Count down to kidding time

We're approaching the 5-week mark before Hoppy is due to give birth. At this point, it is recommended to give the doe a subcutaneous injection of selenium, which will be repeated at 2 weeks before the due date. At the 4-week mark, we'll give Hoppy a vaccine shot. Jeff and I will be drawing straws to see who the lucky one will be to administer these. We'll also be increasing her food ration and supplementing her feed with extra vitamins and minerals. Some of our friends just lost a doe during the kidding process, so we are studying up and trying to prepare ourselves as best we can.

Hoppy is obviously pregnant, but we can't tell yet whether Lily is pregnant too. Lily has definitely gotten a lot bigger (she's now the size of her mom, when we first got them), but it's hard to tell whether she's just growing into her adult body or if it's something more. The girls are very affectionate (Hoppy is enjoying the attention Jeff is giving her in the pic above). However, Lily is still a bit frisky at times (ever since she became a hormonal teenager). Hoppy doesn't even try to keep up anymore. Lily will often charge across the yard after a meal, and sometimes gets "bouncy." She'll jump up on things and sometimes do a little twist and a kick in mid-air. If Lily is pregnant, she is due about a month after Hoppy.

In other animal news, all the cats living here are now fixed. Unfortunately, it was too expensive to get them all fixed, so we had to take some to the animal shelter, which was hard but necessary in order to prevent a cat population explosion. The 4 we kept are the ones that are most people friendly. They will, at the very least, let us pet them some times. Well, OK, maybe 2 of them will only let me pet them, but I have put a lot of time and effort into gaining this privilege. Rupert is going to be a big 'ole lap kitty some day - I just know it.

Every 2-3 weeks we lose another chicken. The latest was another one of the 13 chicks we hatched last fall. We took her to the poultry lab, where it was confirmed that she died of the contagious chicken cancer disease (Marek's) that has been plaguing our flock. The vet reassured us that on average 2/3 of the flock should survive, weeding out the weakest birds. Since we have a lot of old birds in our flock and the youngest ones are most susceptible to the disease, we have decided to try to increase our flock both by breeding some of our own birds and by buying some chicks from a hatchery that vaccinates against the disease. The love shack is now occupied by Honky and Brownie, the little silkies, and Houdini, a silky mix. We are also expecting 30 little fuzzy butts to arrive in the mail in April. It was hard to decide which breeds we wanted (so many cool types of chickens!), but we finally narrowed it down to 5. We're excited!

Annie