doubling the flock

Luna ended up hatching 7 of the 8 eggs that had been under her since the beginning, or almost beginning! Which means that, since we lost Speck a couple of weeks ago while in New Jersey, we have just as many chicks as we do chickens. Still with us are Peepers, Rosie, Bandit, Tinkerbelle, Izzy, Luna and Clover. We can't wait to see how many of these are hens vs roo, but they're all so sweet it just kills me. We know that the first one out was from Tinkerbelle's egg, so a Ameracauna/Blue laced red wyandotte mix. The rest seem to be all wyandottes, with at least 2 and maybe 3 actual Blue Laced red wyandotte babies. Those are the lighter grey chicks in the picture.

Once I noticed her sitting constantly, I went out after dark, picked her up and marked all 6 eggs that were underneath her. The next time I checked, possibly the next day or the day after that, I discovered 2 more eggs in the nest and was motivated by this to block the other hens' access. So there was a gap of at least 1 day if not more between the eggs. But the two unmarked eggs that hatched did so BEFORE some of the marked eggs. The two last eggs to hatch all had marks on them, as did the one that didn't hatch. And that one, when we opened it, seemed not to be fertilized -- it looked the same as any egg you crack for your omelet in the morning. Tho, as Dante noted vociferously, it did have an unpleasant smell. We're incubating the 3 that the girls snuck in a week or so before the rest hatched, but as we're not doing well maintaining the humidity required, I'm not to hopeful. I will get batteries for one of our flashlights and try to candle them.

Ok, onto the pictures of Luna & crew enjoying an afternoon on the lawn on Saturday. Since we were out earlier today (Sunday) and thunderstorms heralded our arrival home, Luna and her brood spent the day in the tub. I did notice though that her comb has already started pinking up now that she's eating. And one more interesting, though less savory, observation I can report concerns elimination. Or as we call it around here, chicken poo. So skip the next paragraph or two if you're not interested.

While she was sitting, I blocked her coop-mates out of that particular (and popular) nest box because the girls were squeezing in (to a hardly spacious 12 inch cubical) and complicating the incubation/hatching schedules by laying eggs after the first batch had been started. Having boxed her in to box them out, I have a pretty good idea that she rarely, if ever, er, added to the aroma in the run during that time. On two occasions I came home to find that she had busted out and couldn't get back in, (evidently the summer heat kept the eggs warm enough during her absence) and as she had access from her box to both food and water, I assume she came out to void something stinky. Even so. Chickens drop blobs constantly. Many times in a day, not twice in three weeks. Ask any kid who has played outside at our house. It's very... present.

She'd soiled the nest after the first batch of 4 chicks was out, and moved off it. Luke, first up, discovered this, took out the nest, cleaned the four marked and/or peeping eggs and put them back under her. So, again, the tub remained clean after this incident and the moment her feet hit the ground outside, she wandered away from the chicks and let out a very stinky, green poo like nothing I've smelled or seen before. Though I suspect, from some residue left on the peeping eggs we put back under her the second day of hatching, that her first movement was similar. And having been in the tub all day today, she doesn't seem to have soiled it at all. I suppose it's because she all but stopped eating or drinking, but she's been eating heartily for two days now and seems to be keeping things in. Perhaps if she'd been able to get outdoors today... anyway.

Speaking of outdoors, without further ado, here's the crew's first day out of doors.




I lured the rest of the hens and Peepers to the front yard to check out the new additions. Most seemed wary, some didn't seem to care one way or the other, but Bandit came back again and again, and walked slowly around the perimeter of the entire pen several times, watching the chicks or looking at the ground to see if she could get in. Above was the first round, and then about an hour or so later, visit 2 below.


Enjoying some corn and watermelon. Mostly the corn. Luna would tear off small bits and put it on the ground in front of them at first, but there seems to be a small faction of dominant chicks -- Prima and two darker wyandotte chicks are the most consistent members of this gang. Those chicks had no problems swarming the cob and attacking it. You can see the blanket and pillows we camped on to read books and watch the chicks.

Dante helps break the corn up and feed it to the chicks.

One the chicks I suspect might be a darker BLRW like Izzy snuggles up with Dante.

Back in the brooder after a busy day on the front lawn.

Five thus far...

Luna is such a trooper. Look at her comb! You'll notice that her flockmates all have bright red combs, but this poor hen, having not really eaten or drunk much water for the past 3 weeks, lost all the color in her comb!

Anyway, at one point in the afternoon, Dante discovered Luna standing up away from where she'd been sitting on the eggs and chicks. Those four eggs are the ones that we heard peeping in this morning. By Friday evening, one of them had hatched, one had a pip so we could see a bit of the chick moving around inside. And by hatch I mean that Luna stepped on it's shell.

An eggshell is designed to distribute weight applied to it, so that you can't take a proper egg in the palm of your hand and squeeze it to break. However, once the chick has broken a hole into the shell, well, all bets are off and when your big momma hen steps on your egg, it will shatter. We thought the poor bedraggled thing that emerged halfheartedly from the wreckage was dead or very close to it. But, it turns out that after a few hours under momma's wings and the baby seemed fine.

Four babies, four peeping eggs.

Luna helped this one break free.

But after a few hours snuggling with Luna, little No. 5 fluffed up as adorably as everyone else.

3 chicks, 3 peeping eggs!

Luna hatched out 2 more chicks during the night! One has the splash coloring of a BLRW (blue laced red wyandotte), which makes sense, since both the roo and 3 of the hens are BLRWs, the first one out was from Tinkerbelle's egg, so is half ameracauna (or however you spell that), and the other chick looks to be from one of the gold laced wyandotte's -- we'll pretend it's Speck's since she was carried off a couple of weeks ago. And we just went in and found a FOURTH chick, which still has some yolk on it's feathers, but we're off to get some chick starter, so we'll have to post those later!

Primo

Luna eyes the chick warily, not sure what to make of it. She still seems startled when it moves underneath her. She pecked the baby, so we put it back under her. Eleven more eggs to go... tho only 5 more with the same-ish start date...

Peeping under momma hen

celebrate good times

We spent the fourth at home instead of the beach since the clouds seemed to threaten rain all day long. It did sprinkle a bit here and there, but we worked in the garden. Dante and I had turned under his lettuce bed a few weeks ago and that's all done digesting, so we planted some carrots and red kale in there. The broccoli was also finished, so we pulled all that for Dante's new bed. He put in some head lettuce, carrots and I forget what else. Lucia planted some cosmos and her new bed has lettuce and room for more. Luke scraped additional areas of grass from the front lawn, so we started planting buckwheat and clover.

After dinner and a shower, we were planning on doing some sparklers and morning glories I had from last year, but as we we cleaning up, the neighbors started shooting off some real fireworks. So we wandered to the driveway to watch, and did our thing after they were done.

Can you see all the spent firework sticks?

cheery cherries

Kathy wasn't feeling well the other day, so we picked up Lil and Jo and went cherry picking!


First a picnic beneath the not-quite-ripe sour cherries.



The yummiest cherry pie I've ever tasted.

I took this recipe below and just subbed cherries for the strawberries. I pitted and chopped them roughly. The crust was delicious, but you could also do the same thing with a cooked regular 1/2 pie crust, just put the berries in once it's cool.

Raw Strawberry Pie
The Joy of Vegan Baking
By Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

It is best when served within an hour or two of preparing it, since
it is at its most fresh then, but it holds up just fine in the
fridge.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Chilling Time: 1 hour
Servings: 8-12

Crust:
2 cups raw almonds or pecans
3/4 cup pitted dates, preferably Medjool

Filling:
5 cups sliced ripe strawberries
5 pitted dates, soaked 10 minutes in warm water and drained
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Place the nuts in a food processor and grind until they’re a coarse
meal. Add the 3/4 cup of dates (for the crust) and process until
thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into a non-stick or very
lightly oiled pie plate or spring form pan.

Arrange 4 cups of the sliced strawberries on top of the crust and set
aside.

In a food processor or blender, combine the remaining 1 cup of
strawberries with the 5 soaked dates and lemon juice. Puree until
smooth. Pour the sauce mixture over strawberries.

Refrigerate the pie for 1 hour before serving. This will help the pie
set and will be perfect for slicing.

splish splash

After the "last day of pottery" party, Jamie showed us the way to a nearby river through the farm land. She keeps tubes handy, so the kids had a blast walking upriver a little, hopping on, and sailing down past the moms.




After swimming/tubing, Dante and River wandered up the other branch of the river, seeking huge crawfish. Dante found one with a softer than usual shell, and River found a huge one.





We found a black raspberry bush coming ripe along the way. Dante censors his face with "the best skimming rock ever".

pottery barn

Dante has been taking a new pottery class in Andover. Jamie's studio is in an old dairy barn, that's chock full of hay and other farm equipment. She's carved out a little niche and has a couple of wheels, counters and tables for the kids to work out. His first class was at the table on the lawn on a breezy summer afternoon.

Jamie talks to the kids about their pieces, which they're seeing glazed for the first time.

hatching fever

Luna is sitting in the flock's favorite nest box for four days now on a little clutch of eight eggs. Everyone was ignoring this fact and piling in to lay, so I blocked their access to it. Not counting our chickens or anything, but hopefully she'll stay in the "zone" long enough to hatch the eggs!

successful hatch!