Eckenrode Family

A Nighttime Visitor in the Coop

At dawn two mornings ago we awoke to sounds of chaos in the chicken coop. We rushed out to find feathers everywhere and 3 missing chickens. The mama bantam chicken and one of her chicks and the full sized Silver Lakenvelder that was sitting under our feeder on some eggs that were due to hatch in about 10 days, were gone. I could see the feathers from the Lakenvelder and later in the day I followed them out into the woods to discover her remains.

After reinforcing the coop and shutting the door in the run we set up our camera and watched them as they returned for another visit.

Raccoon Trying to Break Into Coop from Erin Eckenrode on Vimeo.

 

 

Right Now

I am . . .

Smelling the soap I just cut. Lavender, oatmeal tangerine; and peppermint tea tree with green clay.
Keeping a close eye on mama hen and her 3 chicks and watching with fascination at her teaching them the ways of the chicken.
Appreciating always this constant shadow of mine. His loyalty and love are so comforting.

Hatching Chicks

Our hens Dottie and Blackie have been sitting on their group of eggs for 21 days and on schedule an egg under Blackie began to hatch. It was a blue egg from our Ameraucana hen. It didn't take it too long before it hatched and shortly after that a light brown egg from one of our Buff Orpingtons hatched.






After holding the two silent eggs from under Blackie up to a flashlight in a dark room I determined they were not going to hatch. Then on Friday morning I noticed a dark brown egg from under Dottie began to hatch. I believe this egg is from our Black Australorp. After getting a small hole in the shell and the membrane it didn't seem to make much progress for about 24 hours and the membrane seemed to be drying out a bit. The other 3 eggs from under Dottie didn't seem to be viable after holding them up to a flashlight so I tossed them. I moved this egg under Blackie so that it wouldn't be alone and after about 2 days with the chick inside still working hard and chirping loudly I decided it needed some help.

After a lot of online research I knew we needed to keep the membrane moist to avoid it sticking to the chick. Wetting a cotton ball and moistening the membrane I held the egg as Tim chipped away at the shell and membrane with tweezers. It was so amazing to see the chick finally freed and stretch from it's tiny cramped ball. I immediately took it back to the coop to place it back under Blackie but she and the chicks were wondering around the coop and she flipped out when I placed the chirping wet chick in her nest. She approached it as if it were a predator. We quickly placed it inside under a heat lamp. It was distressed to be alone so Tim took it back to the coop where Blackie and the chicks were nesting, he placed it under Blackie and she accepted it immediately.
Here is the last little chick to hatch a day after hatching after she's dried and fluffed out.

Now they seem to all be happily getting along and Blackie has turned out to be a wonderful mama.

 

Summer Break

Summer break officially started for us on Wednesday. We have many things on our list of things to do this summer and I can't wait to get started. The first thing I want to knock off the list is a drive-in movie which we hope to do tomorrow night.

One of the things I love most about the small town we live in is all of the traditions and folklore that abound here. One of the legends we've heard is the one of the buried treasure hidden by the settlers in 1805 beneath the large rock atop Sugar Loaf Hill. Every year on the morning after the last day of school the children meet, hike up this hill and attempt to push the rock over to reveal the tresure. If they are unable to move the rock and claim the treasure they are given coupons to the local ice cream shop as consolation prizes. This is our first year participating in this hike. We enjoyed our ice cream coupons today...
I've discovered Instagram on my phone...

Also for entertainment we've been watching these trucks in our yard. We are installing a geothermal heat pump and so these trucks have been parked in our yard for a few days drilling wells.
Another souce of entertainment and excitement around here are the hatching eggs in our coop. We have 4 broody hens right now but I've only given eggs to 2 of them. The other two move around to different nests and don't have the instinct to keep sitting on the same eggs. Just this morning I lifted one of the eggs out from under the hen and brought it to my ear and I heard tweeting! I could also feel movement inside of the egg. At the moment two of the eggs have cracks and chirping.

Around the Yard

Here is one of 4 broody hens that we have right now. She's sitting on 4 eggs that are scheduled to hatch in 3 days. We have another one with 4 eggs ready to hatch that same day.