New Chicks!

Do you remember when I told you a black hen was made a warm nest and snuggled herself down to try to hatch some eggs?

I would check the nest every day to see how the eggs, and the mother hen were doing.

I checked on Tuesday and some of them hatched!

I love looking at new chicks!
They are so cute!

One chick is still a little bit wet because it just finished hatching!

After the chicks hatched, the mother hen stayed on the nest for 2 more days.
Wednesday morning she was out and about letting her chicks explore the stall.

The chicks were born on October 1st.

I wonder how many are roosters and how many are hens.

We won't be able to tell for a few weeks. I'll watch to see which chicks grow bigger tail feathers, and which ones grow bigger.

I don't have to keep a heat lamp in the barn because the mother hen has lots of fluffy feathers. She knows when to call her chicks to gather underneath her to keep warm. She knows it's her job to keep the chicks warm and safe.

There were six eggs in the nest, but only 3 hatched. That's not unusual. Our hens usually hatch out about half the eggs. Some just don't grow properly inside the egg, so they don't hatch.

Chores on days like this are so much fun!

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It was fun visiting your school on Friday. It was really fun to teach you some fun facts about apples. You learned a lot about the tools I use to make cider. I'll have more photos about cider pressing next week.

While I was walking Mishka I found a rose bush that had rose hips all over it! It looked just like little red apples covering the big, green bush.

The scientific name for roses is
Rosaceae

The scientific name for apples is
Aplicus Rosacea

Almost everything around us has a regular name and a scientific name. The scientific name helps scientists put things in categories, and that helps them learn more about what they are studying.

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Echo was born February 10, 2014

Her new calf will be born the same week as Thanksgiving. This will be her fourth calf. How old will she be when she has her calf? Her last calf was born August 13, 2018. How old was she when she had her last calf?

I'm all done milking Echo until after she has her calf this fall. I don't have to spend as much time on chores because milking takes about 45 minutes from setting up the milker, to cleaning up all the equipment.

I don't know what we'll name the calf.
I don't even know if it will be a boy or a girl.

Maybe you can think of some names and send them to me. I would love to have your ideas on a good name for the calf. You can put them in the comments for this post, or you can write them on paper and give them to your teacher. 

Did you know you can choose to think anything you want?