The Cycles of Life and Death.

We've been having babies! On 10th November, Fern had four baby bunnies. At the same time, a brain fart I'd had when putting eggs in the incubator meant that I'd calculated them hatching at four weeks instead of three, so I was turning them and wondering why I could hear cheeping. I quickly stopped turning and topped up the water level to keep humidity up for hatching and by the end of the day our first chick was out.

If you've ever wondered, this is what one week old mini lops look like.

I've concluded that it was definitely the new incubator that was the problem with the last hatch not developing properly, because this time, in the old incubator, out of 12 fertile eggs only one stopped developing early on and the rest have hatched into healthy little fluff balls. Even one that took an extra day and a little help to hatch, because it had somehow got its head tucked away from the hole it pipped, came out healthy.

Day old chicks.

On the other end of the spectrum we’ve had two very sick old hens who needed to be euthanised. One didn't seem to be able to swallow without inhaling some and had eventually pretty much given up eating and drinking. It looks like the valve which normally stops food going into the lungs had stopped functioning properly. The other had a mass growing in her abdomen and had reached the point where she also wasn't eating much any more.

I've never been in the position of having to make a decision on ending the life of a sick chicken, before. They usually die or show some recovery within a few days. The two are now at rest together under the plum tree.

Speaking of the plum tree, it's set a lot of fruit and put on a lot of new growth. Some of the recent growth is looking yellowed, which is not something I've seen on it in previous years.

Obviously there's a nutrient deficiency, but I'm not sure exactly what. One suggestion, which seemed pretty confident, is low magnesium. I've started emptying the bath water under it, as we always use Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) in it. I've also emptied the soiled straw from the rabbits cages and added some blood diluted with water (don't ask and I won't tell, but don't worry, nothing died or was harmed in the process).

In order to keep the nutrients going to the most important parts, I've taken off some of the growth which was trying to escape out of the top of the bird cage which encloses the tree and I've thinned out some of the larger clusters of plums. I took off those plums which were significantly smaller or had blemishes or damage.

I realise that over the years, some pet chickens and a rabbit have had their final resting place under this tree, but not in the last few years (until the recent two hens). I wonder if that has anything to do with this sudden deficiency. As we animals eat plants, so too can they use us to nourish them when we pass away.

On Wednesday we had a sudden heatwave which hit 42°C (107°F) and was accompanied by gale force winds. It was something akin to climbing into a fan assisted oven, except possibly even windier. I gave everything a thorough soaking in the run up and it looks like nothing's died on us, amazingly. The new growth on some plants took a hit, however.

Thursday we awoke to the smell of bushfires and a smoky orange sky. Luckily for us, nothing local was burning, but the winds were sharing the smoke around. Apparently Wednesday night's sunset was also obscured by smoke.

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