Sad News....

I have some sad news to share today. I went out to the coop to do my morning check and found Hoppy, the one legged silkie, had died during the night. From the looks of things, she either got pushed out, or went out of the barn during the cold and damp night. She must have gotten disoriented in the dark and couldn't find her way back, and died from exposure.

Working with Hoppy was always a roll of the dice from the beginning. Many experienced chicken folk would have told me to euthanize her once her infirmity was apparent at a day old. I couldn't bring myself to euthanize a chick that was otherwise very healthy, and just needed a little extra help to get to the food.

Once they moved out to the coop, she was doing really well with her eating, and actually had started to grow a bit more, but never did seem to have a zest for life like the other chicks. While they were out scratching around in the run, she would be huddled in the corner of the barn, just sitting. I don't know how aware chickens are of their own quality of life, but I just didn't think she was a happy chicken, and many times I had second thoughts about whether I made the right decision in giving her so much support those first few weeks.

Sometime during the night, her fight ended. RIP, little Hoppy!

There's a Dead Body in the Creek??!!?? Oh, and our FIRST EGG!!

Yesterday was a very exciting day around our house!

Sometime between 10am and noon, one of our girls laid us the VERY FIRST EGG!! It is a perfect small brown egg - we were SO excited we did the happy egg dance! Jacob was the lucky finder of the first egg. We THINK that it was Donna the Dominque that laid it for us. Now the wait is on for Egg #2....

In other news.....

Settle in and get ready to hear about my spooky evening last night!

Last night about 10:30 I was sitting here at my PC when my daughter (11) comes in crying. After a few min of 'what's wrong' she finally says.....

'There's a dead body in the creek!'

Now, we live on 5 acres and there is a creek running through the property. The kids like to go down there and play and they were down there yesterday afternoon for a little while, but came back pretty soon - usually they linger around for hours playing.

Me: "Are you SURE it wasn't a nightmare?"

DD: "No, it's a dead body - Jacob (9 yr old brother) saw it too"

Me: "What EXACTLY did you see?"

DD: "a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and it's got a body inside"

Me: "So WHY are you just NOW telling me this?"

DD: "I didn't want to ruin our good day since we got our first egg today and and everything"

Geez - kid logic. Anyway....

By this time, my hubby has come in there and after a bit more questioning of where she saw this 'dead body' we figure we have to go check it out. In the immortal words of my hubby "it was a 'Stand By Me' moment"

Off through the brambles we go with a mini maglight and it's a DARK night - no moon.We wander down by the creek to the place I think she's describing, and tentatively shine the flashlight down and we see this:

Now, keep in mind that it is now 11pm at night and we only have a small mini-mag flashlight. It was a very surreal moment, to say the least! Thankfully, upon closer inspection, we realize that it is a very real looking Halloween dummy where someone has stuffed a pair of pants and a shirt. The recent heavy rain must have washed it down from somewhere else.

WHEW! Talk about relief!!

So, we come back in and explain to our daughter that it THANKFULLY isn't a dead body and that next time they think they find a dead body in the woods they REALLY need to tell us BEFORE 10:30 at night.

Now for the REST of the story....Turns out there wasn't 1 'dead body', but 2 'dead bodies'!As I was out there this morning taking these pics, I came back through the creek and saw this:

THIS is the one the kids saw - they didn't go past this one to see the one that my hubby and I saw last night.Thankfully, it wasn't any real dead people! And, now we have a great new family story 'remember when you thought you found a dead body in the creek??'

22 weeks and counting.....

STILL no eggs from our girls! It's come down to a 3x a day check for eggs with bitter disappointment so far....

Their combs are red, they are squatting for us and they have a light on in their coop in the early morning to extend the daylight hours. I suppose this is another lesson in patience for me, who needs so much help with being patient!

The new babies are growing fast - I separated them into two brooder pens yesterday, as 19 chicks in one pen had gotten to look like wall-to-wall feather carpeting. Now we just wait to see how many girls and boys we have. The cockerels will have to find new homes but the girls will become part of our flock or will go to a friend.

The silkies are still growing like crazy too. We had the coldest weather of the year last week, and they did great outside with their heat lamp in the coop. They are nothing now but little moving piles of fluff - too cute! When I find 5 extra minutes I'll grab some pictures to post. In the meantime, you can watch on the Chick-N-Cam. I'm broadcasting the outdoor pen during the day and the brooder after dark.