Chicks

Hannah and Samantha had ordered 15 chicks a few months ago for showmanship competitions in 4-H. All but one survived to the time when they were old enough to be moved to the barn. Sadly, once moved to the barn, "something" discovered them and killed all but four. So Hannah and Samantha ordered more chicks which arrived week ago.

Yesterday morning one of the surviving chicks from the first batch was dead and one was looking iff-y. Hannah separated it from the flock, hand fed it and put it in the mudroom where it could be monitored.

By yesterday afternoon it had perked up enough that it was able to get out of it's box. It went into the box where the new chicks were and began to "mother" them. Hannah was able to get some really cute photos:

There are more chicks tucked under her wings.

Babies!

Lots of new babies here!

Dollymadison

Anna, Trinaest, and William

Paski with Trinaest and William

Anna

Dolly (blue collar), Trinaest, Raclette (pink collar)

Recent Newcomers

We have had some newcomers to our place in the last week or so.

First we had seven eggs in an incubator. Five hatched but only four survived. We'll know in a few weeks if we have roosters or hens. Hens will be put with the flock; roosters will be raised for a few months and then either butchered or shipped to the auction.

Last weekend Shish K. Bob went to the slaughterhouse, where his hanging weight was a whopping 130 pounds! This morning we picked up Stew E. Veal!

Chicks!

So much for selling off some chickens to lower the feed bill...



One of our hens had escaped the chicken coop months ago. We caught her and returned her to the coop, only to find her escaped again. We decided to leave her alone.

Thursday morning the girls came running in the from the barn shouting that there were chicks on the roof of the coop. I thought they were talking about the four month old chicks that we had recently put out in the coop. I groaned, thinking of the time it would take to get them down and back in the coop, and asked, "How did they get out?" Rachel looked at me funny and said, "From their shells!" Samantha then told me they were little chicks.

Out in the barn we have a tarp over the top of the nesting boxes in the coop. The hen had laid her eggs up there and two had hatched out. I had to go to work, so I left Abby in charge of figuring out how to get them down. They called me throughout the day to give me updates on how many had hatched. In total we had nine chicks hatch out of the fifteen eggs that had been laid.

Mama Hen is doing a great job of caring for them. It will interesting to see how many hens and how many roosters we end up with...

The Cousins are Here! The Cousins are Here!

"The Cousins are Here! The Cousins are Here!" This was the cry we heard coming from the sandpile at my mom's yesterday as all the girls piled out of the van. Elizabeth and Claudia raced down the hill happily embraced their cousins. They hugged their Aunt and Uncle too.

Sam supervised the kids' swimming while my mom and I made lunch. The kids did more swimming after lunch. Mom loaded us up with all kinds of goodies: watermelon, cookies, cereals that normally don't cross my kids' paths, bread, rolls, and hotdogs. We left for home with the children already squabbling over who got to sit next to Claudia or Elizabeth. I think we have worked out a rotating schedule.

Yesterday before we had gone to mom's Hannah had found another chick that had hatched. This one was white with the brown stripes. It looks very much different from the other two. Hannah can't decide if she wants to keep them. I am trying to talk her into giving them back to Mrs. Gilchenok (from whence the eggs came), and we'll try to raise some of our own eggs. At this point she can't decide.

Today is clipping goats. Our plan is to go over and help Mrs. Ski in the AM, since she has 14 or so to do. We only have 4 left to clip (I think??). Hannah has 10 chickens to bathe, but Claudia is rather excited to help her.

It is a bit of "Country Mouse, City Mouse" here with the Kansas cousins. We were stuck behind a John Deere towing a hay baler last night on our way home from the 4H meeting, and our girls started telling Elizabeth and Claudia about all the different types and brands of tractors and pointing out the different ones that the farmers on our way home had. Later, when we got home, Abby showed Elizabeth the hay baler we have in our yard.

While we were driving home we saw some deer in a farmer's corn field. Elizabeth was telling the girls, " I can see deer at home in Kansas when I look out the window in my closet." Abby stopped her at that point with, "Wait a minute! You have a WINDOW in your CLOSET!?!"

I think Elizabeth feels the same "shock and awe" about having goats in the back yard that you can play with anytime you want...

Phyllis May Have Eggs....

....but we have CHICKS!!!

A fellow 4H'er had some fertilized guinea hen eggs that she wanted us to put under one of our broody hens to see if they would hatch. So we tried it but the hen was chased off the nest by an owl. The hen disappeared and the eggs got badly disturbed. I figured they were dead, but Hannah wanted to try and put them under her bantam hen, Midnight.

Two chicks hatched this afternoon!! There are two more eggs under Midnight, but we do not know if they are viable or not. Maybe by tomorrow we'll have more!

Day Two

Unknown time in the early morning: Awoke to both Hannah and Samantha throwing up. Always the best thing to wake up to; no gradual stretching, no easing out of a dream state. Your eyes are opening as your feet are clearing the mound of dirty laundry in the middle of the floor and your mind is racing as to where the closest "bucket" could be.

After dealing with all that, we discovered that 3 more chicks had died. I left an email with the other family that purchased chicks to find out how many of theirs had died. So far we are still at less than 50% dead, so not so bad.

8:30 AM (yes all that happened BEFORE 8AM!): we are on the road heading to the orthodontist for Hannah's broken wire, but not after we stop at the gas station, the bank and the hairdresser (who was closed).

9 AM: Sam drops Abby, Hannah, and I off at the dentist. The dentist agrees to do Abby at the same time so I can cancel our appointment for next week. I put together the gifts for the judges while they get worked on. Sam meantime is returning all the bottles and cans from my mom and the firehouse. He has Samantha, Rachel and Nathalie as helpers. We finish before he does (the firehouse goes through a LOT of cans).

10:30 AM: I am dropped off at the hair dresser for a quick cut. Sam leaves for the other bank and grocery store to buy the sodas for the Public Speaking event.

11 AM: Sam is back at the hair dresser. He never made it to the bank. As he was leaving the battery gauges all bottomed out so he drove to the auto part store where he ended up having to replace the battery. Thankfully we had just bought the battery 2 months ago so it was still under warranty! I still had another 15 minutes or so to go on my hair, so Sam headed for the bank with all the girls.

11:30 AM: Sam returns to pick me up and we go to the gorcery store for the sodas.

12:30 PM: Lunch

12:45: Sam calls the chick place and they tell us to call back the next day with the total number of losses.
Abby and Nathalie practice their speeches while Hannah takes a nap. I tell Samantha that she needs to just rest for 5 minutes so that Hannah doesn't feel lonely. Depsite her insisting that she isn't tired, Samantha sleeps for nearly 3 hours.

5PM: Out the door to Subway. This is one of those family traditions for the nights when we have 4H. All the girls line up at the counter and one by one order their sandwiches. After getting our sandwiches we go to the community center to eat them.

6PM: We set up for the public speaking event.
7PM: Public speaking. We had 23 kids present either speeches or demonstrations. Eleven of them were from our 4H club! It took 2 and 1/2 hours for all of them to present. They were amazing! The Smith girls did excellent jobs. Rachel chickened out at the last minute, but that's okay, she'll do it next year. We also ended up signing on 4 more Great Goats 4H'ers!!
Our judges were excellent and were a nice diverse group: A pastor, A first selectman, a retired teacher, and beekeeping instructor.
We have also decided that I can't make Public Speaking manditory for our 4H club (like I had threatened to do). We'd still be there right now if all 29 members presented!

11PM: We arrived home, removed another dead chick, and threw the children in bed.

I thought this was supposed to be a vacation!?

Day One

First day of vacation.
7AM: phone call. Caller ID says US Government?!?! Turns out to be the Willimantic post office informing me that our chicks have arrived and can I be there in an hour.
7:45 AM: Arrive at said post office and pickup chicks. Go to Agway and get waterers and medicated feed.
8:30AM: Get home. Give orders to children for the day as I go out to do a window job.
9:30 AM - 3PM: work on windows. Get phone calls from husband with updates on how many chicks have died. So far 2, but 2 more are failing fast.
4 PM: get home and hear from husband about too many phone calls, misbehaving dog, and misbehaving children. I make dinner.
6PM: Plan out my day tomorrow: Orthodontist (Hannah broke a wire), bank, grocery store, haircut, buy gifts for 4H judges, call chicken company and report losses, help Rachel with her speech, wrap gifts for judges, and set up for Public Speaking competition.

Phew!

Countdown to chicks

Today is Feb. 4th. Is my barn ready for the chicks? NO! My loving and sweet and, oh who am I kidding?!?! My husband has decided that since he now has more free time due to being laid off and there being no part-time work anywhere within the state of Connecticut, he is going to build me my mud room. And not just any mudroom, the mudroom of my dreams. Complete with shelving, built-in boot bins, hat and mitten storage, specially designed top shelves that will accommodate our plethora of sleeping bags and miscellaneous camping equipment. Seriously, I am the mother of five kids and leader of numerous 4-H'ers, I really do dream about mudrooms.

Not only is he going to build me this luxurious room, he is also, get this, going to complete it BEFORE the chicks come on or around Feb 18th. Because, he has decided, that even though we have the heat lamps, it simply will not be warm enough in the barn for the chicks.

Now this may seem that I am complaining about my husband and his thinking/planning process, but in actuality, I am thrilled. You see, he has finally figured out that age old adage, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." If I have a mudroom in which I can shut the door, I am happy. If I am happy, I will tolerate 50+/- chicks in my house for a few weeks.

Chicks

We bought our heat lamps, so last night I ordered some of our chicks!
Hannah ordered 5 Golden Sebrights, 5 Silver Sebrights, and 5 Mille Fleurs. We ordered some Rhode Island Reds for now. We'll get Auracanas later when they are available. Hannah (thankfully!) decided to not get the 25 assorted feathered bantams even though they were on special.

They are shipped by the post office! Can you imagine that package going through the mail? It must be kind of interesting in this "farming community" at the local post office this time of year as I am sure we are not the only ones ordering chicks! They should be here around February 20th. This gives Sam a little more than a month to install the heat lamp in the barn. I still think I am going to end up with chicks in the playroom....

Procrastination

I am procrastinating. But, I have a good reason! I am procrastinating because my husband is procrastinating.

You see, I need to order chicks (baby chickens, not women! Although another set of hands around the house to get some of this laundry done, vacuumi.... er.. never mind...). Of our 30 hens only about 4 are actually still laying and so we need to order new chicks. We need to order them now while there is a good supply of them at the chick factory (tee hee, sorry this makes me laugh). The problem: It is cold here, well, it is supposed to be cold here. It was 68 degrees yesterday. It will be cold here again; it is after all January.

The chicks I am supposed to be ordering will arrive in about 4 weeks. They will need to be kept warm. They will need a heat lamp for the chick pen. We don't own a heat lamp, as we have in the past bought our chicks in April. My husband is supposed to be purchasing a heat lamp and installing it in the barn so that it doesn't burn the barn down. He has yet to even grace the town in which Tractor Supply resides. (in his defense he has been working like 70+ hours a week)

Could I purchase the heat lamp? Certainly, but I drive a gas guzzling van that gets 12 miles per gallon. For me to drive and buy the heat lamp would cost more in gas than the actual lamp. Sam drives a nice economical car that gets 28 miles per gallon. Besides he knows things like wattages, volts, and amps, that I am completely clueless about. Again, that whole, "Don't want to burn down the barn thing..."

So why don't I just order the chicks anyway and trust that he will get the heat lamp? Because past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior. I know if I order those chicks, they will come in the middle of February during a monster blizzard and I will have 50 chicks residing in my kids' playroom.

I know this because in the past I have had 6 baby goats residing in the kids' playroom. I have had chicks in the playroom; not 50, just 12 (as if that makes a difference!?!). I have had a nuc of honey bees waiting for a hive to be put together. (Although I have to say 10,000 stinging buzzing critters certainly inspired Sam to finish that little project lickety-split!)

And so, I am procrastinating....