This coming Saturday is the due date. (If only human's due dates were so certain, lol!). I was meant to be working my last morning shift that day and managed to swap it so I could supervise (be nosy really, I've never seen chicks hatch in an incubator yet). I'm getting a little nervous - have I kept the temperature right? Have I kept the humidity right? What if I've stuffed it all up? I candled them on day 7 and on day 9 and ended up throwing away four that I was certain were infertile. I cracked them open gingerly to confirm and I had got it right for all four. That makes me a little (just a little) more confident. So much easier with a broody chook, you can blame it all on her if it goes wrong!
Speaking of broody's, I have two hens sitting on clutches now. The neighbour's hen (her one and only surviving) and Fidget, my lavender Araucana. We wait with bated breath.
I have two little turkey poults in my brooder box. My hubby whipped a large one up out of plywood the other day in preperation for the chicks, but it's getting a trial by turkey first. I had trouble getting these guys to eat at first (they were wild poults) but give them a moving target and they're on to it! That's a slater going down the hatch I think.
And it pays not to get too engrossed in other people's blogs. All was quiet, too quiet. No more sticky labels left. "Stripey!" She said.
Oh how cute, stripey it is! Yep, you can sense trouble when it's quiet, but sometimes I'm loving the quiet too much to interrupt the trouble. I'll regret that one day I know.
ReplyDeleteFrom people midwife to chicken midwife (sort-of)!! Mine have pretty much got past the stage of having to look when they're too quiet. It just usually means they've got their nose stuck in a book, instead of tidying their rooms. Can't complain really - it could be computer games!
ReplyDeleteOk, waiting for an update....
ReplyDeleteStripey. how L and I laughed!
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