Oh the chicken eggs

Well I had about the worst luck imaginable with the chicken eggs. On Saturday night we took the turner out. When I placed the cover back on I didn't realize one of the windows was loose. Sunday morning when I got up it was 90 degrees in the incubator. However, I could hear one of the chicks peeping from inside the egg with a tiny hole started. I fixed the window put some warm water in the tray to heat it up quicker. With in an hour the temp was back up to 97 degrees. The chick hadn't made any progress but was still talking. We left for the cities around noon. I checked on them again. Still no changes, the temp was good and the humidity was 85%. We returned home about 11:30 Sunday night I checked on them about 12:30, and we had three very wet baby chicks, and three more just starting to make holes. I left them in the incubator so they could dry out. When I woke up at 6am, there was no noise. For some unknown reason the incubator over heated, all my babies had died. Terrible bad luck on this batch of chicks.

Eagle Trouble

This young bald eagle is stalking my ducks. I saw him out the front window this morning sitting on one side of the creek. Then he would fly and try and hover over the creek, and then land on the other side. He did this numerous times. So I finally I took my camera and walked out to get a closer look. That is when he flew by me and I snapped this photo.

I found three of my ducks without a care in the world, cleaning and flapping in the water. None of them seemed to care that the young eagle was trying to figure out how to catch them.

Since I scared the eagle away from these three, he flew to the ponds where my other ducks were hanging out. So I walked over to check on them. They too seemed completely oblivious to the presence of the eagle. 

As I approached these seven ducks the eagle flew back up the valley. Just then another eagle came from the direction of the river and flew very low right over my head and up the valley where the first one had went. Then wouldn't you believe it one more. This one was flying high.

I remember last fall. This mama eagle was training three very young ones in our field across the creek just after Tony cut down hay. Well I think they returned. I hope my ducks learn to take cover like the chickens do.

The heifers were very curious as to what I was up to walking all over the pasture so early in the morning.

Eggs, Eagles, and Calves

My 5 year old James and I candled the chicken eggs today. We started out with 24 eggs my husband found in the barn. We ended up tossing 8 eggs today that looked clear when we candled them over a flash light. The other 16 have an distinct dark area covering over half the egg. A little worse percentage than when I pull fresh eggs from the nest boxes, but all in all not bad since we don't know how old the eggs were, and it was pretty cold around her the few nights before we found them. James is getting really excited to see them hatch.

We also started watching the Bald Eagles in Decorah IA web cam. He was hoping to see those babies hatch out today. No luck so far.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

It was a bad day on the farm for our second calf born. His mama abandoned him last night in the cold. She never cleaned him up just left him lay. When my husband found him this morning at 7:30 he couldn't get up. He came to the house and yelled in, "Could you please clear a spot in the basement for a calf." (Interesting thing to hear - I had to go check to make sure I heard him right.) He came in carrying the little thing to put in front of the wood stove. When he first came in he was mooing so loud James kept covering his ears. My little girl didn't know what to think of it. We dried and dried for an hour. But it wasn't soon enough, the poor little guy died. What a sad start to the day.

Eggs

Last night I started a batch of chicken eggs in the incubator. My husband found a stock pile of eggs in the barn rather than the chicken house where those hens should be laying. We didn't feel comfortable eating them since we didn't know exactly when they were laid. Instead of throwing them out I decided to see if they will hatch.

I warmed the incubator for 24 hours. Ideally they say the temp should be 99.5 degrees with about 60%  - 70% humidity. Last year I kept my digital thermometer at 99 degrees and the chicks started hatching a day or two early. I'm working with the same thermometer this year. The temp throughout the day goes up and down a few degrees so currently I have it at 97 degrees. My thermometer keeps track of the high and low for 24 hours, so far the high has been 99. Last year my high would reach 100 - 101 degrees. When the chicks hatched early, some didn't make it. Also quite a few eggs didn't even hatch even though a baby chick was inside.

This time I also decided not to wash the eggs prior to putting them in the incubator. I found conflicting information on the internet. Most say to wash and sanitize the eggs so you don't contaminate the incubator. I did find just a few sites that say not to wash because it affects the egg shell. So last year I did a few batches that I washed the eggs and one batch where I didn't. I had much more success with eggs that I didn't wash, just placed directly from where I found them into the incubator.

Now if I can just find where the guinea fowl are laying.