Chickam 10th Anniversary Chicks!

We ended up with a total of 8 chicks--5 are bantam Cochins from eggs I bought off ebay, 3 are from our own flock's eggs.

First, some pictures of Club Flamingo in full swing!

The marbles in the water dish are to keep the chicks from drowning, after about a week it's safe to remove the marbles. The water dispenser has electrolyte solution in it for the first few days, hatching is VERY stressful and the electrolyte solution is great for giving the chicks a bit of a boost. We feed medicated chick starter since our area has tons of wild birds and things like coccidiosis are a real problem.  The octopus gives the kids something to cuddle against since we have no broody mama this year. The flamingo lamp wasn't *quite* providing enough heat so we put in a second lamp, the base is weighted with rocks so the thing doesn't fall over and burn my house down.

Some of the chicks may get a food color spot on their chest to make it easier to tell them apart at this stage, the food color is harmless and will go as the chicks molt their chick fluff all over my house over the next few weeks.

Now for the chicks, in order of hatch from oldest to youngest with their egg number.

#37, Nora, a chick from our flock. I suspect that Cam is daddy and Pie or Rambo is mama.

#23, Fireball, a bantam Cochin

#21, Bobo, a bantam Cochin

 Bobo is wearing his superhero mask, please do not reveal his secret identity.

#24, Luna, a bantam Cochin. Luna is the chick that had pipped at the wrong (small) end of her egg and got stuck.  I had to assist her a bit by *carefully* removing the membrane that had dried and stuck to her face, then partially unzipping her shell about 1/3 of the way before returning the egg to the incubator and letting her finish up the rest.

#26, Pongo, a chick from our flock. I suspect that Milton our banty roo is dad, Popcorn or Tater Tot *might* be mom. Pongo's face isn't lopsided, just the dark markings on her beak are.

#19, Gumdrop, a bantam Cochin who is actually pretty big for a banty.

 

#25, Pickle, a tiny bantam Cochin

And finally #29, Zuul, a chick from our flock. Groot, our large Dark India Cornish roo might be dad, mom might be one of our Brahma mix girls--I suspect Cluckadorkle.

Zuul just had to poop during picture time...

All the chicks are doing great, there are still unhatched eggs in the incubator that I suspect are quitters. We'll run the incubator for another day, then remove any unhatched eggs and shut everything down.

Club Flamingo Is Open!

The incubator was getting crowded so we moved the two oldest chicks to the brooder box. More chicks will follow later as they get sturdy enough to get around. The stuffed octopus gives the chicks something to cuddle against, for the first time in years we have no broody hens right now! Club Flamingo's first nighters Nora (the large red/brown chick) and Fireball (dark gray bantam Cochin):

You can see Nora's face fluffies starting to come in.

First to hatch Nora, a chick from our flock. Dad is likely Cam, mom could be Pie, Rambo or Strychnine:

Nora NOT amused.

Fireball, a dark grey bantam Cochin.

It tickles me no end to have a short, round bantam Cochin named 'Fireball'.

More pics of the other 3 chicks hatched, and the three still to hatch, as they join the gang at Club Flamingo!

It Has Begun!

We have out first pip!  #6, a Dark India Cornish Rock bantam egg has pipped!  I haven't started the cam yet since it can be hours until the next step--unzipping. Unzipping is where the chick, starting at the pip hole, will peck around the shell in a straight line, then eventually kick free and hatch. This can also take hours. As soon as the chick starts to unzip, I will start the cam.

The chicks pip in order to get fresh air, and to start the draw-down process. Draw-down is where the blood in the veins lining the eggshell drain and shrink as the chick draws it's blood, then the remainder of the yolk, up into it's body in preparation for hatching.  After that, the chick will start to unzip.

Hatching is VERY strenous for the chicks...and it doesn't do ME any good, either. It's nerve-wracking.

It figures that it's a banty egg that has started early, as expected. Welp, no sleep for me...

Lockdown!

Just put the eggs in Lockdown!  That means I moved them (and all the incubation apparatus) to the bottom of the Reptipro and did their final turn--after this we only open the incubator for a few minutes 5 times a day to give the eggs fresh air, no more turning the eggs--raised the humidity to 65% and increased the temperature setting on the ReptiPro so that the lower part of the incubator gets up to 99.5 degrees.

I placed a sheet of soft rubberized mesh on the bottom of the incubator, it cushions the eggs and will give the freshly-hatched chicks traction so they don't develop spraddle leg. On the right is the hygrometer--even though it displays both humidity and temperature, we use it only for the humidity reading--the temperature reading isn't accurate enough for the eggs. The small white dish with the marbles (to prevent chick drownings) holds the water that provides the humidity, and the weird sparkly pink Disney Princess water weasel toy with the white cord sticking out of it is a 'fake egg'--the cord holds the thermometer probe--one end is inserted into the water weasel, the other end is attached to the thermometer readout outside the Reptipro. The water weasel mimics an egg, and by inserting the probe into the inner pocket of the toy you get a reading of what the temperature is inside of an egg. This little trick gives you a much better hatch since inside the egg is the temperature you are concerned about!

Club Flamingo--the brooder box--is all ready to go!  Sadly, no broody hens right now, so no broody mama this year.

Now we wait until this Saturday, March 31st for the hatch...allowing, of course, for the bantam eggs which always like to hatch 1 or 2 days early! 

When the first egg pips (when the chick pecks out a tiny airhole) we will start the webcast here: Chickam

If you check the link and see EGGS, it means the hatch has begun! 
Tune in and suggest names for us to draw out of a hat as each chick hatches! The weirder, the better when it comes to names for chickens, naturally.

Reno March For Our Lives

Today we marched...again...getting tired of marching for basically the same shit we did in the 60's and 70's, trying to get people to do the right thing and be decent human beings. Which you'd think people would naturally want to do. Just when you think you've got it fixed...

I knew when Sandy Hook happened and nothing got done when a bunch of kindergarteners were murdered, that the government wasn't going to get off it's butt any time soon.

Today's march was in Reno, we made some signs, dressed warm (the kid in her white wolf costume to help draw attention to the issue at hand) and got some coffee!

We gathered outside the federal courthouse in Reno where the kid posed with my sign.

The mask is articulated so the lower jaw moves when she speaks...I just love how she wears her glasses on the outside of the mask so she's a studious-looking little wolf.

Although this little one wasn't thrilled with it and hid behind her sign.

The building and it's intimidating surrounding fence...

Pretty quickly a crowd of at least 1000 (some sources say as many as 10,000) had gathered. We were in the middle and the crowd stretched in both directions as far as we could see.

A lovely mixed group--parents, kids, veterans, grandparents, college kids, teachers...and a lot of dogs! The crowd was friendly and relaxed. Typical of our area, one guy was going for coffee and asked if anyone else wanted anything. It was so cold and windy that coffee was as important as your sign.

And yeah, that's a kid in a T-Rex costume in the background in the middle right.

The organizers had passed out some 'March For Our Lives' signs but pretty much everyone had brought their own homemade sign, too.

And we're off!  We started at the federal courthouse and marched down Virginia Street to the 'Believe' Plaza just across the Truckee river.

'I go to school to get As NOT PTSD'

Appropriately the name of the cross-street is 'Liberty St'.

And yeah, partway there it started to snow! People just groaned and laughed. Lots of people commented to the kid that she was probably the warmest one there.

Hey, I see my pink brain hat down in the corner! I made one for each of us, my version of the 'pussy hat'.

Love the signs...

Snow getting thicker...

But no one quit!

Guy with a truly GIANT gun.

And the T Rex kid with his sign, his mom was along as his handler/protector.

Finally we got to the plaza, where everyone stopped to pet the cute doggy before going in.  First things first, man.

 

The stage on the left. We couldn't get near it to hear anyone so we hung out on the outskirts. There were several tables set up where you could register to vote, and a couple of nice people circulating with petitions they were asking people to sign. Nobody was pushy or rude.

'I've Seen Smarter Cabinets At IKEA'.

The sculpture on the left is a giant mother and baby pair of stained glass whales, a very intricate and beautiful sculpture.

When your message gets lost in your too-busy sign.

I'd taken along some origami doves to hand out to random folks. Most people were charmed and accepted them readily.

But there was one guy (he and his buddy had come up to us and introduced themselves as political science students at UNR), who when I held one out to him drew back his hand like it was a snake about to bite him and asked fearfully, 'What's that mean?' 

Poor soul. I said gently, 'It's a just paper dove. It has no agenda.'

He finally relaxed, smiled and accepted it.

The kid turned out to be quite popular and a bunch of people wanted their picture taken with her. I was glad for her sake that she'd had another positive experience with exercising her rights and standing up for what she believes in.

 

Even this dog, who at first had done a marvelously incredulous double-take and started barking at her.

But all in all, as we were leaving I thought these guys who drove by had the best sign of the day.

'Fuck guns, let's dance!'

I'm with you, baby. And that's how we do it in Reno.