Agave Potatorum Bloom

My little agave's bloom spike finally has flowers on it. I was waiting to see what color they were to make a determination what species it is. The blooms look light green to me as opposed to bright yellow, so I think it's potatorum.

Incubator

The eggs that I put in the incubator a while back went into lock down this morning. That means that I took them out of the egg turner and I won't open the incubator again until the chicks hatch.

The turner has a little electric motor and a gear that turns the eggs back and forth so the chicks don't get stuck in the same place. With out the turner I would have to turn them by hand twice a day. A mother hen would also shift the eggs periodically throughout the day.


Out of the 20 eggs that I put in the incubator there are only 9 still in there. These two won't be going back in. I think they were cracked during shipping. The cracks allow bacteria to enter and turn the eggs rotten.


Rotten egg comes bubbling out of the crack. This egg was stuck to the turner. It smells about as bad as you would expect.


This egg had just a pin hole with egg coming out but it was enough to turn the egg.


The other thing you do at lock down is add water to increase the humidity inside the incubator. This will keep the chicks from drying out as they hatch. If it's too dry their fluff could stick to the eggs and they won't be able to hatch. I also add a wet sponge which helps add humidity. You can see the condensation forming on the window. It disappeared after a few minutes.

I added a little computer fan to the inside. The fan helps to even out the temperature inside the incubator so every part is the same. When it gets closer to the time for the hatch I'll turn the fan off. It could also dry a chick out.

I'm not sure how many chicks to expect. There is definitely something developing in 7 or 8 of them but you never know what you're going to end up with. As long as I get a decent cockerel out of this batch I'll be able to breed more next summer with the three pullets that I got from Dare 2 Dream Farm.

Chicken Run Repair

I had hoped to finish the run today but I spent a lot of time painting the bottom panels. I had to prime them and then apply two coats of paint. I tried out a shade of blue I'm considering for the house. It looks alarmingly royal while it's wet but it should darken to a more flinty color as it dries.


I thought that I had enough plywood to cut all the pieces but I didn't so I also cut up this old door that used to be my back door. It's been leaning up against the back of the house forever so I'm glad to finally make use of it.


I got the door of the run done as the sun went down. Doors always take me forever because I end up fiddling with them to make them fit openings that aren't quite square. This one feels reassuringly solid.


If you missed the supervisor in the last shot, here's a close up.

Coop Anticipation

I'm so excited to work on the chicken coop tomorrow that I want to rush home and go to bed like it was Christmas Eve so that tomorrow morning will come sooner.

Shaw's Agave

When it rains it pours. I just wrote about seeing some Agave shawii growing in San Diego and then finding a little potted one for sale at Theodor Payne. This week my friend Sean asked me if I wanted some mature agaves that were removed from the Aquarium of the Pacific to make way for their new penguin exhibit.

He wasn't sure what they were but sent the picture below. I'm not sure either, but they look an awful lot like A. shawii. From the photo I thought they were about a couple feet across but when I saw them in person they seemed huge. I brought Alex thinking the two of us could lift one but I couldn't even budge it.

Luckily, Sean arranged to have someone forklift them into my truck.


Three of them totally filled the bed of the truck. It was overwhelming and awesome. The plants are beat up from being moved around so much but they should bounce back in a couple years. There are already new offsets coming out, so even if these are stressed into blooming I should get some pups to spread around.

Now I just have to figure out how to get them out of the truck and up the hill. Alex thinks we should drive the truck up the dirt road to the top of the hill and then drag them down. That sounds a lot easier than carrying them all the way up.

While we were at the Aquarium we also got to meet Parker the sea lion.

And by "meet" I mean shake flippers with and get kissed by.

I've shaken a sea lion's flipper before but this was my first kiss (and Alex's). It was surprisingly long and gentle. And offered in exchange for a fish.

Both Parker and the agaves were worth the visit to Long Beach. Thanks Sean!

Chicken Run Repair

I started repairing the run on the chicken coop.

Even without the damage done by the dog it was looking pretty worn. The bottom was enclosed by plywood panels that used to make up a fence around my house. The fence was horrible but I got 3 years worth of use out of these pieces.

They were pretty rotten and the layers were starting to separate so they came out pretty easily.


My plan was to just lift the downhill side until it was level and brace it with new studs at the bottom. I was hoping to reuse as much of the structure and mesh as possible. It didn't work out. It was too hard to lift and a couple of the rafters had come loose from the dog jumping on it.

I ended up taking every thing apart and rebuilding it. I was able to reuse the rafters and ridge beam so it didn't take much cutting to get to this point. Even though it's not the same style as the turkey coop roof, the two structures have much more in common now and seem like a family. Making the run roof level also makes it much more capacious inside. I can stand and move around pretty comfortably. In the old one I had to hunch and crawl, which means that I didn't go in very often.

Yesterday I added the vertical studs.

And today I started putting the mesh on.

I decided to use the same 2"x4" welded mesh that I used on the turkey coop. Not only will it match but I figured it would hurt a dog to walk on it.

It's stapled and then a rail is screwed down on top of it. I'm hoping that there is enough overlap of the mesh that it won't pull out like the hardware cloth did if something jumps on it. Fancy doesn't weigh enough to really put it to the test.


I had to modify my ladder a little to make it stable on the hill. It felt as crazy at it looks. Hopefully I won't have to climb up there again.


I need to get more mesh so I can cover the ends and make a door.


It's a little hard to see below, but those are dogprints on the 2x4. This is right where the dog climbed up to get in the coop. I'm assuming it's the same dog because on Tuesday he got through the fence around my house and chased Fancy off the porch. The dog seemed surprised to see me and high-tailed it up the hill.

Hopefully the new run will be enough to keep him out since his owner is either unwilling or unable to keep his dog contained.

Chicken Run Repair Helper

Fancy is a companionable cat. He came up to hang out with me as I was working on the chicken run and treated the run framing as a jungle gym. It was also a good vantage to have a staring contest with the turkeys. Fancy was pretending disinterest but they were clearly fascinated by him.


Fancy also turned his disinterested gaze on me as if to ask "what's taking you so long?" Although maybe that was just the dialogue in my own head.