Tragedy

When I got home from dropping the children off at school today I found most of our new chicks dead and the few remaining lying like boneless goldfish out of water. I checked and re-checked temperature, feed, water, everything, and can't figure out what happened. It came on fast and wiped them all out. I burned or bleached everything (in case it was a sickness that could spread to my adult flock) and have been searching for an answer. Any ideas from you chicken folks out there?

No picts today. Just feeling a bit down and very frustrated with the whole process.

Beautiful Farm Weekend

Yesterday was brilliant!!! we almost hit 80 degrees F. The sky was clear and bright, the grass was growing so fast you could almost hear it, and we got a lot done. First, we rearranged everyone on pasture. All the critters are happy and fat. We are a few weeks away from our next baby goat, so everything can calm down for a while. Next, we transplanted last years strawberries into the end of the bed of new strawberries (this is not a recommended commercial practice. it is easy to transfer disease and poor genetics this way, but...). We received a flat of berries from a grower in Michigan last year, and planted them in a bed we had available. Turned out to be a terrible place for them, as a result they were abandon, walked on, mowed, and generally abused. This spring they came back with a vengeance. I figured if they were that tough they deserved a place in the strawberry patch.

The berry beds

After planting, cleaning up, and loads of other morning chores, we needed some fun. So, we went to see Nim's Island in the theater. The kids loved it, and the adults enjoyed it too.

Sunday dawned, after a 4 hour blackout from the local utility co. (need to get off the grid, but that is another project for another time.), to find a total of nine chicks peeping in the kitchen. We started with 14 eggs, sacrificed one to the study of embryology, and finally hatched all but four. We will give the remainder until Monday morning, and then declare them duds. All the chicks, including the one I had to help because the membrane adhered to it's feathers, seem to be doing well. They have moved to a brooder box in the greenhouse. It is nice to have them out of the kitchen. We had a gentle rain most of the day, which settled the strawberries in nicely. Spring cleaning and cooking took over in the house. The hit of the day was the fudge which was, depending on who you asked, variously "good", "WOW", or "to die for". The last was from my wife (who has been somewhat skeptical of goat milk products) which gives me a glimmer of hope...

Fudge

We tried our feta. It needed a good rinse after the brine, but it was quite good. There is hope on the cheese making front. However, the goat milk fudge seems to be a universal hit, so we may go to market with that first.

Here is a parting shot of our tomatoes from the greenhouse for all you anxious gardeners.

Tomatoes in bloom

Chicks Hatching

The chicks have been hatching now for three days. We have seven out, two in process, and four still without a crack. The children have really enjoyed watching them hatch, and playing with them once they dry off.

Here's a video of one of the chicks hatching.

Lucy's First

At the start of the school year I, being a dutiful parent, signed up to help with some school activities. Most of them have had an overabundance of help, and I have managed to stay in the background or leave early if I needed to. Today's activity was different. COSI On Wheels (the traveling exhibits from the science museum in Columbus) was coming to the school and they needed volunteers to staff the activity centers. It was an all day project at the school, an not may parents signed up for it. So, I was committed.

When I came out to the kitchen at 5:00 am to start the coffee and get things going for the day (all the chores needed to be done before 8 am so I could stay all day at the school. Usually there are a few things I don't get done until I get back from dropping off the kids.) I heard a very distinct peeping sound. The incubator has been living in the kitchen for the past month (so I can remember to keep an eye on the temp, fill the water channels, etc.) so I always look at it when I get up in the morning. This morning one of the eggs had a big chip pushed out and seemed to be peeping. This wasn't supposed to happen until at least tomorrow. Not a convenient start to the day.

After coffee and a bite to eat I went out to milk and get the goats and chickens set up for the day. Before leading the goats out to pasture I checked Lucy (as I have done every day for the past too weeks) to see if she was in milk yet. Lucy was due to kid the same time Orphea did. Of course today she was in milk. She didn't seem vary far along other than that, but it made me very nervous.

We rushed off to school, arriving just before the bell. The children went to class and I went to orientation. The morning went well. The lady from COSI was great, and the younger kids had a lot of fun with all the activities. When we broke for lunch I rushed home to check on everyone. Lucy was laying down in the pasture and didn't get up when I called. I fed the bottle babies quickly and moved them all out to the pasture. When I checked Lucy she had just started the first stage of labor. I figured I had two or two and a half hours. I moved her to the barn, settled her in the small pen, and headed back to the school. It took just over three hours to rap up the COSI event and get home. Lucy greeted us with a beautiful baby doe. Both seem healthy and happy. Then we rushed to the house to check on the chicks. One had made it out our the shell and was peeping away, all wet an floppy. Withing an hour it was up and pushing things around looking for food.

Egg Hatching - a second look

We have tried several times to candle our eggs from the incubator to see what is happening. No luck. We just don't have a bright enough light source to give any detail to the inside of our dark shelled eggs. So tonight, day 9 we decided to take a look. That means we will only have 13 possible chicks at the end, but we needed to know for sure something was happening. It would be a waste to get to the end of the 21 days and get nothing.

At day 9 the things should have developed to look like this. (from the 4H chick development poster)

This is what we found when we cracked our egg open.

Probably not what you would want for breakfast, but right on the money as far as development. We should have chicks hatching on the 18th.

Tragedy with the egg project

Yesterday I went to check the temp on the incubator. It was 120 degrees. I'm not sure how long they were at that temp, but anything over 101 will kill the embryo. We let them go until tonight and then first candled them (and saw nothing) and then cracked two open.

This is what we found.

This is what we should have found.

So, we reloaded the incubator with a fresh batch of eggs and we will watch the temp a bit more closely.

Eggs, Milk, and Gandhi

Eggs

We started some eggs in the incubator yesterday. The incubator is on loan from the county extension service. They have all kinds of stuff for people to use. Since we are not sure how this whole project will turn out, borrowing it was a better option than buying (they are a bit pricey for a one time use.) I'm not sure what kind of mutt chickens we will end up with. the hens we have are Red Star (a red sex-link hybrid), Black Star (same as the red except black), Silver Laced Wyandottes, Partridge Rocks, Rose Comb Brown Leghorns, and Araucanas. We have are one Araucana, and one Silver Spangled Hamburg rooster. Should be interesting to see what comes out.

Rowan picked out the eggs from the mornings collection. He wanted all different colors. He placed them in the turner. This is a great device. Without it the eggs would need to be turned three times a day. Too much work!

Next we added water to the channels in the base of the incubator. This keeps the humidity up which the eggs need.

The egg turner loaded with eggs was placed in the base. There is a wire mesh over the top of the water channels. Without the turner the eggs would have just rested on the mesh.

The cover was placed over everything. Then we plugged it in and watched the temp come up. The eggs need to stay at about 100 deg for the next 21 days.

Milk

A friend from up the road stopped by with her two grandchildren. They had been pestering her about seeing the goats. The got here just at feeding time and had a great time feeding the babies and gathering eggs for me. They went home with eggs, milk, and smiles.

Gandhi

The friend with the grandkids has been pestering me about getting milk from us ever since we got the goats. At first we just didn't have the milk to spare, and later I got nervous about the Law. Selling Raw Milk is illegal in Ohio. Even if we were a licenced dairy (which we are not yet) we could not sell milk to individuals without pasteurizing it. The milk police here have been pretty hard on the few herd share programs in the state. So... I was hesitant to start. The other day I ran into a commentary on one of Gandhi's speeches and that got me thinking. The state only has power if we all cooperate. Well, I'm going to follow Gandhi on this one and choose the path of non-cooperation. I drafted a goat share agreement today and sent it home with our friend. We'll see where we go from here.