Catching up

So there will be no baby chicks. Saturday I walked up to the pen to let the girls out to roam and Claire was part of the pack. Something that hasn't happened in many many weeks. And she wasn't acting her broody bitchy self, biting the other chickens and strutting around with her feathers all fluffed out. She was normal.

Uh-oh, I thought. I unlocked the door to the shed, walked in and saw that there were no more eggs in the nest and that there was a pile of shells on the floor. But no yolky messes. Ewwww. So somehow the eggs were removed from the nest and broken and then apparently eaten. I saw that one egg had rolled off in the corner. It was cracked but still holding together. I took it outside where my curiosity got the best of me. I opened it up to see just how big the chick embryo was. Inside was a baby chick about a third the size of the egg. I think it was still alive. It totally freaked me out and I buried it in the compost pile. I looked at the chickens scratching the mulch from my flower beds and realized that they had consumed 11 chicken embryos and their yolk sacs. Yuck. Chickens are evil.

I thought about getting more fertile eggs, but I think Claire is happier not being broody so I don't want to cause her to be that way again. If she goes broody next year, maybe I'll get her some eggs then, but for now I'm glad she isn't spending every hot summer day in her nest box.

I've been very busy with work and haven't had much time to do much of anything. I'm excited about next week when a stream restoration project begins. I actually get to oversee the sectioning off and dewatering of several sections of stream. They pump the water from the upstream section to the next live downstream section, giving a stretch of a few hundred feet of dry streambed in which to work installing erosion protection and such. The critters get moved on Monday, so I get to help move fish and whatever else we find when the water level starts dropping. Fun!

I'm particpating in One Local Summer again this year. I hope to have an entry every week (even though most of what I've been eating is local). This year there are 100 participants, so I want to have something great every week, really reflecting my area of Lancaster County. I think I'll stick to the 100-mile radius limits, which for me goes about to Trenton, NJ to the east, a little below D.C. to the south, Altoona to the west and Scranton to the north, but mostly concentrating on my home county. This should be easy, and pretty much most of our food comes from within 10 miles of our home this time of year. So I'm starting off with good intentions. We'll see how well I follow through with the postings.