A Long Wednesday

A long day at work today, and wore me out for the evening, I'm afraid.  I walked through the remainder of the chores after Keith did the majority... we got 8 nice eggs.  If we had clean nest boxes, we think it would increase a lot, so that's what we are heading for in the new henhouse. 

Keith worked more on getting things level with the first two footings, and cementing them in.  He's missing prime golfing weather to do this, so I know he's serious about it!

Today was a balmy day in the 70's, but tomorrow we are expecting rain, some severe storming.  We called the pond man several times, and finally got a call back tonight... he wants to come tomorrow.  If he can get here before the rain starts in late afternoon, the pasture where he pulled the pond out is nearly dry.

We would love to see it started, so that the rains of this month and next could start filling it.

In the little henhouse, three (four, counting the one dead chick) of the nearly 20 eggs under the three mamas have hatched.  All three chicks appear to be viable, and so far, none of the roosters, etc. have bothered them. The two younger mamas are up and down off their eggs to eat and drink regularly, so I am not sure that any more will hatch.  I will give them another week or so. 

If you look closely, you can see the three little ones between the two mamas.  That's Silka on the right, my most broody silkie, and one of her daughters to her left.  The other is ducking under the roost to get a drink.

As you can see, they are moving around fine. The good old Frisbie is in the doorway, and we pour chick starter into it twice a day, but everyone is eating it.  As you can see, the bedding of the little henhouse is FEED... poured in there in their feeder for three years.  I have put straw in there, but we can't get the eggs when we have straw.  The feed turns to dust, and we can get the eggs easily.  Once the layers are moved to the new henhouse, this won't be an issue.  The roosters will be living here.

We also separated the big batch of chicks, and took the Partridge Rocks and Welsummers out of the trough with the littler birds.  They are now in the old aluminum horse trough, the seven bigger birds by themselves.  They chirped to their old buddies, trying in vain to see them.  They have a light devoted to them now, as it's still chilly at night, and the smaller birds now have room to move around their smaller trough, and eat and drink without being stepped on.

I'll try to get pictures of them tomorrow, as they are all feathering out nicely.

I want to thank everyone who commented on the new blog header last night.  I still have some tweaking to do, but I will get it fixed sometime this week so the color is not so jarring.  I'll also post a link to the nice lady who created it, because she has done a good job. 

I appreciate all your comments.  I especially like that she kept the Victorian flavor of the first blog header, while taking it into the "next generation".