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.

Silkie Moving Day!

The silkies moved out today into the ChickNBarn and attached run. They are SOOOO happy to have room to stretch and run and scratch. I think they will be fine with the temps. They definately are not having any problems with the 52 degrees we have right now! I've put a heat lamp into the barn where they will go at night to give them a little extra warmth while they adjust to the outdoors.

My only concern at this point is little Hoppy. I'll have to watch her closely over the next few days to make sure she is eating and drinking and is able to maneuver around the coop. Cross your fingers for her! One thing is already sure - she is able to get around a LOT easier on the ground than in the shavings of the brooder, so that is a good sign! In my last post, I mistakenly said they were seven weeks old. Actually, they have just passed the six week mark. It just FELT like an eternity that they were in the brooder here in my office!

All I wanted for Christmas WAS....

My girls have let me down....no eggs for Christmas. Sigh. Well, there's always next week, I suppose! Either that, or it's dumplings for New Years! I'm just kidding of course...

In other news Santa brought me my outdoor webcam for Christmas, so now I can broadcast either live video of the outdoor pen OR the indoor brooders!

The Silkies are 7 weeks old now, and need to go outside SOON! Since the weather man is calling for well above freezing temps over the next week, tomorrow may be moving day for them. I know they will be very happy to get out of their cramped brooder! My only worry is Little Hoppy. She is still only about half the size of the others, but is growing stronger and much better at getting around now. I suppose I can always try moving them out and if it doesn't work out, they can come back in.

The new babies turned one week old today! They are already getting their wing feathers coming in and it won't be long before I have to put the lid over the brooder to keep them from flying all over the house. They are so cute!

The New Batch of Chicks has Hatched!

The school hatching project wrapped up this week. I've had such a blast with this whole project from start to finish - from the beginning working with the kids each week, to the final hatch that I was able to share with everyone through the wonders of the internet! My friends at BYC ooh'd and ah'd through the hatching process as it was captured on my webcam. I've moved the cam to the brooder now - you can watch the little guys running around being cute!

Final tally...15 Barred Rocks went in the bator - 13 made it through to day 18 and all 13 hatched. They were lively and strong from the minute I could candle them - not to mention they were packed expertly! Thank you thank you Lisa for sending such wonderful eggs!!
Final hatch % on those - 87%

14 Buff Orpington eggs started - Those eggs were well packed and arrived safely, but were an interesting mix of sizes and colors and porosity. From the start, they did not look as lively as the BRs when candled, and always seemed to be a day behind in development. 12 made it through to day 19 - but 2 of those were iffy - showed development, but no movement, but figured I'd leave them just in case. Of those 12, 7 hatched on their own, and #8 hatched with a lot of help. So, 8 of 12 there - 75%. I feel sure 3 of the bunch would not have been able to completely hatch with out help, but of the 3, 2 of them looked good. Unfortunately the last BO that needed the most help was just too weak and passed away later that same day.

I really can't remember anything in a long time that I got this excited about. Best of all, I got to share the action with the kids in Andrew's class AND the gang at BYC. I took two of the eggs that were close to hatching to the school on Wednesday, and the kids got to see one emerging from the shell - a moment I'm sure many of them will not forget! I really needed something like this to end a rather difficult year on a positive note!

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!!

PS...In case you missed the hatch....here's a video of one of them hatching out - watching them come of the eggs never gets old - what a miracle and symbol of God's grand design and renewal of life.

Here's what's happening lately....

The silkies will be FOUR weeks old tomorrow...and they had their first outing into the big outdoors last Saturday. There are not many days in December that hit over 70 degrees, and so the nice afternoons are not to be wasted when there are baby chicks ready to explore the big world. Even Hoppy got into the fun, pecking at the fresh grass that has regrown since the big girls graduated out of the ChickNBarn/Run. Since it was another nice afternoon today, they got another couple of hours out in the warm sun. I think it made them grow even faster!


I'm watching the big girls intently now for signs they are getting ready to start giving us some eggs. Their combs and wattles are getting much redder now, and we're waiting every day for the 'egg squat' that indicates they are getting close. Since they will be 20 weeks old on Christmas, my new favorite Christmas song is 'All I want for Christmas is a fresh laid egg....'.

Finally, I just wanted to leave you with a picture of one of the babies. He is very interested in this computer thing, and wants to know why HIS picture is not at the top of the blog page...

Project "School Incubation"...day 2 and counting...

Incubation fever strikes again! Andrew asked if we could do an incubator project with his 2nd grade class, and of course I said 'yes!'. Those of you who suffer from the chicken affliction will know that you can never say 'no' to hatching more eggs! We picked this week to set the eggs, as we have exactly four weeks of uninterrupted school between the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

I dropped the incubator by the school on Monday to give it time to adjust to the classroom temperatures and make sure it was steady before setting the eggs on Wednesday. The kids were very curious and asked lots of great questions about the incubator, chickens and hatching eggs! The eggs were delivered on Wednesday morning to the school. I have set a few of them there and the rest here at home just in case one incubator does not perform. I'd hate to have the kids disappointed if we don't get ANY eggs to hatch! Of course, the other issue may be if we get TOO many eggs to hatch....

I'll be going back to the school every few days to check on the eggs and to talk to the kids about chickens, the parts of an egg and embryo development. It's really fun to get back in the classroom again, if only just for a few minutes! Hopefully the kids will take away some knowledge of chickens, eggs and the life cycle from all this - I'm sure they won't soon forget those fuzzy little chicks if all goes well.

In other news...The silkie babies continue to grow like little weeds. These little guys can EAT! They are getting their feathers in now, and starting to act like little adults - working out the 'pecking' order. So far I have strong suspicions that we have at least 3 roosters, but silkies can be notoriously sneaky about hiding gender, so we'll just have to see...

Hoppy, the one legged chicken is still getting along. I would like to see her growing more as she is still significantly smaller than the other chicks, but she seems perky and healthy otherwise. Thankfully the other chicks don't seem to single Hoppy out for 'unwanted' attention, so as long as she is doing OK and not getting picked on, I'm happy to leave her in the brooder with the other chicks.

There is one other chick that has developed some issues. Rascal is one of the partridge babies. I believe she has suffered a head injury, which has caused crookneck. It was much worse on Wednesday but seems to be getting slowly better. She is eating and drinking well, so it's more a wait and see game than anything else at this point. On Wednesday morning she could not hardly hold up her head and it was twisted all the way around. By this morning she can lift her head just fine, and the twist is only slight. She still has seizures or 'fits' once in a while - most often when startled - where she shakes her head and walks around backwards for a few seconds, but much less than on Wednesday. I'm optimistic she will make a good recovery!

Finally the big girls are getting closer and closer to giving us some eggs! They will be 20 weeks old on Christmas, but many times the lack of daylight will delay those first eggs coming, so I will have to be patient! Still, I've uncovered the nest boxes for them and now it's just a waiting game. Again and again I am glad I took the time and effort to cover their run. They often fly up into the netting, but can't get over the fence, thankfully! I have no doubt they'd be wanding all over the woods, and worse yet in the neighbors' yards. Since I want to be able to keep my chickens, it's important that they are good neighborly chickens (in other words, stay at HOME and stay quiet!)

They are doing really well with the cold weather - even though it's not been bitterly cold here, we have had some hard freeze mornings but they are cosy in the coop and seem to not notice the cold at all. They do enjoy their treats of sunflower seeds and scratch feed and have figured out that I'm the 'food lady'. I wish everyone was so glad to see me as they are!