I just adore hatching chicks. They are so sweet and noisy. They try SO darn hard to get born, all on their own. You just can’t help them. I know mammal babies have it rough too, but at least their mamma is doing most of the pushing. Baby chicks, they gotta do EVERYTHING… from that first huge pip crack to chipping for hours and then finally cracking the shell and pushing out. What a struggle for someone so little!
I love to be there when they are just about ready to push free. You can tell they are tired, they are not peeping much. So I just whisper little “go chickie go” encouragements to them and sometimes they will get a little burst of energy and make it happen. And then they get to see my beaming smiling face as I tell them welcome to the world! I hope that somehow, they get some imprinting that humans are good, and that they weren’t alone. Yeah, maybe they don’t care, but I do. It’s just a nice and gentle thing.
Well these two are early birds… wasn’t supposed to get major hatching until the 6th… but they managed to get here on the 5th. Sunshine was first, at 9:30 PM. I checked and according to the chick on their back test, he’s a roo. Doesn’t surprise me, by the time Midnight hatched, Sunny was up and att’em, walking all over and just bold as could be.
Midnight is a little girl, and she came out of a beautiful green egg. Our green eggs are from our first generation Maranacunas! So she is actually a second generation chick to hatch here at the farm! Her daddy and grandpa are probably Bucka Roo… haha…. ahem. Well, hillbilly chicken relations are always a little, well, touchy there. Will be very curious to watch her grow up and see if she looks more Marans or more Amerucana!
Well, it’s been a rough day here at the homestead… I thought it would be a nice Monday, but then I had to get a dang gall bladder attack and that pretty much laid me out for most of the day and evening. I’m finally feeling a little more human, and the early chicks sure did help to distract me from the awful pain of it all. Thank goodness, they are very few and far between. I know it would be nice to just get the dang thing out, but unfortunately, I do not have insurance, so it’s going to have to wait. Usually I can manage it very well, but sometimes, who knows why, but it just acts up and it’s just blindsiding! Thankfully, that is why working at home works for me and us. If you need a day off, you can usually take a day off. Especially since I spent the whole weekend working and got a lot done. I guess in some weird way, my body must have known this was coming and I geared up, just like a storm or something!
Well, nuff of that… probably TMI, but that’s life. It’s not always hugs and rainbows, even here at the homestead. But having a couple new little babies to play with and admire, sure does help! Two more are pipping, so I suspect we’ll have two new ones in the morning! Seems to be taking them about 5 or 6 hours after that first big crack! I love that they are in there peeping away, encouraging their egg mates to wake up and join the crowd in the new world!!!
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Looks like there are a bunch more chicky cousins on the way as well!
I had 4 kids with no-medication deliveries. Still, the one and only gall bladder attack I had was worse than any delivery!! I sympathize with you and hope they are not TOO frequent. I had surgery ASAP. Thanks to a niche state health coverage plan that I was lucky enough to squeek into, I only had to pay a couple hundred dollars, but I saw the “full” billing the surgeon and hospital sent to the insurance—-14 THOUSAND dollars. I had the band-aid surgery and was only there for four and a half hours. I know they did not get paid their full amount because it would have been negotiated down, but the uninsured get presented this full billing and I wonder how much they get to negotiate it down? Well, this is not the time for a soap box speech by me. I just hope you don’t have to have too many attacks before the Affordable Care Act goes more fully into affect Jan. 2014. Then there should be some insurance exchange plans available for EVERYONE, tailored to their income level.
Keep us all posted on the upcoming chicks. thank you!
Yeah, these attacks are no fun for sure. Thankfully, I only get them a few times a year. Last time was because I ate Kentucky Fried Chicken! (gg) Never again! And this time, I’m pretty sure that it was a big old piece of fatty yummy prime rib that kinda set me loopy. I try and be really really careful about what I eat and that makes it pretty tolerable. I really don’t eat fried foods very much at all, and if I do, I’m always careful to eat just a wee bit and make sure it’s followed by veggies and salad or bread, anything to kind of level it out. Maybe some day I’ll be able to afford insurance but right now, as a self employed person, it’s outrageous! And then they treat my weight as some horrid disease and won’t give me decent policies… last time I checked they wants $300 a month. Now, I have been to the doctors in the last 7 years twice. Once for a bad earache ($50) and once for the initial gall bladder attack ($60) If I had been paying the $300 a month for 7 years? $25,000. Granted, I know something serious would really cost that or more, but geez… that’s a lot to pay for sure. My car insurance has full medical coverage, so if I’m in a car accident, I’ll be fine. And in an extreme emergency, I know that a hospital can’t turn you away. When I hear about homeless people racking up a million dollar debts a year and all the people abusing the system and such, it does kind of make me mad. I would pay for a basic, emergency plan but $300 a month just sounds high, especially since I really don’t drink (a glass here and there) don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t have anything really major wrong with me, etc etc. Just fat. Haha. Well, I know it will be fine, and if I wouldn’t be bad, I probably wouldn’t have an attack now and then! haha…. I did read that taking a glass of apple juice with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it was a good way to keep them from happening. Maybe it’s rubbish, but hey, there are weirder things out there. I think I might give it a try for a few weeks or so and see. I know that vinegar is some amazing stuff as I have been told. And what can a teaspoon do to me other than maybe help??? Anyone else heard of that???
Thanks for writing!!!
While I don’t remember for sure what it was I ate when I got the attack,
I do remember it was leftovers of something I had eaten the day before with no problem. Go figure.
Fat. Me too. But just think about it for a while and I’ll bet for every fat person you’ve known that has had a heart attack, you also know a thin person who had one, also. My Mom was overweight (not EXTREME, but quite a bit) all her adult life, and she died one month before her 90th birthday. My doctor talked to me seriously once about my weight…then he got the results of my bloodwork (all excellent scores) and he has never mentioned it again.
Best wishes for as few attacks as possible!