This was a sad week. Monday Alexis went back to BYU to do summer term and do an in person nursing clinical to go along with her online nursing class. We already miss her so much. But of course I’m happy for her in pursuing her dreams. Right before she left 2 of the chicks she incubated hatched so she was happy about that. But throughout the week we lost 6 chickens: the 2 that hatched, 1 that had hatched in April, and 3 that we’d gotten that were 22 weeks old and ready to start laying. So it was a very sad week.
The good part of the week was that when I took Alexis to the airport I left my 3 little kids with my sister and they got to stay there for the week having a great time. They went to her work where she conditions athletes at the college and then they swam in her condo pool.
Three Little Kids at Lori’s
Getting New Chicks
Meanwhile, back at our house….
Last Sunday and Monday two of our chicks hatched! Alexis had incubated 7 eggs and took good care of them, monitoring their temperature and humidity with 2 thermometers, turning them, singing and clucking to them, etc. We were sad that only 2 hatched when more were alive at the last candling. But we were still happy with the 2. The first one was named Downy and the second was named Sunny.
Unfortunately on Wednesday morning Sunny wasn’t breathing. She had never dried off and fluffed up like usual and seemed weak as she wasn’t rolling around in the incubator. All day long Downy cheeped and wouldn’t stop unless Makenna was holding her. I felt bad she was so lonely so after activity days I took Makenna to Tractor Supply to buy some little friends for her. We’ve only hatched our own or gotten grown hens from friends so it was fun going to a store and picking out ones we wanted. It was a really fun Mommy date. And it would be a fun surprise for Kaitlyn when she got back from camp and the 3 little kids when they got back from Lori’s.
The top left chick is Downy. He was so soft and cute. He had curled feet though so we splinted them. But somehow he died too on his 1 week birthday. Not sure how. We had gotten him 6 friends so he wouldn’t be lonely and now we just have the 6 friends to raise, haha. Two are guinea fowls which are good at eating ticks and also keeping intruders out so we’ve heard. Three days after we got them we had a possum intrude and kill 3 of our almost laying hens. Wish the guineas were bigger!
We named them Chip and Dale because they looked like little twin chipmunks. Although now it’s occurring to me that I think they’re girls.
When I brought Kaitlyn home from camp on Saturday we had to tell her that Blackfoot, a chick that had hatched on her birthday 2 months ago, disappeared on Friday. But when she walked up to the deck and heard chicks peeping on the grass she was so puzzled. I said, “We got friends for Downy!” She was soooo happy! Like I said, we’ve never bought chicks before. It was a great surprise. Sadly, that night an opossum got 3 of our almost-layers (22 weeks old.) We’ve never had a bad attack like that and it was a bit traumatic. And I’m super mad that these hens should have started laying any day. And then the next morning Downy died. So I’m really glad we have these 6 little ones to raise.