Our four chicks have been in a cat carrier cage for the first 10 days of their lives. They grow like crazy and it was soon time to move them to a bigger home.
I made up a 1500 x 900 x 600mm (5′ x 3′ x 2′) frame out of some 50 x 50mm (2″ x 2″) timber and covered the sides and top in chicken mesh. We placed it in our basement on a cardboard and plastic floor (cardboard for insulation).
Have you ever tried to get four baby chicks to pose?
We ended up getting four chicks from the eggs we purchased.
We purchased 12 eggs, here are the stats: (more…)
We’ve been incubating some eggs since the 28th August. The first egg hatched right on schedule (day 21) yesterday.
The egg "Pipped" about 1pm on day 21
We picked up some eggs on Sunday the 28th August and put them in our home made incubator. I took a one wire temperature sensor and connected it to an AVR micro controller and a solid state relay. It simply turns a 40 watt light bulb on and off as required to maintain a consistent 37.5 degrees Centigrade.
As for turning the eggs, we’ve got the eggs supported in a cardboad egg tray and we’re just tilting the entire incubator with a wedge of firewood.
We’re trying to turn them five times a day at 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm. An odd number of turns means they’re not on the same side two nights in a row.
The eggs are due to hatch on the 18th September.
I’ve been interested in KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) for quite some time, but only ever tried it once (unsuccessfully) in the UK.
I picked up a Giant Delta Conyne kite at the Bristol Kite Festival (in the UK) a few years back and never really had the chance to fly it with a payload.
The Kite is huge - it's got a 2.7m (9 foot) wing span
I finally bit the bullet and brought some Pekabe pulleys for a picavet. Pekabe pulleys are the holy grail for KAP. They’re made for model yachts, are very small, light and smooth. They’re also expensive – I ended up paying US$93 for the pulleys (4 x Pekabe 515 single pulleys and 2 x Pekabe 525 double pulleys). (more…)
We picked up some hens on the weekend, the first of our farm animals (we only had a cat up until now) – does that mean we’re farmers now?
We’ve got some Black Australorp Eggs in the incubator, but it’ll be around February 2012 when they are ready to Lay (provided they’re not all Roosters), so we picked up three Hens which are already laying – It was a random mix, two Anconas and a black Bantam.
