21 days came and went with no "cheep cheep" sounds. We weren't too optimistic since the episode when Lacey got off the nest for a night. Today was day 22 and there were only two eggs left. The rest had either been smashed or eaten. So I took Lacey out and she seemed quite happy to get her freedom back. I took the eggs out and smashed them to see what was going on. They both popped with a loud bang and smelled awful. I was very sad to see two perfectly formed little chicks in there. I'm pretty sure they were both dead, they had a lot of yolk in with them and were pretty small. It looked like they had been going along nicely until she got off the eggs and didn't develop after that.
Where to now? We're tossing up whether to give it one more go or buy day old chicks. I'm tempted to give the eggs another go and put a roof over the broody area so the mother can't get out if startled. I just love the idea of the chicks having a Mum in there with them teaching them life skills and protecting them from the rest of the hens.
Summer is here I'm afraid. This is our least favourite season due to the extreme heat and lack of rainfall. It gets very hard to keep the garden productive in Perth over summer. We just had three days over 35C and the rains seem to have gone. Despite an 'average' winter of rainfall the dams are at 35%, which means if they drop 17% as they did last summer it won't be possible to take any more water from them. A cool change just came in thankfully and we'll get a week of cooler days.
On a lighter note the bananas are going well. We have about 8 hands with around 15 fruit each. They are still very small, but I'm hoping they'll get bigger soon. Even if they don't I'm sure they will taste infinitely better than
the supermarket variety.
Where to now? We're tossing up whether to give it one more go or buy day old chicks. I'm tempted to give the eggs another go and put a roof over the broody area so the mother can't get out if startled. I just love the idea of the chicks having a Mum in there with them teaching them life skills and protecting them from the rest of the hens.
Summer is here I'm afraid. This is our least favourite season due to the extreme heat and lack of rainfall. It gets very hard to keep the garden productive in Perth over summer. We just had three days over 35C and the rains seem to have gone. Despite an 'average' winter of rainfall the dams are at 35%, which means if they drop 17% as they did last summer it won't be possible to take any more water from them. A cool change just came in thankfully and we'll get a week of cooler days.
On a lighter note the bananas are going well. We have about 8 hands with around 15 fruit each. They are still very small, but I'm hoping they'll get bigger soon. Even if they don't I'm sure they will taste infinitely better than
the supermarket variety.
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