2009 Hatchlings

I have ended up this hatching season with three hens who successfully incubated their eggs. The first standard sized hen hatched out nine bantam chicks only smashing one of them. Her eight remaining D'Uccle chicks are now nearly adult size and five of those eight are roosters, four of the five roosters are turning Mille Fleur. I am currently trying to find them new homes.

The other two hens were both D'Uccles, one hatched six chicks and the other hatched three. These chicks are all D'Uccles as well, but are still little balls of fluff, so I don't know if they are pullets or cockerels.

Egg production has dropped drastically in the last few weeks. When we were getting plenty of eggs, no one wanted to buy them, now we have a waiting list. I guess fresh farm eggs are getting harder to find because of the season. This is hard on our dogs who are use to getting a few eggs everyday.

I am glad to report no chicken losses other than one smashed chick. Having Great Pyrenees can cut your chicken losses as long as it isn't your Great Pyrenees who are killing your chickens. My older dog does chase them a little bit when she is feeling frisky and my cat does too, but neither has ever hurt one of them.

I am really impressed with my cat, Garfield, he kills birds, mice, chipmunks and rabbits but the little tiny chicks can walk right over his front paws and he only twitches. I have been afraid that he will snap one day, but so far so good.

A New Year

We made it through December! My DH loves to sing that song all through December, then on January 1st announce that we have made it. I tell him that December isn't the hardest month for us. He gets really down in February, because by then he is tired of feeding hay and our hay supply is getting low. It is either really cold or really muddy in February and he gets very anxious for Spring.

The old year went out on a bad note for me. I was sick all day yesterday. I ran a fever and was so weak that I couldn't even set up to read a book. My dear, dear, wonderful Husband had to hold a glass of sprite with a straw for me because my arms were so weak that I couldn't even hold the glass. I don't have any idea what the problem was but I couldn't eat anything until late afternoon and then I could only eat chicken soup.

I chilled and kept covered up all day until about 11:30 last night when all of the sudden my fever broke and I started sweating. As soon as my fever broke, I felt so much better but even after sleeping all day yesterday, I still slept well last night.

Things are looking better for 2009, we got 8 eggs each of the last two days. It got down to 17 degrees last night, so I don't know how egg production will be today.