Monday, August 20, 2012

Another Blessing!

I was up a goodly part of the night, feeling wretched and wondering what on earth I could have eaten to cause such stomach distress. In response, I am working from home today. I have to work on creating the "Thank You" notes for the tournament recently held, check for new applicants to schedule for interviews, and get started on planning Riverfest parade and fair activities. Plenty to be done- even moving slowly, which I am. Sean left for work hours ago. I assured him that Kristen and I would manage the morning chores without him, especially if it meant that he would be home closer to 3 pm than 4 pm today. (Meaghan left at 9 am to spend the morning with Grandma Becky intent on preaching the word- I hope she meets some nice people today). Before Kristen could break her fast this morning, -I am not eating ANYTHING solid for a while- we attempted to feed and water the critters.

Kristen was drafted into feeding the piggies and the chickens in the backyard. That left me to feed the chickens, ducks, and geese in the main coop, the pullet chicks beside the barn, the chickens in the front tractor, and the horse and goats. When I realized that I pulled the short straw on that deal, I added feeding the dogs and cats to Kristen, too. Fair is fair, after all. Besides, I had made her homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast yesterday and she was going to have the pleasure of eating them again this morning. Me? Not so much.

Sean reminded me to check for more chicks in the main coop as he headed out the door. I thought that he was being a bit too optimistic, since I was fairly certain that the eggs in the 2nd nest were at least a week or more behind the first nest. Imagine my chagrin when I opened the nest box to find this:

Another chick!

Sean was right.

It did not make sense to me why we would have another chick hatch out of the 2nd nest, but then remembered that Meaghan had so very helpfully collected all the eggs from the nests about 2 weeks ago and brought them inside. Sean simply divided the eggs into two nest of 10 eggs and returned them to the broody hens. Obviously, at least one of the eggs was in the wrong nest! Which also goes a long way to explaining why I have 3 eggs in the incubator at a much less developed stage than it's nest mates chirping away in the brooder. Now what? I removed the new, healthy chick from the nest and brought him/her inside, too. Now, we wait and keep watching for more chicks, of course! I suspect that we will have another mass hatching some time this week. I checked the rest of the eggs in nest number 2 and none of the other eggs have pips in them. I do not think any more hatchings are imminent, but what do I know?

Current Total Chick Hatching Count- 34
33 were healthy and lived.
6 were sold.
27 were added to our flock.

We still hope that most of these are hens. ♥

See you soon!
Sonja ♥







3 comments:

  1. Another one? Wow! Just when you think nothing is going to hatch you get a surprise! Guess you really shouldn't count your chicks til they hatch haha :)

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  2. They are so cute!!

    Hope you are feeling better!

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  3. Woohoo sweet surprise baby! I hope you're feeling better too!

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