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.

Hatch Day is Here

Well three little balls of fluff jumped the gun and hatched yesterday, and I woke at 5:30am by Peggie whining at the foot of my bed, to find another freshly hatched in the incubator. I went back to sleep only to be woken up in the same manner at 9am, with a second out it's egg. It was absolutely fascinating watching them push their way out of their shells and bumbling around in the incubator drying out.

As of 9pm I have 11 baby chickens! Nine are already fluffy and in the brooder box, and two are still in the incubator, as they are not yet dry and fluffy enough to be moved.

I have 5 eggs left in the incubator, 3 have started to hatch, but two aren’t showing any signs yet but that doesn’t surprise me as the day 17 candling showed two that might have been dead in the shell. I have a feeling the rest will be out by tomorrow.

Day 20-Hatching has started

Well today is day 20 of the eggs incubation. They are due to start hatching tomorrow, so imagine my surprise when I look in the incubator this morning to find, not one, but THREE eggs have pipped!

Pipping is when the baby chick breaks a hole in the shell and membrane of the egg to start breathing and then once they have gotten used to breathing air with their lungs, they will start to chip open the egg to emerge into the big outside world.

It can take up to 24 hours for the chickens to emerge from their shells, so watch this space for more updates!

Day 17 Candling

Well the eggs are coming along nicely, only a few more days to go!
I did another candling to see how the development was going. All but two are going well. The two I’m not so sure about had a lot more yolk visable and weren’t as dark as the rest. I couldn’t see any movement either, so they are probably dead in the shell. The eggs will stay in the incubator until hatch day, just in case.
Dead in shell[?]. I can’t see any visable chick shape, but can still see blood vessels and a lot of the yolk.

Well developing egg. The light section on the right end of the egg is the air sac.
The other possibly dead in shell. Its a real pity about this one if it’s dead, as you can just make out the chick inside. It’s head is in the bottom left corner of the egg with its beak pointing downwards.
Tomorrow is the last day to turn the eggs before leaving them until they hatch, which should be Sunday or Monday. Hopefully the next ‘Chicken Update’ will include some photos from the hatch day.