2003-04-05 - 4:10 p.m.

Peep

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best."

-Henry Van Dyke

There is nothing like waking up to the smell of coffee on a lazy Saturday and hearing the chirping of not little birds out our window but little chicks in our incubator. So far 35 chicks out of 40 have come out of the first batch we have ever put in it. That percentage is great and we still have one more day to go to see if the last 5 hatch.

I doubt the percentage will come out like that again unless we breed certain chickens and rooster in a certain holding just for the eggs for the incubation, especially since we killed a lot of our rooster now the chances of them getting fertilized is smaller now. I think we will do this in the future this way I can breed certain chickens together to get better quality chicks.

We had debated when first putting the eggs in the incubator and husband said the instructions said to clean the eggs. I laughed and said, �Do you really think the hens when they start to brood take each egg and clean them at the trough? Of course I got the look for that comment hehe.

You see it�s an ever-ending battle trying to keep the nest boxes not only clean but also with hay. The old chicken coop that we have that is slowly falling apart and the chickens not only lay in it but sometimes they sleep in it. I�ve been going out at night late to do my chores and when I pick up the eggs I have been throwing them off the nest boxes. This is keeping it cleaner a lot longer. The new hen house will have a wooden flap that will go down over it in the evening time.

I am debating that though cause chickens are awake a lot earlier then we are and some chickens may want to lay if the boxes are closed how can they? I would rather just clean out the nest boxes then have to worry about that.

With our incubator we went ahead and splurged and bought an automatic turner too. Of course it didn�t come with that good instructions, but we figured out three days to late that on the last 3 days of incubation we were suppose to take the turner out and place the eggs flat down and not turn them no more.

We started putting them down when husband got upset cause I was putting them side by side touching while he was spreading out his side trying not to touch the eggs together. �Do you really think the mother hen when she is laying on them has them separated not touching? Fine! Was all I got. Opps am I in trouble again? Yah I know I can be irritating sometimes.

Hubbie has been working hard for two days now to finish up the brooder house for the chicks. It sort of resembles one of those trash can containers you see at large apartment buildings just this one is shorter and is made out of wood. The top lifts up and you will eventually place a pole or board there to keep it open.

You can easily walk in it but couldn�t really stand up straight. We placed the hover in it. This is another wooden square that lifts from four sides to let the chicks get under. I call it the surrogate mother. It has two lamps on each side to chicks to huddle and get warm. Outside is enough room to put water and food for them.

Since they are so young right now we have put a newspaper with food on it for now. Later they will have no trouble finding their food. We still have 3 more chicks and five eggs left in the incubator. The three chicks are still wet so they need time to dry still. Gosh it will need a good cleaning out.

They have pooped all over it. Since the incubator is made of Styrofoam you can�t leave the chicks in for long or they will start pecking and eating it. When we first bought it we were disappointed to find it made so cheaply, you would think they would make it out of metal but I guess the Styrofoam makes it more insulated.

Each chicks that is put in there has to be shown where the water is, we take each chick and force it to drink at least some water then put it near the food. Each day now we will have to check to make sure their poop is coming out ok. Sometimes you get some that get stuck on their feathers and wont come out. The best way to get it out so far that we have found out is taking warm water and a cloth and pressing to their bottoms. Sometimes you just have to pull it off although that can be painful but not as painful as the chick that can�t poop cause it�s clogged up.

He will be adding air to the side of the brooder house with screen wire eventually. We are not sure where to move it right now. I am worried about the rains again this year. They say we are to have more hurricanes this year. Last year the gulf had so many it kept pouring over here and everything got wet. Its like the earth is changing where it�s hot and dry its getting cooler and wetter and vice versa.

I did suggest moving it near the close line that I have outside but now that I think about it we should put it under the big tree in our driveway where our outdoor kitchen is going to go up for our chicken processing. Well trying to keep it shorter today. I have a lot of spring-cleaning to do.

I have two friends coming over to see the chicks and the blue bonnets this week and I have a new friend who I met through the Internet through our group that has two girls Randy�s age and a 2yr girl. She lives in my town and is homeschooling for the first time. I like helping new homeschoolers since I am a veteran of 4 yrs now, its also great making new friends.

Spring time - I don't do it all