It’s all chickens, all the time, here lately. So far, we’ve hatched out 15 eggs. The first one came on day 19 after we put them in the incubator, so we were caught a little unprepared. We sort of assumed they would come on day 21. It said so on the label! It sounds like a pet bird store in here. (I miss my parrots.) I’m really enjoying the little guys so far. I’m moving them from the incubator as soon as they look mostly fluffed out.
Most of them are this grayish color right now, with a very cute racing stripe down their back. I was hoping for more diversity in color, one of the main reasons we went with Icelandics in the first place. I’m hoping they aren’t quite so uniform when their feathers come in. I haven’t a clue how what they look like now relates to how they’ll look all grown up.
The grown chickens are doing fine. We are getting two or three eggs a day, from four hens. I’m not going to complain. They hardly eat any of their grain at all, and are out busily pecking away all over the place. It’s hard to imagine that there are many bugs out there yet, but they are finding something. Egil (the mighty Viking rooster) does a great job getting all the ladies back into the coop before dusk every night. The one night we wanted to go to town before he had them in, we ended up chasing one hen. Chasing chickens is about as much fun as chasing lambs — not fun at all. We picked up a couple of landing nets at Wal-Mart, which should make that better.
I need to take some pictures of my window boxes. I’ve got about half of them done and under lights at this point. I should be doing them faster, but I’m intrigued with my new chicks and puppy, of course. I wondered about that when I thought about ordering plugs. The 70 window boxes that line the deck was a great idea, before we got critters. Will I still want them now that I’m busier? I hope so. They look so pretty for so long, and the deck will look empty without them.
The pup’s herding skills are just a wonder to watch appear. He does a great job with the chickens, and we heard from Elaine that Icelandic sheepdogs work like Australian cattle dogs. When I watch Bjarki with the sheep right now, he’s just absolutely fearless, and does the head down and barky thing almost every day now. The sheep remain unimpressed, however. He is doing really well on a leash now, and is getting me out there on a long walk almost every day, which is another reason I got him.