This Sustainable House

Posts Tagged ‘birth’

Just a few hours, if that, old...

Approx 21 days ago I placed some 40 chicken eggs into the incubator comprising 22 pure breed eggs that I purchased, and another 18 eggs collected from my own hens. Unfortunately, during the incubation process, candling revealed the purchased eggs to be of a very poor quality and 12 of the eggs were subsequently discarded as totally infertile. However the eggs from my hens proved to be more fertile, with only 2 eggs having to be discarded during this process.

As you might know, chicken eggs have an incubation period of 21 days so this evening I returned home to the comforting sound of the peeping of chicks coming from the office. Both Kailash and Tara seem bewildered, not quite sure what to make of the sound, and definitely unwilling to leave the door. They are ragdoll cats.

So please welcome the first 5 chicks hatched at TSH… hopefully only the first 5 of some 26 but time will tell.

Update – Well ultimately 15 chicks made it through the hatching process with almost all of the chicks from my girls making it through. Unfortunately, of the bought eggs only 2 hatched, and one of those died soon afterwards. Poor little thing…

The incubator is fired up again though, this time with Guinea Fowl and, hopefully soon, some Araucana’s and Welsummers.

Chicks in Brooder - About 1 week old

Last night nature did it’s best to remind me just how incredible it is… a calf was born.

Fryderyk was born a little after 9.30pm on the 23rd August to Dalila (Dam) and Eminance T Baxter (Sire). Baxter is a bull owned by Eminance Dexter’s, and Dalila was ‘covered’ prior to joining me at TSH. Little Freddy, he is still in ‘short trousers’, is a beautiful black calf who seems to be quite happy to be out and about, exploring a new world.

In fact, he might be a little too adventurous, managing to squeeze out of the original paddock in the dead of the night leaving a very frantic Mum behind. I was awoken, about 12.30ish, to a bellowing that could only foretell doom. When I arrived at the paddock Dalila was beside herself, and there was no sign of Freddy at all. I later found him in another paddock quite scared and confused. As a result he spent the evening inside where I could keep an eye on him.

However this morning I lined a paddock with some 40mm chicken wire, about 100m worth, and popped both Fryderyk and Dalila in there. When I left for work Fryderyk was ‘dead to the world’ after filling his belly with milk, and Dalila was contentedly chewing the cud.

I think he’ll be a fantastic addition to the household.

Fryderyk - at approx 2 weeks old.