Willow and Emma

This week has been super busy but I wanted to post a picture of one of the new babies.

Emma

This is Emma, the second Buff to hatch, and my egg scale I just purchased! 

Willow pictures to come..............................

Introducing my new Buff Orpingtons!

Friday September 14 and Saturday September 15 2012 my two little eggs hatched.  Buff #1 came out of her egg about 4:30 PM and Buff #2 came out sometime in the middle of the night.

I sat in the room with them most of the day Friday with my video camera all set up and ready to record.  #1 pipped in the morning before I got up, she took most of the day to zip, but when she did, she came out fast.  When I went to bed Friday night #2 still only had her pip.

Buff #1

I am trying to come up with names for my two new babies.

Buff #2 a bit after hatching

When I woke up Saturday morning #2 was still a little wet so I am thinking she was hatched not long before I saw her.

#1 wanting to know how much longer she has to stay in the bator

These little ones a such cute little fluff balls! 

#2 still drying

The second one seemed to take a bit longer to get stronger so they both stayed in the incubator until Saturday evening.

Brooder 

I have them in my bathtub for now, with the Brinsea EcoGlow warmer.  They have a towel, water and some starter chick feed.  They are pooping like crazy which can only mean good things. Right?

Over the weekend we assembled our new coop and got all existing pullets into it.  I will be cleaning and sanitizing the brooder soon to put my Buffs in.  

New Coop!!!

My coop is from Horizon Structures, it took us about 8 hours to complete, this coop is AMAZING!!!

All 5 chicks in new run

There is a door that I can use to get into the coop part and I can also get inside the gate to the run.  My old coop that was impossible which leads to difficulty cleaning.  It also has an automatic door that opens and closes based on the sun rise and sun set.  The last two nights Carrie and Miranda (Amerucanas) went up the ramp on their own.  Jenny, Moe and Snow not so much.  I had to get in the run, round them up and put them in the coop.  Easy right, well no, my coop has a first floor that they can go under it and that is right where they went when I got in the run with them.  Eventually thought I got them all up in the run and blocked it off until the door would close. I found that if I hold my hand in front of the sensor it thinks it is dark enough and the door closes.  I am hoping they catch on soon.  I also realized that none of them use the roost bars to sleep.  Carrie and Miranda have always laid in a nest box, which they are still doing.  The three little ones all crowded together near the roost bar, but I have no idea where they spent the whole night.  

September 13, 2012 ~ Hatch Day!!!!

Day 21 has come in such a hurry this time. I candled a little bit more this time around because I have my handy dandy Brinsea Battery Powered Egg Scope. This device allows you to turn the egg, and it also magnifies the view in a periscope sort of way. I started out with a total of fourteen (14) eggs this time. I purchased seven (7) Blue Silkies and seven (7) Buff Orpingtons from My Pet Chicken.  On Monday the 10th I commenced with LOCK DOWN.  I set my humidity to 65%, took my incubator off the automatic turner, made sure my humidity pump was full of water and my absorption  paper was in place.  The paper allows for the humidity to stay more constant and the pump doesn't have to run 24/7. Basically it is a extra thick piece of paper towel that came with the incubator.

Prior to lock down I knew I had to be realistic and remove some eggs that just didn't seem to be viable. So I sucked it up and went for it.  I candled everyone again and if it truly did not seem viable I did a little shake test.  If I heard or felt to much liquid movement I decide it was a done deal and was going to remove them.  I ended up removing all but two (2) eggs. Out of fourteen (14) only two (2) little Buff Orpingtons left.

Here are some pictures of the ones that didn't survive.  Only one actually seemed to have made it to a certain point, the others didn't show any signs of being fertile or progressing.

The two that made it to lock down

Both Buff Orpingtons. 

So today is day 21, I am hoping that they can wait until day 22 in the afternoon so that I am home to watch. My first hatch waited until day 22 in the evening/night. 

Three day weekends are great to get stuff done

I, like many had the pleasure of having a three day weekend.  I decided to get some stuff done.  It is still horribly hot here, so I paced myself so there was none of this almost passing out silliness. I started out on Saturday am bright and early un-crating the new chicken coop.

Coop arrived like this

Tool needed was the ever popular crow bar.

Required tool

The inside of the crate looks like this;

Inside all the pieces are stacked

Of course I had my check list and sharpie!

Check, check, check

As I got further and further down;

Half way

Sooooo close

And finally just the floor remains - they incorporated it into the crate, so some serious elbow grease was needed and frankly at this point I am exhausted, thirsty and sweating like I just completed a boot camp.

Floor with crate attached.

After this it was shower and rest time (insert - almost passing out here from lack of food and extreme heat)

After my rest time I decided to work on my garden.  The tomatoes were heading in a direction I didn't want this time around, I want them all straight up and strong, so I tied them up to give them a little discipline. I also staked up the Broccoli it was growing on a horizontal plane.

Then I moved into a solution for a big problem with South Florida gardens.  WATER!  I bought a Drip/Soaker system from www.gardeners.com.  Super easy to install. SUPER EASY! 

Snip-n-Drip

pieces for hooking hoses together

I decided I only wanted one water hook up, but that means running hose from raised bed to raised bed, but that is better then hooking and un-hooking the hose three times.  

Tomato bed

1" drill - put a hole in between boxes to run hose

The other side

I did two of the boxes, which is actually four raised 4X4's.  Then it was onto the mulch.  I bought it at Gardeners Supply.  These blocks are easy to store and easy to use, just add water and they expand.  Yea, it's messy but honestly if you are working in your garden, that is part of the fun of digging in dirt.  I loved when I was little and I used to dig and play in the fields and creek behind our house. Good times!!!!

Mulch block

Mulch in the Tomato area

Mulch in the Broccoli and Cabbage area

Mulch in the squash area

During the weekend I let my Lady Bugs out - all Four Thousand Five Hundred of them!!

Lady Bugs on the cabbage

Sponge that came with Lady Bugs

On Monday I painted the garden boxes, everything looks better with a fresh coat of paint.

Awwww so pretty

Carrots on far end and mystery crops (thank you chickens)

Front box

And as you can see the soaker system is working great, the Broccoli is not so saggy looking.

And finally a carrot, just testing to see how far they have grown.

Carrot (and painted hands)

Next up on the agenda was to re-do a wall of pictures inside my house.  I had a collection of pictures of Kayden.

Kayden

Pictures top right corner.  Kayden and Brody on sofa!

I ordered some vinyl words from www.chattywalls.com.  I love the look of this!!!  I started out by taking all the pictures off the wall and cleaning the wall, vinyl does not stick to dust.

Wall after picture removal

As you can see there are A LOT of holes in the wall, since I have custom paint on the walls (Fancy term for sponge painting it myself) I decided since I do not want to paint the whole room again and didn't want anymore damage I would use the ever popular 3M product to hang the pictures this time.

Supplies to hang pictures WITHOUT damaging walls further

Step one was to take the white toothpaste and place a small dot of it on the hanger of the picture, then press it into the wall to leave a mark for where I needed to place the 3M hanger.

Tooth paste on picture hanger

After picture is pressed to wall to mark where the hanger goes

3M hanger in place

Next step was to decide where to place the words.  The first part was "Family is..." so that I wanted at the top.

First letter of first word

Once I centered the words I pressed down each letter onto backing, then removed backing so all I have left is the black letters and the clear plastic sticky part. I smoothed all the letters onto the wall and started to peel back the clear sticky part. Smoothing down the letters as I went along.  Once I did a few I realized some tricks.  Go slowly, press and peel, press and peel, skinny letters are much harder to do as they can lose their shape and placement.  But once you step back, take a deep breathe and start again it all works out fine.  I only yelled at myself once.  And this took about five hours to complete. 

Main wall where original pictures were

The whole thing completed!

I am really really happy with the way this turned out.  There is a spot that looks too bare and I ordered some more to fill it in. To the right of trust and above miracles.  I removed "gather together" Wasn't happy with it at all. 

So that was my weekend, I sprinkled in some laundry and cleaning, got some dive stuff for my class this weekend, dinner with a great friend, some minor yard maintenance (IE: poop scooping), some reading and some TV watching! 

What did you do this holiday weekend??