First things first... before we left for California, Gus put seven eggs into his little incubator. Five that he had purchased from a breeder (2 Polish, 2 Frizzles, and 1 Rhode Island Red) and two from our very own Mary Poopins. Sadly, it doesn't look like Mary's eggs were fertilized, because nothing appears to have developed. Oh well. Next year!
Anyway, the incubation period for chickens is approximately 21 days. I made a note on Thursday, July 30th indicating that it would be hatch day. So imagine my surprise when I went to wash a paintbrush in the laundry room yesterday (Sunday, July 26th) and noticed a crack in one of the eggs. I thought it was broken! It took me a minute to realize that a little beak was poking out. And then it PEEPED at me! Say what???
It stayed like that all afternoon, basically. Not much change. After the kids were in bed, I went over to my friend/neighbor's house to watch TV for a bit ("Outlander"-- she had it on DVR, hehe). I came back just before 11, and Gus had just gone upstairs to get into bed a few minutes before. I went to check on the eggs, just to see... and saw THIS!
Brand new chicken, fresh from the egg! I ran upstairs to tell Gus, who couldn't believe it (since he had JUST checked before going upstairs). But yes, our first baby, four days too early! A little Frizzle chicken. Maya has claimed her and named her Midnight. Here she was this morning after Gus moved her into the chick box:
And with her #1 fans, Niko and Maya!
Meanwhile, while we were all loving on little Midnight, one of our Polish eggs started to crack and rock back and forth inside the incubator! Much as before, there didn't seem to be much progress. But Maya and I went to go pick Niko up from Cub Scout Camp at 4:00, and returned home to this:
The kids have named this one Fluffy, and (s)he has just been moved into the box with Midnight. And, as of this writing, our Rhode Island Red egg looks like it might hatch tonight, and the other Polish egg looks like it might have the tiny beginnings of a crack. So, we shall see! The chicks are adorable, though. Let's just cross our fingers that they all end up being girls!
In other news... Niko had his first day of scout camp today, and came home thoroughly filthy and exhausted. It sounded like he had a great day, though there was a lot of discussion about the rules and not as much time spent actually doing the activities. Tomorrow should be better, he says, because he will actually get to shoot with the bow and arrow. He is pretty psyched about that!
Also, my parents closed on their new house this past Thursday morning, and successfully moved their trailer from our driveway to their own that afternoon. They are officially Massachusetts homeowners!
Their stuff should arrive in a few days, and they have been busily getting things done before that happens: repainting, replacing carpet, cleaning, etc. But I know they are eager to see their belongings again, since it has literally been MONTHS since they left California. And it will be fun to see how the house looks when it has all their familiar things in it.
Also this week, the kids and I picked about 10 pounds of blueberries in two visits to our favorite local place. There are never enough blueberries! The kids eat them like candy, and they are SO CHEAP here this time of year. Heaven!
And that's pretty much it! Gus and I have gotten back into our home improvement projects, now that everything is sort of back to normal. I made a walkway, Gus installed some motion-sensor lights in the front and back yards, I power-washed the decks, Gus fixed the roof warmers, I installed a new cupboard in our bathroom... the list goes on and on! But we are back on track, and it feels good.
I will post more on Cub Scout camp at the end of the week when I get pictures-- I can't wait! :)
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