Honey, didn't your doctor explain that your body is getting ready to grow a new person? Your blood volume is changing dramatically--all kinds of things are going on. You do NOT want to overheat--you can kill that little baby or worse. Yes, there are worse things than an early miscarriage.
You pamper yourself! Those women who run those marathons while 9 months pregnant are NOT normal and, from my perspective, idiots, have idiots for doctors for going along with it or just plain selfish. Baby comes first. As you get further along, your ligaments get lax, so you can injure yourself pretty easily.
Problem is, I'm used to working all the time. To constantly being on the move. Its hard taking it easy especially with all that has to be done around here. With DF working 13 on, one off, 14 hour days.... I don't get much help anyways. This is why the in-laws come every weekend, to help out with this kind of stuff.
I'm stubborn, but not stupid. Today was a wake up call. Time to slow WAYYY down. My MIL is moving in this weekend to stay and help until everything gets done around here... Lord help me I love the woman in small doses.
Hydration is my only problem. I forget my body needs LOTS more water than I usually drink. Chugging three bottles at lunch just doesn't do the kick anymore. Slow and steady all day the doc says. All bright, measured out two water bottles ( a quart each ) and will drink through out the day per the time lines noted on the bottles. Don't drink yo catch up, drink on time.
They are adorable!!
Hey, you better take it easy Missy!! And No beer for you unless it has root in front of it! lol
Joking about the beer! That stuffs horse pee anyway. I drink tea, mostly, but need to up my water as I said earlier.
This year we learned just how much we 'babied' our group from last year. The new guys had heat for the first couple of days and that was it. We did brood in the house because it was easier. With them being in the house, we were ready for them to be outside at 2 weeks, no extra heat. Power in numbers on the no heat thing though, I probably wouldn't do it with less than 20 chicks. I am not using that as an excuse to always have at least 20 chicks at once...
The new chicks from this year have grown faster, run around like crazy, flutter up higher and more than our group from last year. The biggest issue we've had, and only losses, is that our grow out pen was secure for the 6 week old chicks (that had been brooded in our garage last year) but not secure enough for the smaller guys. Our dog has killed a number of chicks that have gotten out this year, we kept thinking we had fixed the spot and they would find another...We had no losses during the crazy cold snaps and all they had was hay for bedding with an upside down Rubbermaid container with a cutout and each other. Keeping in mind we live in Odessa and rain is not an issue here.
I think we will always brood in the house for convenience but my husband does have some extra space in his shed that might work...
We brood in the house for the first four weeks on 15+ batches, first six on anything less... Depending on the weather. In then summer chicks are out in the shed from day one with no lamp. 80s at night isn't a problem in big clutches. Small clutches usually stay inside though. My 6 week old mutts have been outside for two weeks, granted there's 13 of them left... Lost seven a few nights back to a snake. Sucker scared that bajeesus out of me. He was so full and fat, and then my dog Blue ate him. The boys had a good shake and tug-of-war going over that sucker for a few hours before I burned it in the wood pile...
We try not to baby our chickens. They're exposed to every element Texas throws our way as early as possible. No fans or sprinklers in the heat. Just shade and cool dirt. If its extra hot they get rotted fruit from then store in town, get it for a steal! I just call ahead and they give it to me by the crate.
Hensbwith chicks are only separated if absolutely necessary. If an aggressive rooster is the only issue, he goes into isolation during the brooding stage.
Side note: Did anyone else in east Texas just get hit by that nasty thunderstorm and tornado? We lost four trees, power, and some fenceline I JUST fixed last week. Grr mother nature wins this time. Power company won't be out until morning. Guess the two week old Aussies are going without heat tonight. At least its in the 70s in the house still... Albeit dark, its not cold enough to worry about them.
I am, however, sitting in my car charging my electronics so if DF calls tonight to see how I'm doing, like he always does on his midnight break, I can answer.
its still eerily yellow outside after that last tornado. I'll post a video if I can from my phone here in a bit. Caught a tree falling on camera, woo!
