Summer Solstice Brings
New Life to Windward
the chick hatch starts and
Aria delivers her first litter
Opalyn:
This year the incubators have been giving me some trouble. The Warmerator was initially too cold, then too hot and the Styrofoam incubator was not maintaining a consistent temperature. We lost all of the first two clutches and most of the third.
The Warmerator
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| Top shelf | | eggs in an egg turner |
| Second shelf | | humidity sponges |
| Third shelf | | hatching Eggs |
| Bottom | | covered in wood chips
to keep the little ones warm |
Finally, five chicks hatched from the third clutch and three have moved into the brooder to keep warm and grow until they are ready to move outside.
Then today, the Summer Solstice, several more eggs started to crack and by evening three more chicks hatched.
All the chicks that have hatched so far are Red Star chicks, a Silver-Laced Wyandotte - Rhode Island Red cross. Looking at feather length, the red chicks and the blonde chicks both have two layers of feathers on their primary wing. According to chickenlover541 the girls will have two layers of feathers on the primary wing. The boys will have only one layer.
I am waiting for our pure lines to hatch to learn more and put into practice our goal of raising only pullets.
This afternoon, while preparing a safe space for our baby guinea hogs to live‒they will arrive on Saturday‒we noticed that Aria was staying in the goat barn instead of roaming for edibles and making lots of goat noises. Lindsay went to check on her and announced that Aria was delivering a kid. By the time I grabbed my camera and got to the goat barn the second kid was on the way.
Aria delivered two healthy boys in quick succession this afternoon and was looking completely baffled. Not surprising for a 15 month old doe. Aria got pregnant late January when Barabas got out of his enclosure and spent some time with our does.
By evening, the family had bonded and the two little ones had full bellies and were resting from their eventful first Solstice.
Earlier this spring, shortly after Alison's death we visited a family who is raising Nubian Goats from the same herd that Jewel came from. We went to take a look and decided to bring home one of the young does. I've named her Molly and she is taking in the birthing and wanting to have some of our attention focused on her.
Molly looks on in baffled surprise
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Notes From Windward - Index - Vol. 71
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