Farm Friday, May 3rd, 2024

Baby chicks!

Mama Hen with her chicks. All photos by author.

All winter long this Barred Rock hen has been trying to sit on eggs. Even though we took the eggs away every day, she stayed stubbornly in the nest box, only getting off the nest occasionally to eat and drink water. She was the classic broody hen. So gave her what she wanted.

On April 10th I used a Sharpie to mark a dozen eggs with prominent “x” marks and stuck them underneath her. She was finally able to keep her eggs from day to day. When the group of students arrived on April 15th for their three-week stay, we told them to not collect those eggs. They named her “Mama Hen,” and every day we got updates about how she was doing.

On April 24th, I used my iPhone’s flashlight to candle one of the eggs and I saw a baby chick growing inside. Very exciting!

We hoped that the chicks would hatch on May 1st because there was a group of elementary-aged children coming out. But they started hatching on the morning of May 2nd and by morning chores on May 3rd there were 9 fluffy chicks. Very exciting!

In the afternoon of May 3rd, I went to check on them and there was one dead chick and one who was outside of the little box I had set up to contain the nest and splayed out. Looked like a goner. But I picked her up and put her in a box in the full sun on my wool hat. She warmed up in the sun and started peeping and I gave her water. I hope she makes it!

I took the box away and removed the two unhatched eggs and now Mama Hen is not tied to a nest and wherever she goes in her room, the chicks can get underneath her.

Don’t touch my babies!

Spring ephemerals are blooming now! This is bloodroot.

Our cover crops made it through the winter and are growing fast. This is winter rye.

The greenhouse is doing well. Tomatoes are at the perfect stage for the plant sale next week.

We load the truck on Monday!

Some students used Kool-Aid to dye wool.

The rain caused our ephemeral stream to fill with water. No drought here.

Inside the barn.

Crocuses from early April

Moonrise over the corn crib.

Little Bear!

In writing news, I published a Mega Link to all my Genealogy essays where I ranked them in descending order of claps and pulled quotes from each essay.

I did this because I had committed to give a talk this past Thursday at a university nearby about genealogy. As the date for the talk approached, I started to feel unqualified since I am not a professional. So I reread all of my posts and tried to see if I had anything worthwhile to say.

I think I might try to organize these essays into a book. I reached out to a writing coach thanks to a tip by Baird Brightman. I’m not quite ready yet, it seems.