Weekly Update 7/26/19

Earlier this week, I noticed one that our second hatched was walking funny. I saw he had some buildup on his toenails, so I thought that was it. I cleaned them off, put him back in the box, but while watching him I noticed that his leg was bending funny. At first i thought it was broken., then I thought it was possibly dislocated, but then I realized that he was walking on it and moving it just fine. It was just bending funny.

After doing some research I concluded that I thing he has a Valgus/Varus Deformity (VVD). Basically a deformity in his leg that causes it to be twisted. It may grow out of it, but it may get worse. In some cases they learn to deal with it and live happy lives. If he doesn't grow out of it, he will most like be going to freezer camp with the meat chickens. 

Speaking of meat chickens, they're huge. It's they're job to grow quickly, but its astonishing to watch. It seems that at about 2 weeks old, the babies seem to double in size overnight. That happened this week. My babies went from being little tiny fluffies, to being "pre-adolescents".

 In other news, we have tons of blooms, blossoms, and tiny unripe veggies. Because of the long spring we had, our plants are a bit behind this year. I'm getting impatient waiting for my garden(s) to supply me with lots of yummy food!

Weekly Update 7-19-19

I have spent a great deal of time watching the baby chicks this week. I mean, come on, if you had a box of little fluffy babies at your house wouldn't you want to spend every moment possible starring at them! They're so fluffin cute!

The two older chicks are twice the size of the other pullets (baby hens), but this week we decided to just put them in together and see what happens. Surprise! They did just fine. Everybody is doing great together. The little one we hatched (that I am bout 85% sure is a cockerel, a baby roo) was play fighting with some of the bigger meat chicks (that are more than likely cockerels as well), but that is pretty normal, healthy chicken behavior. 

Ever since the raccoon attack, we've been making it a point to lock the chickens in their coop at night to keep them safe. The first couple nights some of the hens decided they may be safer sleeping outside the coop. It took several nights to try coax them in. The crazy leghorns, surprisingly, were the easiest. It's little miss Rita that is being the most difficult. It is still a struggle night after night, but she is getting better. Were also working on getting them back in the habit of laying their eggs in the nesting boxes again. I've been keeping them in the coop in the mornings until they've laid their eggs, hopefully it does the trick. 

Trying to keep cool in this crazy heat!

... The Best of Times.

Sometimes awful things happen at he homestead, as seen in the last blog, but many times the good out weighs the bad. Just days after a raccoon attack wipe out most of out flock, Eden Hallows very first chicks hatched. We missed both hatches, but there will be more as this was a great experience!

Baby on the left was born first. We were out of town for the weekend and my mom had stopped by to check on the coon attack survivors and discovered the little fluffy in the incubator. She named it Tanna after her husbands grandma. Tanna is very vocal, and rambunctious, and appears to be super healthy and thriving. Baby number two hatched over night a little after its "due date". Is is considerably smaller than Tanna, and came out of the shell with part of the unabsorbed yolk sac and a piece of "umbilical cord" attached to its tummy. It took its time being ready to come out of the incubator, but after a couple days it had to come out. Just before hatch, the chick absorbs the last of the yolk sac into its belly through the cord. The chick is able to survive off of that yolk for about 3 days after hatch without eating or drinking. This is how hatcheries are able to ship day old chicks. The two of them had to be separated in the brooder box for a short time because Tanna was picking at Baby2's belly, but I guessed they were OK to be together when i went to check on them and found Tanna on Baby2's side and they were hanging out just fine.

I really wanted to hatch our own babies to rebuild our flock. I set out to find somewhere to get some different hatching eggs to diversify our flock. In the end we decided to order pullets (baby hens) from a hatchery. I found a hatchery that would ship them to us right away, so they and the babies we hatched would only be a week apart and close enough to grow up together.
Watching them grow up is going to be so fun!I can't wait to see what kind of feathering and markings Tanna and Baby2 end up having. I can't wait to see every bodies little personalities. I can't wait to have a basket full of eggs again!