R to the V and the learning curve associated with brooders

Our new RV is not as plush as the one we had before, but it is a pretty good deal for the price we paid. With a little elbow grease, it cleaned up pretty nice.

Ask me how we spent our weekend? But you know, I feel like we're over the biggest hurdles now and we can get back to the rest of the hurdles.

The bathroom is tiny, that's the worst part about it. But the King did get a new mattress that's rather cushy, so at least it's not all bad.

The bed was all pretty because we bought a comforter set, but the King has his own sleeping preferences, so it's utilitarian... sigh...

Kohls is awesome by the way... we got that comforter set that came with two sheet sets, two Queen sheet sets, and a curtain for under $100. And we'll get $10 in Kohls cash to spend next week. I was expecting to pay twice that.

All homey at night... the King wants a patio set... it will be a nice future addition, especially now that the weather is getting warmer.

The chickens and ducks...

Learning curves. That's what it's all about... learning curves.

First off, I know why they call them fowl, but I think they spelled it wrong. Those little f##kers are foul, f-o-u-l, foul. To be fair, I think it's the ducks and not the chickens that are making it so miserable in there... but I'm feeling my way around it and day by day it gets better.

Most important thing I've learned is to keep the food far away from the water, that way it stays dry and doesn't start to become a fermented mush, because inevitably it ends up everywhere. The mush is definitely the ducks doing because they shovel up the food then go to the water and wet it down; ducks need water to eat because they are toothless. I get it. But it's messy.

And duck poop is much larger than baby chicken poop. Also sounds like a half empty squeeze bottle when they're scared. Or at least when Howard is scared.

The King came up with the idea to put the waterer inside a pie plate to help catch some of the water that the ducks splash out and that has also helped. They were splashing all the water out in 4-6 hours and now I don't have to refill it for 8-10. When I get a bigger pie plate it should help even more.

The litter: I got the wrong kind of sand, hard to know if you don't know squat about sand and can't see inside the bag. I just knew it couldn't be playground sand... What I got turned out to be fine like silt and there was dust everywhere. Howard started to develop a cough but I knew it wasn't good for them (or me for that matter) before that happened.

So I had the King pick up pea gravel. The pea gravel is big enough that they don't seem interested in eating it... well, no one but Howard the Huge, but he quickly found that it wasn't to his liking. Phew.

The pea gravel isn't a perfect solution, but I can scoop the pea gravel up, put it into a bucket, rinse it off through a colander that is now used solely for that purpose, and I think that's going to be okay. It's not dusty, it's reusable, it retains heat, it's not slick... no dust. Sure it's a pain, but the wood shavings were a pain too, and they could get moldy.

So... Howard the Huge... To the far left you see Red, a 7 week old (probable) rooster. That big yellow thing you see is a 2 week (estimated) old Howard. Even Bill - also a duck (next to waterer at the bottom) - isn't keeping pace.

The chickens are getting bigger too. Their wing feathers are more obvious, they're developing tail feathers, and they fly a little here and there. Perching has become a more attractive pasttime. There are a couple that are more friendly than the others, or at least less skittish. The little buff chicken will be Buffy, she's the friendliest aside from Red. It's hard for me to tell the rest of them apart... I hate to admit that but it's true.

Look at the cuteness...

We sleep like the dead...

Sometimes I watch to make sure they are breathing because they sleep stretched out with their beaks in the pebbles.

Our thermometer/hygrometer came today. The manual thermometer we had registered about 101-102F, and you want the temp to be 98-103F, but closer to 101F in a non-circulating brooder like we have. The new thermometer registered 115F.

YIKES!

Then I realized the new one was too close to the heating elements while the manual thermometer was closer to the eggs. Problem solved. The manual thermometer is a probe, this one has dangly bits. So I lowered it down and the temps are closer together now. See? It's easy to mess things up and second guess yourself... but you learn. All the time you learn.

I turned the temp down, but I turned it back up. I figure the potential chicks are happy so leave well enough alone. Thankfully the thought that the chicks seemed to be growing set me on the right path or I probably would have killed them.

I candled the eggs for the last time tonight. I think I even saw one of the chicks move! How cool is that???

Answer: Very.

There are 5-7 eggs out of the 22 that may not have actually developed, or they started to and stopped. I smelled them and they aren't rotten so I'm going to leave them alone just in case. They have dark masses but look different now. The ones I am confident in are even darker and I can kind of see wings and blood vessels.

But I'm afraid to be wrong...

To be safe I'll open the incubator and take a whiff every day because the bacteria from one bad egg can contaminate the rest and that's important. But from here on out we'll be pretty much on autopilot. 

On Wednesday we're on hatch countdown! It's nerve wracking! At that point I add more humidity and by this weekend all the chicks that are going to hatch should hatch! Can't wait!

Seriously - did I mention it makes me edgy?