So I may have been on the news today......

And I may need a chin implant..................


Me and the Girls are Famous! (Click on this)

You Lik-a my Melon.

Watermelon......... silly 

Yeah, I grew it. What? 

All You can Eat Tomato Buffet

So I'm kicking some ass at growing tomatoes right. I mean Killin' it. The tomato plants are huge and flowering and the tomatoes are just now starting to turn a fresh kissed hue. I came home yesterday and WTF. What the hell is this?

Something is chowing down on these tomatoes like an all you can eat buffet. Uh Uh. I really thought it was a mama bird taking snacks back for her brood of young baby birds that have moved into our siding directly above this tomato plant, but then I noticed something Funk-ay on the concrete. 

This. is. Poop(that ok Mom). 
Weird shit I have never seen before and directly below the tomato plant. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was responsible for this. I fumbled around the plant looking for more tomatoes that had been mutilated and couldn't find anything. Stumped, I got up and turned away from the plant and saw something that hasn't made me jump and scream like a little girl since I called 911 on that humongous rat snake in the yard. Seriously, not much can scare me other than snakes and taking a shower alone in the house since watching Psycho and seeing Janet Leigh killed, but this thing, this mutant I witnessed going to town on my tomato did it.  It was bigger than my hand I swear. Exhibit A:

Look at the teeth on this thing and it trying to stealthily blend in with the plant is so sly.  

Anyway, I did a little research and found out it is a Tomato Hornworm. Seriously, no one warned me about these things. Anyway, I need to figure out a way to get rid of it humanely before I snap it in half with a shovel like my mom and dad used to do with snakes in the yard when we were younger. Yowser. 

Got to Have Faith

Stop it .


I can't even stand how cute these new little ones are. The hair on little George Michael kills me. I literally thought when she hatched that her head was deformed at first. But nope, that big bump on top of her tiny little noggin' was made for her super hairdo. I mean the way it slicks itself back and poofs on top makes me giggle every single time I look at her. Killin'. 


They are doing great at 2 days old.  They are back in the laundry room (sorry Claire!) for about four weeks before they can go outside and I must admit that it is nice to hear the sound of little chirps again echoing from the back of the house. 


They are learning how to eat and drink on their own without the help of mama and are learning quickly. A couple of videos to show you their progression and their incredible cuteness:

After all that eating, they get super sleepy. It's so sweet how they just fall asleep standing up and cuddle together: 

By the way, I went out to see the big girls today and Bridget is no longer broody. She's back with the other girls, a part of their flock again. Good news. Whew.  All that work and drama paid off. 

Nature is a bitch

Does this look like the face of a killer?

Well. It is. 

Today was hatch day. They started pipping yesterday morning, which means they poked holes in their shells to start the hatching process. It is such a weird phenomenon. You can actually hear them chirping and wiggling around trying to work their way out. Usually after the first pip, they hatch somewhere between 12-40 hours later. So, I figured last night they would hatch and I would wake up this morning to some new, cute little chicks.


Yeah not so much.


I set my clock for sunrise. I had a nagging feeling that Bridget might not take to the chicks. From what I have read sometimes, even after sitting on the eggs for 21 days, some hens will still kill their young. She's super young and it is her first time so I wanted to be there when she woke up in case they did hatch last night and she wasn't immediately smitten. Thank God both myself and Claire were there. When we walked in on her this morning, I could tell she was freaked out by the chirping and I saw that she was pecking something in the nest. I lifted her up, expecting a peck from her, and saw that she was pecking a black little silkie. Crap. After a few hard pecks it was confirmed she was trying to kill it. I snatched it up, brought it inside, and put it under a heat lamp.  My original plan was to check on them in the morning and make sure they were ok, then head to work and check on them again at lunch. I had to change that plan as soon as Bridget started killing them.The others were starting to hatch as well and I needed to get back out there and make sure they would be ok. A quick call to the on call person at work and I was able to stay and make sure everything was going to be ok. If you are planning on hatching chicks, my recommendation is to make sure you are off of work and don't have anything else planned. I had no idea. 


The next few hours were a blur. I went back to the coop to check on the others as soon as I put the black silkie under the heat lamp and when I got there, Bridget had killed another one and was furiously pecking all the eggs because they were chirping. I frantically gathered the remaining eggs, and two were actually hatching in my hands as I carried them all back to the house to safety. When I got back, I noticed that the black silkie was dead under the heat lamp. Damn. Was it too hot? Or did she have internal damage from the pecking? Either way, I'm harboring major guilt that she died. Two hatched right there and one was a cute little white silkie who ended up being ok and one was a frizzle who had the yolk sac still attached. Not survivable. It probably hatched early because Bridget had pecked it. Another egg also had a huge gaping hole in it and I could tell the chick was dead inside. I had another little one hatch within that horrid hour and she is doing ok and still alive. After that fiasco, two eggs were left and they looked like they needed a little more time to incubate before they hatched. Unfortunately, I don't have an incubator so I put them under the heat, this time with a digital thermometer( I seriously made it to the store and back with that thermometer in less than 3 minutes) and prayed they would make it. About 5 hours later I noticed they were getting dry and I could here the chicks trying to tap their way out. I read online that sometimes the egg can dry out without the necessary high humidity and the chick can get stuck in the egg. I knew from looking at them that this was the situation I was quickly getting into. Ugh. 
Waiting for the eggs to hatch, You can see the others snuggled up to the eggs that are chirping in this video:
If you listen carefully, you can hear the chick tapping to get out. 

A quick google search later, I realized I should let the remaining eggs hatch themselves and only intervene if they absolutely needed. There are a lot of blood vessels etc. that can be damaged if you just crack the egg open and help, so it's better to let nature do it on it's own. If it doesn't, then there is a procedure you can do as a last resort. 


Cue 5 hours later and last resort. 


I had to do it. I could listen and tell the little chicks were going towards the light by the sound of their weakening chirps. So I gathered my tweezers, Q-tips, and hot towel and went to work. I hatched them successfully and they are still alive tonight ( once again, I should have been a veterinarian) Both of them were super feisty when they came out and are doing great. One is a black copper maran and the other is a mutt of sorts. Thank god they lived or I would be so bummed and deflated. 


Sigh.....so out of the eight, four made it. 


We named one George Michael(the look and mullet from the 80's). Seriously, right?

We named one Mutt, because she's a mix and the other two have yet to be named. Better, non-blurry pics to follow soon. I am just so seriously exhausted, emotionally and physically after today. Farm life isn't for the faint of heart and I'm thinking I may need to reconsider this hobby. Even Viejo is tired and Oh yeah, Bridget is still Broody. 

Mom knows best

Want to see something cute?
In response to my previous blog post my mom sent me this:

"Oh, I am so sorry - but don't be so hard on yourself.  I love you - mom
p.s. don't curse so much, I taught you better :) "

Ahhhh man. Sometimes curse words are the only way to go. I will try to clean it up Mom.

In other news, 3 days left. Yesterday Bridget came off the nest for probably the last time and took care of business. She ate a ton, drank a river full, and took the biggest bowel movement (I know Sh%t would have worked better but ma's reading) I have ever seen. Usually at day 18, they hunker down and are in it for the long haul. She won't come off again unitl they are born most likely, as evidenced by that massive bomb drop. Such a determined one that Bridget.

I'm thinking that some of the eggs will start hatching on Sunday afternoon, which is Mother's day! How appropriate!

I will keep you posted.

I wanna kick my own ass

God. 


I am so freaking mad at myself. Ugh. I wanted to see if the embryos survived the heat wave the past few days. So I decided to candle the eggs one last time. As I was putting the egg back in the nest, I totally dropped it and it cracked. 


I looked in it, hoping it wasn't fertilized and unfortunately it was with a little chick inside. 


It's amazing how guilty I feel about it. I am not going to touch those eggs again until they hatch. I seriously can't deal with the heartbreak if I do something shitty like that again. 


Dammit...................5 days left

Time Crunch.....7 days left.

Man, what a time crunch I have been in. I cannot get ahead this week to save my life.  


Seriously, I used to take time for granted but this week and last, I feel like there has not been enough time in a day to get all this good stuff done. I was going to try to finish the brooder where the new girls will live on Thursday, but I got called in to work because a co-worker was sick. I ended up working an insane amount of days in a row and wasn't able to work on it until this weekend throwing a serious glitch in the plan. Yesterday, Saturday, I decided I would put all of my effort into it Sunday (seriously, building stuff and being outside for me is my church) and then bam last night at 2:00 am a huge thunderstorm blew in. Killin' me. Not kidding. I put on my rubber boots and went to work this a.m. in the rain. My one and only next day off is Tuesday and then the new arrivals will be here on Sunday so it was imperative I got most of it done today. The clouds parted and after a couple of unplanned trips to the hardware store and a few @*#^ #%'s later, I am happy to report that I was able to get it mostly finished. Tuesday I am going to level it a bit and predator proof the hell out of it. 

Isn't it cute? It even matches the big coop. 

If anyone out there is looking to build a coop, I'm going to seriously suggest using the plans I did(I mean if you like this look).I bought them online from The Garden Coop. The directions are super easy to follow and even those with little building experience can do it. So get out there and DO IT. 

Seriously. Damn this heat in Austin.  95 degrees, but with the humidity it feels like 101. 
Tell you what is not good. Bridget's clutch(the nest she's sitting on). If the internal temperature of the eggs reach 105 degrees...........toast. Or shall I say over easy. 


Son of a................. ugh. 


She's pretty intuitive at coming off the nest when its too hot. This a.m. she left for about an hour  as soon as I opened the door for her and then this afternoon, when the temps reached boiling point, she wanted to come off again.  I let her linger around for only a few minutes and then put her back on. Since it's her first time on the nest I don't want her to get bored or have ADD and forget. So far she has been great and I think she is going to be an excellent mother. 


I put a shade cloth on the roof, ran an extension cord to the coop, and hooked up a fan for her and the eggs. I just looked in there and the temperature was down to 88. Thank God. I'm going to candle tonight and see if the eggs survived. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a scorcher again and then monday its supposed to get back into the 80's. 


81/2 days left.........................fingers crossed. So freaking close. 

Day 9

Can you see the veins?

So far so good.

Today I worked on the new brooder/coop. This is where the new little ones will reside with mama Bridget for a few weeks. She will raise them for probably 4-6 weeks, get tired of them, and reincorporate into the flock. They will stay there and grow until they are big enough to integrate with the older girls. 

Framing it up

As I was working on the coop today, I left the door open to the nesting box to see if Bridget wanted to stretch her legs and eat and drink a little. Most broody chickens leave the nest a few times during their broodiness and I figured I may as well monitor how long she is off (Don't worry, I have water and food next to her at all times). About an hour and a half of having the door open, she busted out of there and started running around chatting it up. She sat at the waterer for 10 minutes drinking like she had just run a marathon. She ate a little and then took multiple dust baths. After about an hour I started to get worried that she forgot she was supposed to be sitting on the nest so I picked her up(she was so light from brooding) and put her back on the nest where she settled in nicely. 
13 more days.