Chickens: Good news and bad news.

Extra post for the day because a lot happened in the last 24 hours, and I figured I'd make a quick update. Last night the Lady of the House heard peeping from inside some of the eggs under our Australorp. I heard it this morning, and when I checked in a few of the eggs this morning they have outward facing cracking on them. You can see one of them bottom right of the picture Above. I'm not sure how many will hatch, and how many of them that hatch will survive, but we shall see. We already had one egg that didn't make it, and the photo of that and some less good news will be below the cut. The one that didn't make it will be at the bottom of the post so you know where it is, and can read the rest first.

Chicken coop design process Pt. 1

As we sit through winter and prepare for the arrival of spring, and the changes that will bring. The Lady of the House has her focus settled on the garden, and I am trying to have a design for the chicken coop nailed down as much as possible before mud season begins. Below is my first draft considerations for the requirements for the coop, with information that is informing this and my next steps of the design process.

Bears are a Problem!

Bears. This seems to be the time for them from what we can tell. Last year we didn't see a single bear on our property, but this year we have seen them many a time. I'm now starting to see potential correlation between bear visits and lack of weight gain for the day. 

(Picture from http://www.weforanimals.com/free-pictures/wild-animals/black-bears/1/black-bear-5.htm)

Active Babies, and Going to Nauticon

I'm getting this post done as the Lady of the House finishes last minute artist con prep for going to Nauticon to sell her art. We managed to get quite a number of good pictures of babies of the nearly newborn and older both for this post. That said, it is harder to get pictures now of both litters. For Dawn's litter it is because they are moving around quite a lot now. For Sunny's litter it is because they move more than Dawn's did at that age, and because of Mama Sunny's baleful attentions. The picture Below is an example of her being calm. When I am weighing her babies I have to do it quickly because she gets upset and indicates that she Will do something about my presence if I harass her babies too long.