Calla Lilies

Three of my hens went broody about six weeks ago.  Broody hens are very intense and take their jobs quite seriously.  Two hens gather all the eggs of the 5 total hens and sit on them.  One hen has sat in a nesting box the entire time and, I kid you not, there has never been a single egg under her.

Days and days have passed, yet no chicks ever appear.  It is an oddity.

Full disclosure:  I believe all hatched chicks are being murdered.

I have my reasons.

In an effort to put a stop to this nonsense, and be able to eat farm fresh eggs again, I armed myself with a snow shovel and stole all the eggs from the coop.  I put them in incubators to at least give them a fighting chance.  Because we certainly were not going to be cracking those eggs open to eat them.

And because the eggs had been under the hens for different lengths of time, the eggs are randomly hatching.  Like 1 every 2-3 days.  I have 11 surviving chicks at this time and have lost one.

Let’s talk about the one I lost.

First off-I helped him hatch.

Stand down, Reader!  I am aware that helping chicks hatched is not advised.  But he was stuck in his shell for like 36 hours!  Oh, the humanity!  When I got all the shell off of him, he still had this membrane like sac around him.

He was something else.  Let’s discuss.

After he dried off and was acting like a normal chic, I took him out to the brooder box to meet his new family.  When I checked on him a few hours later, he was laying on his back and flailing his little legs about.  He had turned into a chicksickle because he wasn’t smart enough to walk himself under the heat lamp.

So I put him back in the incubator to warm up.  This was not an inconvenience to me, as I currently have three incubators running on my kitchen counter.

As people do.

Then I set a special new brooder box for him in the house so I could keep an eye on him.  And then the dogs knocked into the brooder box and spilled the water and the chick was soaked again.  I put him back into the incubator.

Then I set the special brooder box on the deck away from the dogs.  And the chick escaped and was hiding under a BBQ grill.  I put him back.  He escaped again and walked himself right off the deck and fell approximately 12 feet.  And lived.

I told him enough was enough and I marched him back to the outdoor brooder box, where he promptly died within 24 hours.

For not getting under the heat lamp.

But other than that-it is going great!

I have decided to paint the entire interior of my house this summer.  And that is not as fun as it sounds.

But it looks SO GOOD when it is finished!

We are painting the walls Amazing Gray by Sherwin Williams and the ceilings Origami White by Sherwin Williams.

Here is a picture of the completed dining room area.

David got me a Calla Lily plant for my birthday!  I want it to live forever and ever!

Please advise.

My peony plant is on point this year and I am able to have bouquets of fresh peonies in the house. I am most likely the envy of the whole neighborhood, honestly.

Here are the peonies I made all by myself along with a cute little sign I found.

See this bird cage and leaded window?

I am going to do amazing things with them.  Because Pinterest is giving me IDEAS, man.

The boys are working full time and I am spending a lot of time at home, painting, and hanging out with my chicks and dogs and cats and cows.  It is a happy existence for me.

Hearing little chicks who are about to hatch chirp inside their eggs is one of the greatest gifts this world has to offer.

Have you heard this sound, Reader?

Have you?

Please notice Rio.

Thank you.

So, I am painting.  And cleaning.  And listening to books on Audible.  And walking dogs.  And checking cows.  And hatching chicks.  And reading actual books. And that is what summer is all about, my friends!

The puppy brothers on our morning walk.

Cows-

Opal

Maisy

While we were camping one weekend, one chick hatched unexpectedly and lived, even though I had not yet removed the eggs from the turners.

I mean.  How cute is that?

We are spending time at the river.  The dogs love it, per usual.

I am, once again, reading my favorite summer book at the river-

These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine

We had family pictures taken right around Hadley’s graduation.

Left to Right-

Kate, LD, David, me, HD, and Hadley.

Happy Wednesday, Friends!