Have you ever reached a point in the journey of your life, stopped for a moment and wondered, How did I get here? That describes how I have felt these last few weeks as I wrote about my memories of new life and how it pertained to goats and horses.
I turned down the opportunity to foal out mares this year. A difficult decision for me to reach, largely due to my health. Staying up all hours of the night disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm. This negatively impacts the adrenals. Since I am working to create an environment for mine to heal, I believe it would be counter productive. A smaller percentage of the picture is the fact that I have a limited amount of energy and I have chosen to direct it to my current goals of breeding chickens and a homestead lifestyle. I am hopeful that I will discover a way to add foaling mares back into my life in the future. If that doesn’t happen, I will simply relish the memories of that season. To read my blog on seasons click here.
I adore babies of almost any species. Spring time brings new life in plant and animal form. I like to see the tiny plants pushing their way up through the soil, but not quit as much as seeing new life appear when a mother gives birth or an egg hatches.
How did I go from foaling out horse to hatching chicks? I see some humor in the fact that an egg or newly hatched chick is about the size of a foals hoof. Now that is quite a big difference, going from one to the other. My health goals have played a part in directing my current path. It is a simple truth that when making room for change in one’s life certain activities must be let go of to make room for new. An area I struggle with at times, letting go. Some days, I actively choose to stay focused on the new adventures.
Hatching chicks
Hens make hatching chicks easy. They do the work of an incubator and brooder after the hatch. One of the Swedish Flower Hens went broody last fall. Click here to read the story. The relationship a chick has with a broody hen seems like it would provide an education. However, the incubated chicks seem to know instinctively to peck at food and drink water. Again the power of new life is amazing.
Today, as I write, new life abounds around me in the form of hatching chicks. Yesterday, the little chirps greeted me before I even seen a pip. Today I have been privileged to watch them pop out of their shells. Some times I need to work hard to pop out of my shell. It is tempting to stay where it is safe, comfortable, and truthfully, easy. Working to get out of a shell takes effort, and then just when I accomplish breaking out, I find myself faced with changes. Like a chick who suddenly finds space to stretch and learn to walk and balance. Freedom to move is one of those changes. I mean what chick would want to stay cooped up in a shell. In reality, a chick dies if they don’t break out in time. Similarly, we risk a different kind of death( I am not referring to an eternal death here) if we too stay in our comfort zone.
Last year incubating chicks became a new challenge for me. I have used 3 different incubators to hatch chicks in the last year and a half. The Little Giant, Incuview and Janoel12 produced chicks, but offer different features that seem to influence hatch rates. The Little Giant, a styrofoam, I used only once when I borrowed from a friend. I hatched only 2 chicks. Perhaps with time and experience I may have improved the %. I like the plastic incubators best for the easier clean up after a hatch. Both the Incuview and Janoel12 are constructed of hard plastic. They clean up nicely. And oh those newly hatched chicks make a mess.
They are adorable though once they dry off and the fluffiness appears.
A discussion on different incubators would provide enough material for its own blog post. In the hatching course, I am preparing, I include info on different incubators and a worksheet to help you decide which one suites your financial need and personal preferences.
Consider joining the wait list while I finish up the e course on hatching chicken eggs. If you are not needing this type of information, perhaps you know someone to pass this opportunity onto? There are going to be a few bonuses for signing up early.