Monthly Archives: March 2015

Second Generation Baby Chicks!

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Lately I have been checking on the broody hen more and more because according to my calculations, the 21 day incubation period was coming up quick. One evening when we were gathering the day’s eggs (not the incubated ones), I noticed that the broody leghorn was in the wrong box. This was a bad sign, because the eggs need to be constantly warm and who knows how long she was off the nest.

I looked in the forgotten nest and saw an egg with a dead chick embryo in it. There were ants crawling all over it. I am not sure if it was the ants that made the broody mama leave or what. I was bummed because the embryo in the egg looked just about fully formed with feathers and everything. We weren’t sure what to do with the rest of the nest of eggs since she had been off it for probably around 4-5 hours or so (since we had last checked) and they may no longer be viable but we decided to clean out the dead chick and ants and then put her back on the rest of the eggs and see what happened.

Well, yesterday I checked on her again and I thought I saw a little black fuzz ball and some chirping coming from under the Leghorn. It was hard to tell, so I ran and got Britton to help me check. And look what we found!

Baby chicks 2nd generation
Awww

In this video you can see that we just lifted her up and one of the chicks fell from under her wing and then I noticed another one in the corner of the nest.

We are so happy to see this second generation! It is all a big experiment. We have had chickens for a long time, but adding in a rooster and hatching out our own babies is all new to us. I think a few more in the nest will hatch hopefully in the next day or two. We are not sure what to do with these chicks and how involved we will be in the parenting. I think we will add some chick starter feed to the supplemental feed we give all the chickens (they mostly forage), but otherwise we are going to leave it to the mama bird to protect them. We anticipate some losses due to the hawks (and rats), but we are hopeful that with adult birds and roosters around, there will be fewer problems than we had with just a coop full of babies in the first generation.

Mama hen and chicks
So sweet! The mama and her babies

Now the question is: where are all those turkey babies?

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Cabin Subflooring

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This week the work on the cabin started with lifting the huge girders into place. With just three guys, it was quite the challenge filled with lots of exertion and grunting, but they did it!

Girders
Sliding a girder into place

When all three were up, they began bringing over the 2x8s and installing them. At this point we could really see the footprint that the house will take.

Floor boards
Floor joists installed

Boards are placed
Looks out and in toward the jungle

Side profile
Side profile

All of the wood so far has come from the deconstructed wooden house, so it has been relatively inexpensive. Britton and I were unsure if we should use the underlayment panels so we checked them all out and found that a large majority were in great shape as far as integrity of the wood, but pretty dirty. We sorted out the best pieces and then I powerwashed and painted/sealed them with Kilz.

Panels
Sorting out the old underfloor panels (or building a dance floor?)

Kilz the panels
Painting/sealing them after powerwashing

We did have to buy a couple of panels but just doing this cleaning and recycling of most probably saved $1000 as compared to new.

And the very next day, they began installing them!

Cabin through the trees
Subflooring being installed

We have had a few challenges that we’ve had to work through during this process, but overall it has been remarkably smooth. It has been a change in pace, especially for Britton, to work every day at 7am again, but it seems a little different when it is for a project of our choosing. It is also a little different to be a manager of this project and work with a crew. We must constantly be aware of people’s (including our own) strengths and weaknesses, desires and dreads. Overall, we are learning, growing and of course building a little more every day throughout this project.

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Finishing the Foundation (and Some Fun)

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This week went by pretty fast because we had all of our days filled up. The guys worked four days out of five finishing up the columns -building the molds, mixing concrete, etc- and the one day that they didn’t, Britton and I spent about 10 hours shoveling and then carrying buckets of rocks up and down the quebrada like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia. We were joking that this is by far the best exercise regimen you could come up with! Cardio, strength training and repetition. We were super sore (especially my shoulders), but the next day was more work.

Rock pile
Britton and I literally moved tons of rocks to this site

They mixed all the concrete and then had to load it into buckets and into a wheelbarrow. One person “drove” the wheelbarrow and the other one or two acted as the horses and in that way they hauled the super heavy wet concrete to the columns.

Bringing over the concrete Loading concrete
Loading the buckets and wheelbarrow to bring to the site

The hard work wasn’t over at the site either. At this point they had to lift each super heavy bucket of liquid concrete mix in the air where it was then lifted by the guy on the ladder and then dumped into each column form.

Dumping buckets
Dumping the concrete into the column mold

Site now
Poured columns

turkeys and columns
The turkeys checking everything out

By the time the weekend came, we were ready for a break from the work. This weekend is the annual Corona Pro Surf competition and like the one we went to last year, it brought quite the crowd into Rincón. On Saturday night we went out to the bar Calypso because a great reggae band called the Predator Dub Assassins was playing and we had a blast.

P Dub and Mark
P Dub at Calypso

We used to listen to them some when we were preparing for our move here to get psyched up, so it was cool to see them in person. Plus one of our friends was playing in the band with them!


This video was filmed here in Rincón

And finally, today we enjoyed a beautiful beach day down at the marina with friends.

At the marina

Lots of work, and lots of play, too.

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Broody Birds

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Spring is in the air, even here in the tropics. And what does spring mean? Renewal! New life! Babies!

Little nest
We saw this little wild bird nest. The mama bird flies off every time we come near, so we try not to disturb her too much

We have 4 out of 6 female turkeys out in the jungle, we presume, sitting on nests. At first we thought something had happened to them, but then we would see them occasionally come out of the forest and get a bite to eat and evacuate their bowels in a HUGE way (yes, they hold it for hours and hours!). They preen their feathers and roll around in a dirt bath and then head back to the nest. We have tried to watch where they go so that we can check on them and the eggs, but they are smart. They wait until we are not watching and then just disappear back where they came.

Garden tropics
One minute they are there, the next they disappear back into the jungle

Then just a little over a week ago we noticed one of the chickens wouldn’t get out of one of the nesting boxes in the chicken coop. I didn’t really think anything of it because it was a Leghorn and they are known as the least broody type of bird. But lo and behold, she stayed put! And she stands her ground when other chickens try to get her to leave the box. This is actually the second time we’ve had a Leghorn go broody, though in Greeley she was sitting on unfertilized eggs.

Broody leghorn
The mother Leghorn on her nest

Going broody is a huge commitment for the birds. They must sit and incubate the eggs for 23 1/2 hours a day rain or shine (and we’ve had a lot of rain lately!) with just a few minutes of break to get a bite to eat, drink and do their business. They also must rotate the eggs and remove any broken or rotten ones from the bunch. It is pretty incredible this innate knowledge and the willingness of the mother to do this for the future generation. Upon discussing broody birds, a mother of a couple of children asked why would any bird sign up for that job? I just smiled and said, “Why would any human?” For some, the sacrifice is more than worth it. It is how nature works, perpetually giving for the next generation as their mother (and father) did for them.

The turkey eggs take 28 days to incubate before they will start pipping (breaking out of the shells) and chickens only take 21. We are anticipating a bunch of little baby birds in approximately one week or so. We are still not sure how hands-on we will be in the raising of this 2nd generation since we know how vulnerable the babies are to hawks and rats. I am curious to see how well the mothers and fathers do in protecting them. The roosters and turkey toms will get to show their fatherhood skills once these little peeps pop out. To me, it is so fun and interesting to be both an observer and a participant in the life stories of these creatures.

Royal Palm Poult

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