I cleaned out the coops today; Dad was very nice, and went and bought some straw for me to use, because we have not been able to get anymore hay from our field lately. Actually, let me be more clear there, we have had the opportunity to get hay from our field, but the man whole bales it has done only round bales recently, which are no good to use because of their massive size. More of it would be wasted than used.
So anyway, it's my first time using straw (that I can remember), and the goats aren't too keen on it. Little buggers keep trying to eat it, bless them, but it's just not edible, and they can't change that and it irritates them, but the chickens seem to like it.
The chicken are getting healthier all the time; formerly I had been adding vitamins and electrolytes to their water, but have now run out of it, and am just giving them clean water now. They still seem to be getting better, so hopefully the enteritis will stay gone, and our birds will keep on the up-climb.
But you know, when it's not one thing it's the other, and it has recently come to my attention that we have egg-eaters. I hate it when chickens develop that bad habit, because it can be hard to break. It started a few days ago, when we were gone to the Lake for the day, (and therefore unable to collect the few eggs we may, or may not, had been getting,) and apparently it has really set in, because now everyday I go out there I find the sad remnants of a egg shell cracked in a various nest-box, sticky with yolk. I've been going out to check for eggs more and more often, but it's not a precise art, and so far haven't been able to either gather the egg, or catch the egg-eater, because the crime has been committed. I'm not sure which bird(s) is(are) eating getting the eggs, either, so will just have to keep checking!
The first of the incubated eggs (from our lot) are due to hatch on the 30th of this month, and are looking good so far. Everything checks out, and I hope the rest of their incubation goes smoothly.
The duck eggs, and the Marans eggs, aren't due until well into next month. I candled the first duck egg this morning, and something is forming in it, though I'm not so sure whatever it is is supposed to be shaped that way. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and candle it again within the next two days and check on things.
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