Incubation has Started!

Well the breeding season for poultry has started once again, and my incubator has been modified and warming up over the last week in anticipation of a new lot of eggs.

This year I modified my thermal air incubator into a fan forced one and hoping to get better results from it. Modification was relatively easy-it involved a 80mm computer fan, a 12V plug pack, some screws and patience!

This year I planned to add some variety and interest to both my laying flock and my eggs. So I selected my breeds based on their egg colour over anything, although there is one lot who both have an interesting feather colour and egg colour.

This weekend just past, saw me get 3 dozen eggs and set them over two days in my incubator.



The breeds I got are:
Lavender Araucanas-both for their looks and also their egg colour which is blue-green.
French Wheaton Marans-for their egg colour, which is dark dark brown.
Plymouth Rocks-mainly for my mum, but I may keep a hen if there is an extra one because they have wonderful plumage. They lay light brown eggs.

Rainbow Eggs

Well close enough to rainbow as chicken eggs can get! I'm incubating 3 dozen eggs of three different breeds to add some more hens to my laying flock.

The dark brown are Marans
The blue-green are Araucanas
The light brown are Plymouth Rocks

In three weeks time, they should be hatching!

Absent Too Long

Wow! I have been absent for almost a year now! I can't believe my last post was when my chickens hatched. I only have 4 left now, 3 silver hens and a gold hen. They're all laying now, and I am looking into hatching some more now. I will do a post later with photos of the chicks as they grew up from cute balls of fluff to ugly teenagers to loud mouthed adults!

To be honest my gardening petered out over the winter, as I have been busy with my new Tafe course but now that spring has sprung, I am getting back into gear with everything.

Most of the seeds I want to plant have been sown into pots and are in one of my cracked fish tanks. This year I am growing:
-Snow Peas
-Telephone Peas
-Broad Beans
-Snake Beans
-Cabbage
-Beetroot
-Spring Onions [if I can! Never had any luck with them in the past]
-Pak Choi
-Spinach
-Calendulas

And still to plant:
-Tomatoes [a few varieties]
-Sweet Corn
-Carrots
-Potatoes
-Pumpkin
-Broccoli
-Melons
-Capsicum
-Eggplant

Making Elephants and Planting Seeds

I've been rather busy lately, giving my new sewing machine a good work out. My latest sewing adventures has been to make some toy elephants, although after four I still haven't quite perfected the pattern!





I have also got a leafy sea dragon in progress, although I now need to wait until I can find the suitable wire to make the frame. And of course I cannot find it anywhere!

And after being super lazy in my veggie garden, I have planted out most of the seeds I want into one of my cracked fish tanks. My veggie patches have been cleared of the weeds and some compost added. Just waiting for them to sprout now.