Well, Miss Topaz was looking pretty miserable yesterday morning. She was huge. I was thinking, oh 26 or 27 kittens at least. I believe she felt the same way. I just had a feeling she was going to have them soon, she was just acting, well, odd. Not bad, but just a little wonky. Later on in the afternoon, she had a little bit of discharge and then threw up… I guess just a little stressy and so we popped into the nice big prepared dog carrier with a couple layers of old towel and put her in the parlor where it was quiet and darker.

It was just one of those days! First thing out the chute, Maggie was doing up some dishes and all the sudden there was splash and the rough plumbing under the kitchen sink had finally given out. We knew it was on it’s last legs, but it had lasted almost 4 months! But no more. Then Jessy is vaccumming and our old used vaccuum started to smoke and sound very badly… we checked it all out and it was just dead.

And in the middle of it all, the mail lady brought our first batch of eggs from eBay!!! They are fancy bantam Mille Fleur D’Uncl Belgian chick eggs! Can’t wait to see if we can hatch them out successfully. I bought 12 and the lady sent 18 to be sure! Got them into the incubator within the hour, and made a little like light cardboard tray or rack for each row, so they would be easy to turn and keep together. We have two more packages of eggs on their way, one batch should arrive soon and the Marans are coming next week.

We had decided that our little homegrown chicks were all feathered out and ready to be big girls and boys. All week we had been giving them a few hours outside in the wire dog crate and they were totally enjoying it. We were hardening them off a wee bit, and I’m sure we were a little sad to see them leave the kitchen nook. It was wonderful to watch them grow this first 5 weeks of life, and have them sitting on your desk watching you work or Maggie would take them in her room to sit and watch video games while she played! They are very pampered little chickies! But still, they were outgrowing the big feed tub as well, so it was time.

They were loaded up in a cat carrier and off we took them to the teenager coop. Haha… its our little coop and the home of the chicken nuggets for the last week. It’s amazing, the nuggets are as big or maybe even bigger at 3 weeks as our Bucka 5 is at 5 weeks!

There is no doubt, our 5 homegrown fledglings are a lot more active, inquisitive and I think, smarter. They certainly are much more interested in going out in the coop yard and hunting bugs and such. And they walk all over the place where the nuggets just eat, walk a few steps and then sit to wait till time to eat again. Copper, our first born little rooster, he was pretty quickly walking around and doing his ninja chicken drop kicks and giving all the meaties his Bucka Roo eye stare to assert his dominance over the entire flock. His sidekick Silver, is another rooster and pretty soon, the pair had the whole pecking order established.

Later on in the evening, it was a little chilly, so I went out to check on them all. Sure enough, they were all in a little nugget huddle and our homegrown five were right in the middle, all protected and warm and cozy. They are doing fine!

Well, fixing up the coop and installing the new babies there and of course, spending some time sitting and watching them all, it took about an hour or so. And when we got back in the house to start working on dinner, I sent Jessy to check on Topaz! And lo and behold… she had all her kittens! She’s a pro… this is apparently her second litter! And her last… For sure… we really don’t need a zillion barn kitties, and we hope to find good homes for all these! But oh my… they are cuties!!!

She has five babies… 3 little boys and 2 little girls. Two are orange kitties… imagine that! One is black, and two are calicos! They are so cute. Topie is such a good mommy, she had them all cleaned up and nursing when we came in the house. She was purring so loud, you could hear her two rooms away! We had a little emergency an hour or so after… Maggie heard one of the babies crying and went to check. The little black one had gotten his hind leg tangled in the little umbilical cords that several still had. It was getting all purply and swelling, so I had to do something quickly. I had read earlier to just let the mom take care of it, or if you had to intervene, you needed sterilized scissors and dental floss to tie it off and all this, but we just didn’t have the time! So, I just clipped them with sharp little sewing scissors and thankfully, no one bled and we got his little foot untangled and the blood circulating! Oh my gosh… Dr. Mom to the rescue! We kept a good watch for a while after and everyone settled in for a good snooze.

What a crazy day here at the farm!!!