Candling an egg

I finally uploaded a video of one of the last eggs being candled.  This was three or four days before it hatched.  There isn't much noticeable movement until 23 seconds, and if you keep watching you'll see it continue to move until the end of the clip.

Sick mom equals a clingy dog

I was diagnosed with bronchitis several weeks ago, which then became worse and was thought to be pneumonia, which then sprained (or cracked?) a rib and pulled a muscle in my back.  I think that I've been to the doctor more times in the last three weeks than I have in the last two years.  I've never been in such incredible pain simply from being sick and coughing.

So while the doctor has be taking all kinds of medicine to fight a lung infection, get me to stop coughing, help me to breathe, and to take away the pain in my ribs and back, Faith thinks it's a good idea to plop her huge head on to my chest or to drop down on to my ribcage every chance that she gets.

She's lucky that I love her so much.

I guess the weathermen were right

It's pretty rare when the weather reports about snow are correct around here so we stopped believing them several years ago.  We typically go with the "when we see it, then we'll know" theory.

They were calling for 8-24 inches as the days went on, and it did start snowing last night.  I was pretty shocked to see all of this when I looked outside though.

More Chick Pics

We finished our hatch Monday night, with 19 out of the 28 eggs hatching.  We had tossed the 5 eggs that weren't fertile half way through the incubation  process, which means only 4 out of the 23 eggs that we expected to hatch, didn't hatch.  An 83% hatch rate is pretty good, although I feel horrible about those four being developed inside the eggs but not getting out.  I will let the oldest son do egg-topsies to see how developed they were.

Wyndotte's first taste of the outdoors

Norma jeans sits at the window giving me looks every time I get near the coop.  I know she doesn't understand why she's locked up all the time and she simply wants to go find some bugs and treats.

Since I was spending some time outside with the hens this weekend, I decided it was a good time to let the Wyndotte chicks come out of their coop and to experience the fresh air.  They are two months old this weekend and I will probably keep them separate from the big girls for another month.

Blood, Blood everywhere!

This afternoon I decided to spend some time with the birds handing out treats.  I've been pretty sick and didn't like that I hadn't been able to do my usual chores that get me around them, so I was determined to just hang outside for awhile.

Then I happen to look down and see a huge drop of blood. 

I immediately started looking for feathers or a trail of blood, thinking a fox had grabbed  a bird.

More babies!

We did it again!  How can you not fall in love with that face!!!

The eggs are due to hatch tomorrow evening, but between last night and today we have had 10 of them hatch.

Why color eggs for Easter....

We now have eggs that come in green, olive, brown, tan, and PINK!  The picture doesn't do the colors justice.

For just a moment, I wanted another one

But the moment passed when I remembered all of the work that these cute little guys need.

These five babies were born in early January during some of the coldest days of the year.  Twins and triplets and so darn adorable.

Update on the ear

The plug in Faith's ear needed to come out but the vet hadn't had a chance to do it yet.  And then I looked down one day and saw this.

It's gone!  She had lost the cap a couple times and I always found it, but I haven't seen the whole plug yet and it's been several days.  Her ear is now think and had a hard lump inside.  I'm not sure if it's a blood clot or scar tissue.  She doesn't seem to be bothered by it now and it isn't re-filling with fluid, so this must be the "cauliflower-ear" that I had read would be our outcome.