Chicks

Yesterday was an exciting day of watching and waiting....

which was rewarded with seeing this little guy hatch out...

followed a couple of hours later by this one.

We left them in the incubator overnight to dry out and then transfered them into the brooder this morning.


These little chicks are seriously cute.

So today will be another day of watching....

with maybe the odd quick cuddle...

amazing...

An eggciting day

A few months ago Beth won a photography competition with a photo of Wilson. Her prize was a years supply of dog food which she then sold as our dogs are on a raw food diet. She decided that this unexpected windfall would be spent setting herself up to hatch chicks to add to our flock. Therefore she is now the owner of a new hen coop and egg incubator. She decided that she would like Orpington eggs which are on order from the UK. However a few weeks ago a friend who knew of this plan rang to say she had some possibly fertile eggs from new chickens she wasn't expecting to lay yet and could we do something with them?
So the eggs were put in the incubator...

and kept a very close eye on...

 It got quite complicated as each time our friend gave us what she thought would be the last egg another was laid. This meant we were adding them into the incubator at different times which is not ideal as the eggs have different requirements according to the days of development.
In order to check on progress we candled the eggs every few days. This means holding a bright torch to them in a dark room. Seeing the first fertile one was very exciting.

We had ten eggs in total but only four were fertile so the other six were removed. Chicken eggs hatch at 21 days and they are meant to go into lock down for the last 3 days. This means the incubator must not be opened as a rush of cold air and loss of humidity can cause the chicks to become 'shrink wrapped' in the inner membrane and they won't hatch. They also stop being turned at this point so the chicks can get into position to start pipping their way out of the egg. As we had one incubator and 4 eggs at different stages it has been a bit tricky trying to work out how to optimise the conditions for some without damaging the others. Our solution was to go into lock down 3 days ago, removing the first two eggs from the turning rack and increasing the humidity slightly as today is day 21 for these first two. There was then great excitement when both eggs pipped this morning!

This first little hole allows the chick to breathe, having used up the air sac, and it then sleeps for several hours to get it's strength up for the big break out. They also begin chirping at this stage.

 There was also a bit of a panic to get a brooder ready. This was achieved by washing up an old gerbil cage and the cats are going to have to give up their infra red lamp in the garage!

As soon as Daddy got in the door for lunch he was brought over to check progress.

So watch this space and hopefully they'll be a couple of new baby chicks to see tomorrow...

15!

Yesterday Anna turned 15!
How did that happen? This seems like no time ago....

( How did I ever send that girl to school?!?)

Age 5!

And 7.....

to 11....

and now a beautiful 15.

Her birthday wish was to go for a hike up the mountains with the dogs. As she wanted it to be a 'fast' hike rather than our usual meander with a crowd, we left the other children and the puppies being minded at home and went off just Anna, Justin, myself and the older dogs.

We were blessed with a glorious morning and were amazed by how much ground you can cover with a smaller group!

Then back home Anna wanted the guys to all participate in a formal 'puppy class', which they did with an amazing amount of co-operation from both children and dogs!

Then, of course, no birthday is complete without birthday tea and cake!

Happy birthday Anna. We love having a 15 year old in our family.x







 

Our Easter

Our Easter preparations included hanging an Easter tree and making an Easter garden.

Than bright and early found us out in the garden to see what the Easter bunny had left...

After church it was then last minute preparations before Grandma and Grandpa arrived for lunch.

Then back out into the garden in the afternoon for a family Easter hunt. We have adapted kris kindle from Christmas into a 'cluck kindle' for Easter. This means that at the beginning of Lent we put all our names in a hat and draw out one each without anyone seeing. You then do secret service for that person during Lent and that is who you buy an Easter egg for.

Then Simnel cake and chocolate shredded wheat nests for tea. Having given up chocolate for Lent chocolate tastes very good!

Catch up

Life got a bit crazy for a while combined with my computer having a nervous break down due to memory use overload, hence no blogging for what seems like ages. It's impossible to sumarise 4 months in one post and do each occasion justice but there are some times and photos worth remembering so I'm going to give it a go anyway!

Christmas preparation took over most of December starting with taking the older girls to Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas choir concert at a local castle.

Then of course stir up Sunday, probably not on a Sunday at all!

While out walking in the forest we came across this tree, fully decorated. I don't know how it started but apparently people walking in that area of the forest, mostly dog walkers, bring along one decoration each and add it to the tree. We decided to follow suit and added one ourselves.

Our own Christmas morning!

Then came New Year and our New Years Resolutions writing ritual.

We open our box from last year to see how many we achieved before writing ones for the new year. And it's okay, it's only fizzy apple juice in the wine glasses!

This was the most snow we managed this year which was a source of great disappointment to the guys as they still haven't had opportunity to use the sled they had for Christmas the previous year.

We did however have some pretty severe storms and lost a huge number of trees in the area.

As ever there is always a birthday or half birthday to be celebrated.

As always there is much baking. These buns had spinach in the icing to make it green but were actually remarkably tasty.

With so many dogs there is always dog walking whatever the weather. We did seem to have a lot of the wet stuff this winter. Happily for them though my children love wet!

 They also love a picnic, whatever time of year it is.

We often get the beach to ourselves over the winter and I think there is no greater luxury.

Then there are those few random pictures. I have no idea why we had a chicken in the house.

When there's no rush to get up for school there's usually time for a bit of reading;

Since November our puppy has gone from this..

to this....

and is now this big handsome fella!

At 52 kilos he is now much bigger than Mum but is the biggest softie ever. We all adore him and can't remember what it was like before he came along.

Anna has also taken charge of another autism assistance puppy for the next 6 months. His name is Louis and he is a 12 week old Labrador who we have had since 8 weeks of age.

Cody loves another puppy to play with and surprisingly the difference in size is no problem as Cody is so gentle.

So we are also back to taking a puppy with us wherever we go and each trip takes twice as long while puppy gets fussed after...
Here they are waiting at the checkout in Tesco. Eoin loves having a hood to hide in if he doesn't want his photo taken.

So there it is, 4 months in a nutshell.