Two Eggs

Today was a two egg kind of day.







Yesterday was a one egg kind of day.



The day before?


Another two egg kind of day. THE FIRST of its kind.









Stew isn't the only chick[en] around here pulling her weight finally.








Finally!



Her comb has been getting bigger and redder every day and she finally laid her first egg on Saturday.


And it was even in the new nest boxes!!








Today's egg was in that same box too. Yay for chickens who play by the rules!



Her comb is still getting bigger though, and it is starting to flop over. I have to admit that I LOVE the way they look all flopped over.







My guess is that the next one to start laying will be the other White Leghorn whose comb has just started getting bigger and redder also. Then maybe the buttercups.


Maybe.


I think the Giant Chicken will be one of the later ones, especially since she is molting right now.






Yeah you, Giant chicken.


Giant Rooster is molting too.


Poor guy lost all his tail feathers. And then his neck feathers.


He needs Rogaine.








Speaking of Roosters. The little blue rooster that is still in brooder shed. Well.


He is evil.



He might possibly be more evil than Crockpot was.



I KNOW.



You don't believe me?









EVIL. I haven't handled that batch much and when I was messing with the girls the other day he was crowing at me and pacing and squawking and just throwing a fit.

I grabbed the little red rooster in there to take a look at him, and the little blue rooster SCREAMED at me.



It was scary.


He is much smaller than Crockpot was. Other than his comb. He is like a condensed version of Crockpot. All that evilness stuffed into a smaller package.






EVIL.


Maybe I should name him SlowCooker just for kicks?


If nothing else, he does seem very interested in taking care of his girls. He kept calling one of them who had gotten loose and was outside the shed. He was at the fence calling to her and pacing trying to get out.



TOO BAD HE IS EVIL.




The baby birds are doing good.







They are at the "Torpedo Stage" where they like to all line up facing one direction all piled up nicely.







Their feathers are coming in and I except them to fully feather out in the next week.



Wouldn't it be nice if someone else was fully feathered within a week?









Poor Giant Rooster.




Here he is AT HIS WORST and he is finally realizing that the girls are sexy chicks. He grabbed each Buttercup by the neck today and shook them a little. That is not the way to mate, Big Boy, but you are getting the right idea. They did not seem all the bothered and I saw the White Leghorn (that is laying) actually squat for him (even though he ignored her).



Speaking of squatting....Stew still does that when I go to get her. She thinks I am her rooster friend or something.


She is still the most hilarious chicken that ever existed. I am still leaving her in her little pen by herself during the day, letting everyone out to free roam the yard together after work and then putting her in the coop at night with the others. In the morning when I go to unlock the coop and let the others into their pen, I just take her out of the coop and she will run along to her little pen, either just behind or just ahead of me.

Now that I have the nest boxes under the window, she has started standing on the nest boxes looking out the window waiting for me to show up in the mornings.








Best. Chicken. Ever.




And look how cute her little fluffy butt is.








SHE IS THE BESTEST MOST AWESOMEST CHICKEN EVER. YEAH, I SAID IT.



Now, I still can't wait to get baby Stews somehow. I want to name them Top Ramen, Cup Of Noodles, Egg Drop (now that is hilarious), Won Ton, Beef, etc. I am totally going to have to rename the red rooster something hilarious stew/soup related.


Now speaking of BABY CHICKENS....



I have decided to start an experiment.


Or project.


Or whatever.



Basically I want to hatch me some eggs, damn it.


So I ordered two dozen fertile hatching eggs online (half Rhode Island Red, half Salmon Faverolle) and bought an incubator. I also heard that you can sometimes find fertile hatching eggs in the grocery store. So I bought a few dozen eggs and cracked a few of each open to check fertility. Might possibly have one set that was fertile so took the remaining ten to put in the incubator. Also cracked a few of Stew's eggs and cracked them open to check fertility. Hard to tell but might be fertile. So I tossed those in too.


Bottom line?







Golly gee willickers, that looks like 44 eggs.







By golly, it IS 44 eggs.




Cook little eggs, cook........









I just set them Sunday night. And so today was my first full day away and of course we had a power outage. I had them on a battery backup so they simply continued to heat at the same temp while the power went out. Which meant that the house started warming up while the air conditioner was off and the incubator just kept heating at the same temp.


Uh oh.


So I come home and my little thermometer showed a high 107 had been reached at some point.


Darn it!


Only two days in and I have already cooked the darn things. Here is hoping that it was short enough and early enough to not affect the hatch. I don't actually expect the 10 store eggs or Stew's 4 eggs to be fertile. Which leaves 30 of the ones I had shipped. Shipping usually makes them harder to hatch so maybe 50%. Plus this is my first time doing it and already having temp problems.

I will seriously be happy with ANY BABIES AT ALL.



Speaking of babies.









The little baby donkey is 5 weeks old!


And I have finally gotten a good size comparison picture.



Here they are with Ms Foxy, who is about 15-15.1 hands.









Aren't they the cutest ever? The baby is just barely at Foxy's knees.




Foxy approves of the cuteness.





omg, sooooooo cute (now wheres my carrots?)




Speaking of Foxy, she is looking really cute these days.









She still has an unhealthy love of carrots, of course.





Is that a carrot in your pocket or.......



And licorice. And fruit snacks.




Feed me, feed me, feed meeeeeee!




A while back I mentioned that Ms Foxy had a nasty case of scratches rear its ugly head. But I did not post pics because they were so GROSS.


Well we have gotten the infection under control and are just treating the actual scratches part of it now.

So here it was before (the gross pic I did not post so as to not freak people out)








And here it is now







The gross part at the bottom is definitely less gross, although still there. It has also spread up her leg a bit, which is not surprising. I started the betadine scrub and whatever-the-heck-that-stuff-is spray again, which should start knocking it down.


Last time Foxy had scratches it took 4 months and multiple treatments (and vet visits) to get it under control. And that was in Sunny So Cal during a dry year while she was kept stalled and dry. It rains almost every day here and she is pasture boarded in the elements 24/7. Grrrrrrrr.......

Nothing like spending time picking scabs off your horse's leg, right? Yay for horse ownership.


That's all folks!