When roosters aren't roosters

Each time I pick the chicks up, I put them on the roosting bar. Most just hop off to get the hell away from the big giant hand, but a couple seem content to perch for a little while. Either they're mortified, or they kind of like it. It's too cute. Roosters that are actually pullets.

Today I caught them practicing on their own!

One of them was walking the bar like a balance beam. Too cute!

The elevated food and water has been working very well. The ducks jump up there and splash around regardless, so they get some crud in the water but it's far better than it was. If nothing else, the pine shavings stay dry. And they also like the little plastic bowl of grit and food next to the clump of grass.

Tonight I candled the eggs a second time. I wanted to make sure before throwing them out because the darker eggs are hard to see through. Once it's dark the task is just a tad easier to accomplish because you're basically shining a flashlight under the egg and hoping to see veins or a large dark shadow.

It would be impossible for me to candle the eggs and take a photo, but it's day 10 and this is pretty much how they look (thank you Raising Happy Chickens!):

So out of the initial 40 eggs, we still have 22 that seem to be growing. That's pretty neat. I wasn't expecting that many, I figured 10-15. I know there's still a chance some won't make it, but I hope they do.

What are the odds that 99% of them are girls? If only.

Sadly, the one I was pulling for the most, the silver sebright egg, didn't make the cut. :( There was nothing there but yolk.

Even though it makes me sad, I don't take it personally. I figure they were never fertilized and it's nothing I've done. All I can do is monitor the temperature, which holds pretty steadily at 102F, wash my hands before handling the eggs to lower the risk of bacterial contamination, and keep water in the humidity channels.

On March 9th, once they have been incubating for 18 days, I start increasing the humidity. Apparently damp paper towels are the best way to go about this because the water evaporates more quickly, resulting in more humidity. I'll have to go with that since this is my first time to try it.

Humidity affects the size of the air sac. Not enough and it shrinks and can kill the chick. Too much and it can expand and the chick won't have enough room to grow. It's a delicate balance...

Aside from that, I finally got around to another project that's been a long time coming... the dvd collection. It's an eyesore and takes up a lot of space.

So I'm taking the dvds and liners out of the cases and transferring them to this:

So far I've cleared off... a shelf. Just one. Feels like a lot of work for such small reward, but once it's done it will help because we'll have a place to put some of the other stuff that's taken over the room.

It's been a rainy blah day, so a good day to do things, watch movies and hang with the dogs. Guess I'll go eat dinner and get back to that.