At the prompting of our media-savvy neighbors, this is our official foray into the blogosphere. The matter at hand that incurred the prompting? Our family's attempt at hatching three chicken eggs.
Chicker (Brahm's Rhode Island Red) was unexpectedly taken back home to the Great Coop in the Sky last week by a (brace yourselves) wicked maggot infestation. We noticed she wasn't quite right only too late and rushed - yes, rushed - her to the vet's for an emergency diagnosis/prognosis. He gave her a 50/50 chance of surviving the treatment and so, after a brief family council in which we discussed our options, Brahm decided that we should attempt to save her. Naturally the question of cost came up and the vet replied with no small amount of humor in his voice, "Well, if she makes it through, she will definitely be your golden chicken!" (Can I still be a good mom and have secretly hoped in that moment that she wouldn't? Sigh.)
Well, she didn't. We were on our way out the door to go camping/river rafting with some friends when we noticed she was sick and so that's where we were when we got the news. As fate would have it, one of those friends had packed some farm fresh ("fresh" = "fertilized") eggs in his cooler and, upon hearing of Chicker's passing, kindly donated three of them to the replacement cause! And they just happened to be from a Rhode Island Red: the stars were aligned.
Chicker is resting peacefully behind the raspberry patch and we've completed day one of the twenty-one-day incubation period.
