One Tip . . .

If there is one thing you learn from me - make it this one.

Don't crack eggs if you think they could be rotten.

That's it. Just don't. OK?

We got only 2 chicks out of the last lot of eggs. They ought to have hatched on Sunday the 9th, these two came along around the Monday, with one other chick not making it out of the shell.

I never thought Summer was going to be a particularly good mother and am quite sure the dead chick was down to her. And the lack of hatching among the other eggs I am putting down to the fact that she left them unattended for almost a full day.

Finally, Jessica and I removed the other eggs from under Summer and moved her and the two chicks into the nursery run. I then decided I needed to know what the other eggs contained. It was important to me to know if the eggs were fertile or not. I took them to the compost bin while Jessica nipped into the kitchen to get a knife for me.

I cracked the one egg I was sure was empty while she was away - yup it was. Then another one.

IT EXPLODED WITH A BANG.

I jest ye not! IT EXPLODED! Whodathunk?

We checked a couple and yes, there WERE dead chicks in a couple of them but by the time I had had 3 explosions I gave up checking anymore. 

Ever since there has been an almighty bad smell coming from the compost bin - am kinda hoping it goes away as soon as possible!

In other news, we have had TWO dead rats near the shed. The bait must be working - yay! The two traps had been sprung on one morning but I think the bait is winning the war at the moment. The rat this morning was the biggest thing you have ever seen - and Iain is still reacting like a big girl's blouse over the disposing of the bodies. For dear sake - if he can remove dead chickens why not rats?

*shudders*

Yea, you are right - there is a big difference between chickens and rats.

Show me your happy face though over the 2 dead'uns. Long may it continue!

Damn, Damn, Damn, and Damn

I had around 3 hours this evening with the whole house to myself. What should a girl do in 3 hours of peace and quiet? Yup, you are right, she should go and clean the chicken run and re-bait the rat traps. Isn't that what YOU would do?

After not being able to candle the eggs the other day I was quite determined to get them done this evening. After the rat traps were well and truly finished with and back in position, and the girls were off the eggs to gobble down some corn (far handier to extract eggs when there is no hen there pecking at your hand every 2 seconds!) I took the chance to lift the first lot out and held them, one at a time, up to the light bulb.

This light source worked well, I think there were a couple of chicks in that lot - not convinced there are chicks in every egg though.

There seemed more eggs in the second lot. I took my time to balance the eggs in one hand and to secure them with the other hand on top. This worked well until I dropped an egg on the floor of the shed. Immediately the shell cracked open, the way you would expect it to, and blood started to seep out of some of the cracks.This was one of the cross-breed eggs - not one of the Pekins.

How terrible do I feel? Obviously there is no way the chick would survive once the egg is cracked. It's just awful to think that I killed a chick before it was even born. The only thing I wanted dead this evening was a rat - not a chick.Why couldn't it have been the next egg which looked like a dud?

You'll be happy to hear there are no photos to illustrate this post.

Meh.

Kittens Out Playing For The First Time

We took the head staggers the other day and left the back door open to see how the kittens enjoyed going out. They enjoyed it a little too much! Once they were out they refused to return and it took David and me around 45 minutes to round them all up. They really enjoyed exploring, but the next day when we let them out again they were exploring a little less and running around and chasing each other a little more. For some reason they were much happier to be caught the second time - less skittish when we went near them, here's hoping they continue to be as easy to catch next time, but, today the door is open and they are coming and going as they wish, apart from the few minutes when Bailey decided it would be great fun to chase them from one end of the garden to the other and they needed sanctuary for a while!!

They were at the vet's the other day for their first injections and it was suddenly brought home to me the financial difference between having one kitten and having three kittens - three times the injections and three times the flea treatment equals three times the cost. That made my eyes water for a while and gave Iain more ammunition in the "Do we really need THREE kittens?" war. Hmmmmm.

Here are some photos from the first trip outside. They look so cautious and scaredy compared to today's attitudes.

In other news, the second lot of hatching eggs are due to start hatching on Sunday. We don't have a powerful enough torch at the moment to candle this lot - well, the first time I tried to candle them I failed miserably and haven't tried again with an alternate light source. Remember how I was completely convinced last time that the eggs had been left alone too long and they weren't going to hatch? Well, I am three times more sure this time that nothing will come of them. . . . We'll see on Sundayish.