Spring

We've had the spring lambs, who have arrived early, bu now as Perth (Tas) starts to warm a little the magic of spring is starting to appear.

 Our deciduous trees are preparing explode in to colour.

The seeds that have been planted are starting to shoot to the sky and soak up as much sun as they can get.

 The kids are enjoying being outside without freezing off their fingers, or being covered in mud. It gives them a chance to get to know our cooks a bit more.

 We stared off with e few hens, then we got some younger pullets that are just starting to lay in the past few weeks. This is one of the pullest (young hen).

We could not let Spring go buy without getting a rooster. We all know that spring is the season for swooping plovers, baby lambs, new growth, and we are hoping that it is the season for baby chicks. We have seen our rooster getting friendly with the hens. We have waited in anticipation for the hen to become broody and sit on her eggs. After weeks of waiting I did some reading and found out that hens from egg farms tend not to be the best at nesting on eggs. So we have been collecting the eggs from 'THE' hen and have being preparing to incubate them.

A good incubator can cost thousands. We do not have thousands. So...................

Here is one that I made from scraps in the garage and a free Styrofoam box from the local green grocer. It works well and so far so good. It holds a constant temperature which is good, it is warm, and we hope that it works. We should be able to hold egg up to the light in a week or so and see if there are chicks growing. in 21 days we should have some babies.

Spring is a great time, a time of preperation for the summer months. We are enjoying the longer days, and look forward to daylight savings and being outside more and more.

These two pics are just some of the kids wearing the head lamp that we use when we lock out rooster up at night. Yeah ... to keep us and our neighbours happy, our rooster gets locked up overnight in an insulated box to muffle his crow.