My minivan aversion

The official car of motherhood is the minivan.  It's obvious to see why- they get great fuel economy, fit tons of people, aren't very big, have lots of storage, and the back doors slide open, preventing kids from making door dings, and they have great safety records. It totally makes sense to drive one.  All (ok, most) of my friends drive minivans.

But I don't.  I can't help it.  I see a minivan, and I think matronly and old.  Ironically, I don't see my minivan driving moms as anything but hip. I still can't bring myself to bite the bullet and get the minivan.  J thinks I'm out of my mind.

So, I drive this huge behemoth, getting 33% or more less fuel efficiency than I would if I would just be sensible. I just can't. I can't do it.  I'm generally really sensible, but I refuse to grow up in this part of my life.  When my kids move out, I'll probably get a zippy little sports car, but for now, I really like my huge urban assault vehicle.

It can be handy- I've been able to fit five kids AND two enormous bass violins. The owner of one of the basses was in awe about my car, and actually told her parents, "You have to go see K's mom's car.  It fit FIVE kids, two basses AND her mom.  It is so cool!!"

And, it has a dvd player.  I love it.

Hatching Chicks

My daughter has been teasing me that all I ever blog about is chickens, and could I POSSIBLY be any more boring?  So, I've been thinking about making an effort not to post so much about them.  However, I did have something exciting happen this week, and I've had several people express interest in this post, so here goes.

I had my hen go broody a few weeks ago, but the first batch of eggs didn't hatch.  My SIL wanted chickens, and I thought I'd try to hatch eggs one more time for her. I put a total of 7 eggs under Lucy.  All were fathered by my Black Copper Marans cockerel.  6 were from my Easter Egger hens, and the 7th was from my white leghorn.



I candled at 8 days along, and found that the white leghorn egg was not developing at all, so I threw it out.  Two of the eggs were too dark too see anything, but I was pretty sure I was seeing something in the remaining four.

I tried to not obsess too much, and only candle every few days.  Considering how busy we were, this wasn't too hard.

On Saturday, I noticed the broody hen was out and about in the coop, which had me very worried.  She stayed out for several hours, so I got the incubator going, just in case.  Since it was so hot outside, I figured the eggs were probably ok.

On Sunday, I went to check on the eggs, and found that one had pipped!  For those who don't know, a "pip" is when the chick manages to break a tiny hole in the egg. Since I wanted to properly watch everything, and I didn't trust the hen to stay in place since she'd been getting a bit fidgety. Plus, I was worried that the other chickens would kill a chick. So, I brought five of the eggs inside.  The one I left outside was another one that I was pretty sure hadn't developed.

Here's a picture of my incubator with the pipped egg:


I was just sure that it was going to hatch any second, and was glued to the incubator.  In a couple hours, it looked like this:

I could actually see a tiny chicken beak, and see a tiny chick breathing.  Wow!! I managed to talk myself into going to bed around 11pm, after watching pretty consistently for 4 hours.  I have to confess I got up several times in the night to check on it, but other than the hole getting a tiny bit bigger, nothing. During the middle of this, a second egg pipped.  Wahoo!  TWO chicks trying to hatch!

So, the next morning about 7:30, I check again. The hole is a bit bigger now, maybe as long as a dime.  I texted my SIL to tell her that the hole was bigger (she'd come over the evening before to check it out).  Then, the chick really goes to work.  After I finished texting her, I look up and see the hole is twice as big:
(this was around 7:34)

Then, at 7:36:


7:37:


I'm sending her these pictures, and she's freaking out, trying to hurry and get her girls ready for school so they can stop by and see.

Then, at 7:39:


She got there a couple minutes later, and we oooh'd and ahhh'd over the baby.  Meanwhile, the other egg, not wanting to be outdone starting doing the same thing.  By 7:55 am, a second chick was hatched, and my nieces and younger kids got to watch.

Within an hour of those two hatching, two more eggs pipped.   That evening, my SIL, BIL and their kids came over.  The third chick hatched obligingly for them.  Still nothing from the last egg.

The fourth chick hatched around 5:30am. I know it was at 5:30 because about that time, I was woken from a deep sleep to "CHEEEEEP CHEEEEEP CHEEEEP CHEEEEP" and I was just sure one of the existing three chicks (whom we'd moved to a brooder box) was in deep trouble.  I stagger out to see what's going on, and it registers that the cheeping is coming from the wrong direction.  Yep- we've got a fourth chick!

I let the final two eggs incubate for another day, but then decided they were duds.  I sealed each in a ziploc bag (just in case they were really smelly or exploded) and cracked them open.  The egg under the hen had never developed, like I thought.  The one in the incubator had started to develop, but died around day 10 or so.

Here's two of the chicks:


That evening, SIL and BIL took their babies home.  I went over to their house last night, when they were 2-3 days old, and took a picture of J holding all four.

Anniversary Trip

This year, J and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. Since we almost never do anything special to celebrate beyond a dinner out, we decided it would be fun to do a little mini vacation.

Something on my bucket list is to hike the Narrows at Zion National Park. Since the entire length is 16 miles, and most of that is in shin-armpit deep water, it's not a very child friendly hike. We decided to visit Zion as our little get away.

Initially, we thought we'd camp, and we'd tent it and everything. However, we found it was difficult to find a place nearby that either didn't demand reservations or actually had openings. As we got talking further, we realized we were too old and lazy to tent it. So, we got a hotel in St George so we'd have full amenities.

We got there around dinnertime on the evening of our anniversary. Our first full day there, we did the Zion hike. We knew we wouldn't be able to do the full 16 miles- most people will backpack in and spend the night out on the trail. That didn't sound fun to us, so we decided we'd hike until we wanted to turn around. We bought Keen sandals for the hike, as we'd heard that open toed sandals were 1- going to break and 2- not protect ones' toes from the rocks. Several people reported losing multiple toenails on the hike, and that sounded extremely unpleasant.

The scenery on the hike was amazing. The Narrows rightly deserved its' place on my bucket list.

We hiked for about four hours, and decided we were getting tired. Hiking in the water on large, hard to see rocks was really quite exhausting. We turned around and came back, spending about 7 hours total on the hike, and going a little over 12 miles round trip. I'd love to see it again.

We staggered into town, and went to D.U.B's BBQ, arriving just before they closed for the night. The mac & cheese wasn't fabulous, but the rest of the food was AMAZING.

The next day, we were both pretty sore and tired, and decided we wouldn't go *AS* crazy with hiking. We ended up doing the Emerald Pools hike, as well as the Canyon Overlook trail.

A view from the Canyon Overlook.

The Lower Emerald Pools.

That evening, we went to dinner at a place called Buffalo Trails, which is a little outside the park in a little hole in the wall. They raise their own bison for bison burgers, and they were very yummy.

Unfortunately, the next morning brought us to the time that we knew we needed to start heading home. We'd heard good things about the Kannarraville Canyon and decided to check it out. It's not in Zion, it's a few miles outside of it, and it was on our way home. We were NOT impressed with the town. Signs everywhere, not permitting ANY on street parking, which didn't seem very hospitable. Then, at the actual (dirt) parking lot, there were some rather rude signs, demanding $10 to park, or else you'd be booted or towed away. You could park at the city hall for free, but it was a fair bit away. We grudgingly paid our $10. Honestly, if they'd had free parking, and then a donation box, we actually would've donated more, and been happy to do it.

The whole thing felt a bit rude and extortionistic though, and we muttered to ourselves about it for a while.

The first couple miles of the hike is just dirt road, but then you get into the narrow canyon. It is also stunningly beautiful, and we forgot to be annoyed.

All in all, it was so much fun, and incredibly memorable. I think maybe from here on out, we'll try to do more trips like this as a couple. We did buy a National Parks Pass, which will get us into any national park for a calendar year, so we'll take our kids back to Zion before it expires. Some of the hikes are not for kids, but there's plenty for us to see and do.

I have hundreds more pictures, so if you want to see more, let me know and I'll let you watch a slideshow of everything.

Day 21

Day 21

So today is day 21 for most of my eggs, and tomorrow is day 21 for the rest. Regular gestation (? Is it gestation if it's not a mammal?) for chicken eggs is 21 days.

I went camping in the high uintas last week, and wasn't around to obsess at all over the chickens last week. I left my neighbor in charge of my chickens. I told her to collect and eat any eggs the chicken left. She decided to give me one of her rhode island red pullets, Bow, because it was being really meant to her other chickens. Awesome! I don't have a chicken that lays an egg that color, I'm thrilled. Anyway, during the acclimation period, Bow broke through my separation area to keep poor Lucy in peace. My neighbor fixed the breach, and thought nothing of it.

Well, I got home Saturday night, and of course wanted to go check my eggs. I get counting, and realize that instead of five eggs, there's SIX!! Sometime during the week, Blondie managed to sneak over and lay an egg in Lucy's nesting box. Whoops. I have no idea how long the egg is sitting there, so I take it inside, and stick it in a glass to see if it floats or sinks. It sank, which means it is fresh. I left it on the counter and went back out to candle the five hatching eggs.

I used a very powerful mini LED flashlight. I found it worked much better than the other thing I rigged up. So, I'm candling eggs, and just not sure what to think. They're much more opaque, but I still don't see veining or anything else. So, I'm pretty sure they're duds My neighbor came over to watch the candling, and I'm thrilled to have someone else to give their opinion. After seeing those, I said I'd go get the rogue egg, so she could see what a fresh egg looked like, so she could give her opinion on whether or not the other eggs were duds.

So, I went back and grabbed the egg, and took it out. I put the flashlight up against it, and we IMMEDIATELY see a little shadow in there, and we can see it moving allllll over the place. Oh. My. gosh. It is so cool to watch! I never saw anything like that with the other eggs, which leads me to believe that the other five are definitely not going to hatch.

I'd hate to be wrong though, so I think I'm going to let them sit under the chicken for a couple more days. After that, I think I'll crack them open. I'm a little scared they'll really stink, or, even worse, I'll find mostly ready chick.

Stay tuned.

My attempts at "Candling"

Unfortunately, we're down to five eggs. My black copper marans egg got stepped on and broken. Lucy is in the favored box (read: only nesting box that really counts), so the other chickens keep trying to step over her to lay. Never mind there's five other perfectly good boxes. We went camping for a couple days, and my neighbor chickensat for us. While gone, my neighbor was getting 1-2 eggs a day in the other boxes, and figured they weren't laying much because of the heat. Then, Sunday morning, she realized there was a broken egg under Lucy, so she went to clean it up. She found a DOZEN eggs there that weren't supposed to be hatching! Poor hen was trying to sit on 17 eggs.

I've never really been known much for my patience. When I heard that it's possible to "candle" an egg, I was all over that.

I've been trying to rig something to candle the eggs, but I don't think I've been entirely successful. I don't think the light is quite bright enough. The only egg that I feel like I'm getting much luck with is the white egg.

This is what I saw yesterday, which would be around day 7:


That definitely looks like more than just a plain, unfertilized egg. However, I don't see any veining, and I don't see any independent movement, like I've seen some of on youtube.

Today, after finding two different chickens sitting on poor Lucy, I decided to try and separate the henhouse so that she'll be left in peace. I used our chicken wire/fabric, and just tacked it up. Lucy still has access to food and water, but she can't get out of the coop. She hasn't wanted to, so I only feel a little guilty about that. On the plus side, so far, no other chickens have gotten in.

When I was trying to rig it up, Blondie kept trying to sneak past me into the nesting box so she could lay. She was such a pain that it was like having a 2 year old out there "helping" me. I finally got the net up enough to where she couldn't go in, and she finally gave in and went to a different box and laid.

I have the highest hopes for eggs 1 (white) and 4 (green). #2 is so dark I can't see inside. I think I can see a slight shadow in 2 and 4. 5 seems quite porous to me, and I can't see any air sac, so I'm pretty sure it's a dud. However, I'd hate to crack it open and discover I'm wrong, so I'm trying to sit tight.

Broody Hen!

I noticed that Lucy, my black copper marans hen, has been spending most of her time sitting in the nesting boxes. This coincided nicely with me putting Sue in with the girls, and getting (I hope) fertile eggs. With her going "broody", I thought it would be fun to experiment and see if we could get some chicks.

So, on Sunday night, I decided to give Lucy the four eggs that were laid that day (well, the fourth egg was one of her own, and from a day or two earlier). Then, I decided to give her three eggs that were laid Monday. I didn't bother giving her an egg from the silver laced wyandotte because she is so mean to Sue that I seriously doubt her eggs are fertile.

The eggs that I decided to let her try and hatch are all marked with a marker because the other chickens keep trying to lay eggs in the box she's sitting in, so when I go to collect eggs, it could get very confusing. Here are the eggs I have given Lucy to try and hatch (one of the white ones went into the cheesecake).

Monday night, I realized I was shy an egg for a cheesecake for K's birthday party, so I went and stole one back. Oops.

Anyway, from what I've read, chicks hatch in about 21 days, so I figure around August 8 or 9th, we could possibly see some babies!

When they have been sitting under the chicken for 7-8 days, I can try "candling" the eggs, and I should be able to tell if there is a chick developing. I'll have to try and find a really powerful flashlight and try it out in a week or so.

Here is Lucy sitting on the nest. Doesn't she look MEAN? So far she hasn't tried to peck at me, but she makes a weird growling sound whenever I root around, trying to find eggs that I haven't earmarked for her.

I may get her on video getting mad at me. It's kind of funny.

Chicken Update

I just realized that I haven't blogged about my chickens in a while. Frightening!

First, Lucy, the black copper marans, saw her replacement (more on THAT later) because we had all of the chicks outside in our time out coop, and started laying again. Same big, beautiful eggs, 3-4 a week. Because of that, there's been a few times when I've gotten an egg from all seven hens in one day!

Second, much as I hated to admit it, Foster/Sue seemed to have a much redder and more developed comb than I thought a pullet ought to have. Sadly enough, he started crowing, and is most definitely a rooster. He was kind of picking on a rooster my neighbor had, and she got fed up with it, and kicked him out. We put him in the time out coop, and she kept her chickens in her back yard.

Here's a video of him crowing from a month or so ago:

And here's a picture of him taken just a few days ago. I think he seems to have grown into a very handsome boy. His crowing has improved, but I haven't taken video of it recently.

We are in the process of making the chicken run about 3x as big as it was before. We did most of the work today, we just need to get some more chicken wire to complete the project.

Once that's done, we'll probably have Sue join the girls. As it is now, he's still separated from them because he hasn't quite asserted his dominance yet. He did manage to, um, not be a virgin anymore. That was awesome- we had our friends and their six children over when that happened. However, there's still a couple hens picking on him. He is bigger than all of them now, and that really helps. In the beginning when he was smaller, he just ran away like a big old chicke... well. Yeah. Anyway, we'd been calling him Foster up to that point. But, we decided to go back to Sue, following Johnny Cash's philosophy in "A Boy Named Sue".

I think he was shocked because his nestmates adored him. They followed him everywhere, and he basked in their admiration.

They still remember him, and recently when he was free ranging, the saw him on the other side of the fence and went running over to visit. It was funny.