follow. They stood uncertainly for a few seconds until one brother smacked the other brother upside the head for fun. Then they rolled around together on the lane a bit and headed, bouncing and tripping, back to the house. I picked up Sheldon, and left Sawyer on the lane by himself. He had no choice to follow. It's one thing to be unspeakably brave when your one pound fluff-ball of a brother is at your side. Alone, it's best to stick with the gang. He followed manfully. After a bit, I put Sheldon down, scooped up Sawyer and repeated the process. When I put them both down together then, they just knew to follow. They ended up walking the entire length of the lane. It was an impressive feat for such little guys.
So we had a lovely evening. Marc did mention that it would be interesting if we could get the chickens to follow us on our walks down the lane.
**sigh**
Oh, there are only nine days to go to hatching day! Everything seems to be going well. I keep dreaming about chicks pecking out of eggs. Fun!
After supper but before Lost came on, there was a gorgeous double rainbow outside. I wanted to go for a walk down the lane, and the Marc(k)s accommodated me and came along. We also took Teddy, my friend's dog that we were keeping for the night, our dog Mini, the rabbit and the two kittens.
The dogs "get" the walk thing like no one's business. They love it. They live for it. It is air and water to them. Pippin the bunny enjoys walks because the dogs are there. He could do without a traipse down the lane, but he can't do without Mini, so along he comes. He has a habit of stopping in the middle of the lane, usually on the way back, for an emergency paw cleaning. There is only so much lane mud a bunny can handle. It takes a bit of coaxing to get him moving again, if not a gentle boot in the behind, but he is learning to co-operate.
The kittens are a different thing all together. I worked out a plan to acclimatize them to walking the lane. I was going to take them out, one at a time, teach them the drill, work them up to eventually walking the whole thing by themselves. Yada yada yada. We couldn't all go and leave one behind. We'd be hearing the wails of despair all the way down. Talk about putting a damper on things.
So we scooped up both kittens, walked partway down the lane, and put them on the ground and hoped they would follow. They stood uncertainly for a few seconds until one brother smacked the other brother upside the head for fun. Then they rolled around together on the lane a bit and headed, bouncing and tripping, back to the house. I picked up Sheldon, and left Sawyer on the lane by himself. He had no choice to follow. It's one thing to be unspeakably brave when your one pound fluff-ball of a brother is at your side. Alone, it's best to stick with the gang. He followed manfully. After a bit, I put Sheldon down, scooped up Sawyer and repeated the process. When I put them both down together then, they just knew to follow. They ended up walking the entire length of the lane. It was an impressive feat for such little guys.
So we had a lovely evening. Marc did mention that it would be interesting if we could get the chickens to follow us on our walks down the lane.
**sigh**
Oh, there are only nine days to go to hatching day! Everything seems to be going well. I keep dreaming about chicks pecking out of eggs. Fun!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Countdown to the Hatching ...10 days to go!
So as far as I can tell, we are on day 11 with the incubated eggs. Ten days to go. Woot! I have to tell you, waiting for the eggs to develop and hatch is a pretty boring endeavor. I had grand plans of posting every day about the adventures of nurturing this little group of eggs into full-blown chick fluffiness. I'm actually grateful we haven't had many adventures with this. Last week, we had a serious snowfall that cut power in some places, but not here. Thankfully. Even last night, friends I know had lost their power, probably due to thunder and wind storms. We have remained plugged in and on-line and I am glad.
This is not to say that there have not been other sorts of adventures. The kittens are a going concern, even now as the kitten-squirts have subsided (otherwise known in classier circles as diarrhea). So many rules, so few brain cells. I shouldn't be so hard on them. They are very young, only 8 weeks now. They are also unspeakably cute. I took Sheldon with me for a walk down the lane last night. Well, partly down the lane. Let's say he lacks focus. I ended up carrying him much of the way, but he's so small and sweet, it was a pleasure.
I figure at first, I'll have to take them one at a time. Otherwise, they'll just wrestle and tumble in the middle of the lane while I go nuts trying to coax them to follow me. Someone is going to get tossed into the water-filled ditch, I just know it. Probably Sheldon. Sawyer is turning out to be a bit of a bully. There's a fine line between the squealing, whining and complaining that they both do when wrestling and gnawing on each other, and the desperate wailing that happens when brother has a tooth 'n' claw grip on some vital body part and is going for broke. Ouch. The humans in the family all have claw marks and scratches up both arms and legs. One wonders what the babies look like under all that fur...
Mini lost her temper with bunny twice yesterday. There's the growling, brief bit of snarling that says, "Get away from my bum, you perv!" And then there's the out-of-control ferocious snarl that is, in no uncertain terms, a definite effort to solve the irritating bunny problem once and for all. She is always very remorseful afterward. I feel for her. I have, on occasion, had my "little bit of patience" meet up with "a whole lotta crazy" and have had close to the same reaction. But no matter how maddeningly irritating someone is, one cannot grab them by the neck and shake them until their teeth fall out and their knees go weak. Or so I've been told...
Anyway, in 10 days, the fun really starts!
This is not to say that there have not been other sorts of adventures. The kittens are a going concern, even now as the kitten-squirts have subsided (otherwise known in classier circles as diarrhea). So many rules, so few brain cells. I shouldn't be so hard on them. They are very young, only 8 weeks now. They are also unspeakably cute. I took Sheldon with me for a walk down the lane last night. Well, partly down the lane. Let's say he lacks focus. I ended up carrying him much of the way, but he's so small and sweet, it was a pleasure.
I figure at first, I'll have to take them one at a time. Otherwise, they'll just wrestle and tumble in the middle of the lane while I go nuts trying to coax them to follow me. Someone is going to get tossed into the water-filled ditch, I just know it. Probably Sheldon. Sawyer is turning out to be a bit of a bully. There's a fine line between the squealing, whining and complaining that they both do when wrestling and gnawing on each other, and the desperate wailing that happens when brother has a tooth 'n' claw grip on some vital body part and is going for broke. Ouch. The humans in the family all have claw marks and scratches up both arms and legs. One wonders what the babies look like under all that fur...
Mini lost her temper with bunny twice yesterday. There's the growling, brief bit of snarling that says, "Get away from my bum, you perv!" And then there's the out-of-control ferocious snarl that is, in no uncertain terms, a definite effort to solve the irritating bunny problem once and for all. She is always very remorseful afterward. I feel for her. I have, on occasion, had my "little bit of patience" meet up with "a whole lotta crazy" and have had close to the same reaction. But no matter how maddeningly irritating someone is, one cannot grab them by the neck and shake them until their teeth fall out and their knees go weak. Or so I've been told...
Anyway, in 10 days, the fun really starts!
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