Slacker

Sorry I have been MIA for a while. I have been up to my neck in incubators, chicks, chickens, kids, dogs, bees, rabbits, ect, ect, ect.

First topic, birds. I went out of town for a week and came home to find out that my house sitter had put my broody hen back in the coop with the rest of the chickens by accident. Luckily her eggs had only been left unattended for 24 hours or so and I fired up the incubator. Out of the seven eggs under the hen, three were clear (unfertile) and four were only a few days away from hatching. I actually saw one of the chicks jump in the egg when candled. Out of the four eggs, one died from being left in the nest too long without the hen and three began to hatch. I had issues with my incubator and two of the chicks shrink wrapped ( the membrane gets too dry and shrinks around the chick suffocating them). The lone remaining chick pipped at the wrong end and had to be helped...a lot. I ended up picking away all of the upper half of the egg so all she had to do was stretch and tear the membrane. She was too weak. I pulled the membrane off her head and picked away more of the shell. At this point all she had to do was pull her head out from under her wing and stretch. She was still too weak. I have a video of my three boys and a neighbor kid whistling at her to encourage her while I petted her wing and head to stimulate her into moving. She finally flopped out of the shell and into my hand but was still too weak to kick out of the lower half of the shell. I put her back in the incubator to gain her strength. After and hour she still only had one leg out of the shell and struggling to figure out how to kick free. After checking that she had absorbed the yolk, I realized she was still attached to the membrane by several strings of goo. I crushed the remaining shell to avoid her kicking against it and disemboweling herself and cut through the strings of goo close to her unbilical cord. I put her back in the incubator to dry off and get strong. By morning she was screaming for breakfast and running around the incubator looking for friends. She actually started to bond with the sponge I put in for humidity. I feather sexed her and she is indeed a hen!! I found her some friends that were being given away and they are all snuggling happily together in my laundry room.
   I also acquired a pair of blue laced red wyandottes! I have looked for this breed for over a year now. The chicks I hatched out last year were blue laced red wyandottes (BLRW for short) but they both were roosters. I am so excited for these birds!

Will blog about the other topics later.

Mission impossible

Because I have gained some sort of reputation as a person who can deal with any kind of animal problem no matter what it is, I ended up with this little guy in my kitchen today. He weighes 22 grams and is slightly bigger than my thumb. He's blind, he's bald and he JUMPS! If he survives long enough to open his eyes we will name him. Until then we are just calling him Mission Impossible. Wish me luck with this little guy. Even though I am trying very hard to distance myself, he is tugging at the heart strings.

Holy giant egg batman!

My little auracauna hen layed this egg this morning. Next to it is the last egg she layed. The big one is easily the size of a turkey egg. I can't imagine giving birth every day....chickens have it rough.

Crash has done it again.

Ironically, his shirt reads "Blood Clots, Sweat Dries, Bones Heal."

He has to wear the boot for two weeks, he can only take it off to shower. He is already tired of it and tries to find ways to get me to let him take it off. He is showering a lot more often these days. 

Great egg experiment update

I think the great egg experient may be a flop. The temp here have been unsteady to say the least and have made for some serious temp spikes and dips that I think might have killed my eggs. The neighbor kid swore he heard one of the eggs cheep today though and I have thought I have heard something the last few days too, so hopefully I will get SOMETHING. My broody hen got off her eggs long enough for me to candle a few a couple of days ago so I have high hopes she will be able to hatch hers. They looked right on track and I even got to see a little foot wiggling around in one egg.
I will post pics of what I do get and if anyone is interested, I will crack and post pics of the development of the eggs that didn't make it.

Chicks!!!

Ok so just one so far. The broody hatched out one little feather footed chick this morning. As long as she doesn't step on it, I will have at lest a semi sucessful hatch. I am still hopefull for her other five eggs as well. Pics will follow once the hatch is done.

Her name was Lola.....

she was a rabbit.....Wait, that doesn't sound quite right?

This is the newest bunny addition. Finally a female. Lola and Max are going to be the beginning of our survival rabbit herd (still not sure what to call it, what exactly IS a group of rabbits called!?) These particular bunnies are strictly pets, they all three use a litter box and have been strictly indoor rabbits, but their offspring will eventually become dinner. We plan on having several rabbits at various locations and will be learning (and teaching the boys) how to butcher, clean and cook rabbits. I would feel a lot better about eating a rabbit that I raised than one in the wild. They are prone to parasites that give me the heeby jeebies.

Reeses Pieces

We have added to our rabbit herd (flock?). Meet Reeses Pieces. He is a mini lop and was given to Butch by his best friends when they moved and weren't allowed to have a rabbit in the new rental. Reeses will eventually have a few girlfriends and they will be the beginning of our 4 H show bunnies.

Pic of the day

A really cool pics of some queen cells on a frame from a winter killed hive.

The great egg experiment

I candled my eggs today and saw some very varied results. I had my incubator set too low for the first two days so I added more eggs to bring me to a total of 39 and started my hatch over at day one. I may have jumped the gun on that one as some of my eggs look like they are on day five and some look like they are at day three. There was even one where I could clearly see the chicks eye starting to develop. Some of the eggs that I added had sat out on the table overnight which normally would have been perfectly fine, but it was pretty cold that night and don't think those eggs will hatch. They looked pretty clear. I will leave them for a while and see what happens. As of right now I have thirteen eggs that are clearly viable and thriving. I tried to take pics, but they didn't turn out so I borrowed a few I found online so I could show you what I saw.

Day 3

Day 5