chicks, outdated

So we've been busy ramping up for the fall and cleaning up around the house, as well as watching the DNC, so I haven't had a chance to post these pics taken on August 16th. I love the way they hop up on her back to snuggle or preen.

Chit chat at the water cooler

This is our youngest chick, and smallest as well. Luna has it in for her, and sometimes will peck or chase her away from the rest. Moxie, as I like to call her, (tho usually we call her Little Tinky since she's the smaller of Tinkerbelle's two offspring in the brood) squeaks and runs away, trying to hide behind Big Tinky (aka Prima, or the first to hatch of the batch).

Prima shows off her profile.

Roo-watch update: The little lighter grey guy on the left has redder and more pronounced wattles...

maverick?

Hm. People in power pressuring underlings to fire their underlings for illegal reasons. I wonder if Alberto Gonzales is teaching a continuing ed class for those in the GOP... I can only hope that women disappointed with Hillary's failure to clinch the nomination will see this for what it is, and vote instead for the candidate who most closely matches the policies of the woman they hoped to put in the white house. How can they turn in droves to a ticket that openly has vowed to overturn Roe v Wade, embraces the Christian creation myth as historical fact, denies global warming (I mean, come ON already! even George W has admitted it's something to be concerned about!) and who talks about the VP slot as a lever to accomplish things Alaskans want done. Hunh?




Luke emailed me this: What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan's perspective.

wounds and weeds

Well now, see what projects bring? Dante, having helped drill holes and screw the seed tray frames together decided he needed a workbench. So we visted our pile of lumber in the back yard, measured some stuff up, and came inside to draw up some plans while I made dinner. But as he was measuring some pegboard in the basement, the tape measure released and ran through his thumb and forefinger, leaving a nasty gash. Not bad enough for stitches, but I took him to the doctor the next day anyway because he was claiming it hurt worse and it was swelling.

While the newbie doc was irrigating the wound, he must have hit a nerve because the poor boy's eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out for a moment or two. He was not impressed with the bedside manner of the doctor (not our usual, more experienced doc) nor the treatment itself, so he came home and asked for any books on herbal medicine. Which I happened to have, so he looked up "cuts" and found some remedies for cuts and bruises that he wants to make to have on hand, like a first aid kit.

We have some of the necessary herbs growing here, but I'm not sure we'll have enough to dry and make the recipe, so perhaps we'll have to buy them until we boost production. In our reading, we discovered that the pot marigold (calendula) will heal cuts, but the french marigold is actually used as a pesticide. Not a good herb to use for healing.

Said gash the night before, a couple of hours after it happened.

To help cheer her brother, Lucia went out with me to the garden and picked some flowers for the salad -- nasturtiums and borage. Then she got carried away and grabbed some flowers from the butterfly garden, so we left those on and just didn't eat them. Not having actually eaten any before, I was pleasantly surprised -- the nasturtiums were particularly tasty. I also added some lettuce which has finally begun to grow in earnest now that it's cooler.

Look! Some of the babies can fly out of the cage! Actually, this pic is almost a week old -- the original gang of seven can get out if the top isn't covered. The 3 bator babies are still feathering out and don't have the wings to make the leap yet.

Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold.

Who's your Daddy?

lately

We've been up to more than chickens recently, and here's the proof...

Dante and Lucia found 2 more monarch caterpillars on our milkweed, so we took the bigger one inside and two days later, it was already in the "J" stage.

I hadn't seen this guy for a while, but evidently he's the reason I'm going through birdseed like mad.

Dante found this guy at our friend's house and invited him onto his hand for a while.

While Grandpa and Dante packed up the kayaks, Lulu enjoyed her new bike.

This is a young coconut. We found one at Whole Foods and bought it. I found a video online that shows how to crack it open, so we did. While the video and other things I've read suggest that people love to pop a straw in and sip the water as is, no one around here was all that thrilled by it, so I made a raw chocolate cake (which tasted like stiff chocolate cake batter -- YUM) with a coconut glaze. And since I was in the kitchen, I also made a raw blueberry pie. The thing about these pies is that because it's not heavy with sugar, I don't feel gross when I eat it. So the whole pie was gone less than 12 hours after I made it.

sibling rivalry

Just after the previous video was shot of the babies settling down for the night, I turned off the light and man, what a racket! This is the sound of 10 chicks scrabbling for a spot under or near Luna for the night. You can occasionally hear Luna "growl" and sorry there are no visuals, but my camera can't see much of anything in near darkness. Or maybe it can, but I haven't read the manual...

hen and chicks

We should write a counting book

Ten chicks! Our last egg under the lights hatched out Wednesday morning at breakfast. So that makes seven in with Luna, and 3 from the 'bator. Crazy hatch rate -- far surpassing anything I'd expected. Now we just have to see who's a roo! We're hoping to keep as many of the hens as we can. For now these babies are in the incubator which is now a very tiny brooder, but I have hopes to introduce them to Luna and have her take them on. We'll see how it goes.

First up, this is a pic of bator baby #2 (won't it be lovely when they have names?) standing alone instead of being snuggled. Now, onto our last egg, which was from Tinkerbelle:



I love the way this chick looks. Reminds me of Tinkerbelle herself (which you can go back to May 2007 to see yourself) but definitely has some wyandotte features as well. Should be interesting to see how the mixes develop, and how the BLRWs develop out -- most of the ones we have are the light "splash" version, but there are some beautiful dark versions as well.

hen and chicks

Still in the tub at night, the girls and their mama enjoy days out on the front lawn in the chicken tractor. Since they're exposed to the elements, they're feathering out faster than other chicks kept under a lamp. See their pretty wings?

Tinkerbelle's chick is at the bottom right, and the rest are wyandottes. The light ones are BLRWs, and I'm fairly sure the darker ones are the gold and blue laced cross, but will have to see them with their adult feathers to be sure. I'm not sure what Luna's feeding the chick here. I think I tossed in some banana, and tho the chicks have gotten the concept and rush over to whatever tasty treat I put in their pen, Luna still rips little bits off and drops it on the ground for them. Making almost the same noise Peepers makes when he finds a snack as they meander around the yard.

Incubator baby #2

Sunday night, someone noticed that one of the eggs under the light was peeping. Monday morning, I awoke to Dante pounding on my back shouting "the egg is hatching, c'mon, you're going to miss it!" Sure enough, we caught that video, and took the pics as the chick emerged.

Well, Monday night, Luke noticed that another egg was peeping, and sure enough, all day Tuesday the little chick worked a big hole in the egg instead of just the little pip and neat circle around the egg. But it finally got around the shell and made it out around midnight.

All the hard work of hatching behind, the chick is fluffed up and adorable, snuggling with Loolabelle.

This is the first chick, out already two days, and enjoying some delicious chick crumbles on Luke's belly.

our first incubator baby

kayak!

Grandpa got Dante an inflatable kayak for his birthday, and took him and Lucia out on Pickerel Lake to break it in.

soccer camp

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