Well, perhaps. If you’re wet, cold and suffer from violent wind.
Last week I managed to get quite a noticeable farmer’s tan. Today I’d be more likely to die of exposure. I can’t believe it’s barely two weeks to Midsummer’s Day. It feels far more like we’re at the opposite end of the Earth’s orbit. The only give-away is that it’s not (quite) as dark as it would be in December at this time in the evening.
Well, they’ve been arriving thick and fast (and somewhat noisily) today. Fifteen so far I think, with another three eggs that have pipped though it’s not easy to tell looking through the lids. Sadly we also had one Marans that broke through the shell but seems to be stuck to the inner membrane of the egg. The chick is still alive, but I’m not sure of his chances. Sadly there’s not much we can do other than wait it out and see what happens. I’ll give the remaining eggs a few more days, but after Sunday I’d be surprised if any more hatch.
In terms of incubator performance, far more of the eggs in the Brinsea incubator have hatched or pipped (fourteen-ish) so far than in the Suro (only six-ish), despite the humidity control in the Suro (again the numbers aren’t definite because telling which eggs have pipped is tricky as mentioned earlier). That’s quite disappointing. Across the breeds, seven of the Marans and Cream Legbars have hatched or pipped so far and six of the Leghorns (that figure for the Marans does include the one that may not make the trip), so the viability seems fairly consistent across the breeds.
Those that have hatched have been transferred to a large plastic box which is big enough to allow them to run around and has space for water and food as well as a heater. That’s where they’ll stay for the next week or thereabouts depending on how fast they develop. There’s also a mesh lid on the box. The cats can’t be trusted to do anything other than what comes naturally.
A few pictures of the first few out. The first is a Cream Legbar hen. They’re an “autosexing” breed — the chicks have different colouring depending on their sex. The second is a Marans and I can’t recall if the third is a Cream Legbar cockerel or a Leghorn.
Well, he (or she) wasn’t hanging about. We have a hatched chick!
It’s not a great photo unfortunately. I’ll get a better one tomorrow when we move it out of the incubator after it has dried off.
One of the cats has already been to investigate. Somehow he knows he shouldn’t though, as any time I go near the incubators he jumps down again. We’re such cruel creatures, humans, putting toys where they can’t play with them…
The long peck to freedom!
Alerted by cheeping from one of the incubators I’ve just gone to have a look and one of the chicks is already well on the way out. It’s not a great photo but it is possible to see that the chick is working its way around the shell, breaking the end off.
Hopefully by tomorrow morning it will have made its way out, doubtless driving the cats bonkers in the process.
Now here’s a thought… What is it that drives developing birds to take the end off the egg like this?
I’m not working today, so I thought I’d go to the earlier public swim session as it is longer. What I didn’t know was that half the pool was roped off for “parent and baby” type sessions, so there wasn’t much room for swimming, especially when a few more people arrived. I had been hoping to have a second go at the last Swimfit session but that just wasn’t practical so I stuck with front crawl again and did 2,500m.
I was very tempted to go in again when I was coaching this evening because it was so hot and humid on the pool deck.
Total distance for the month: 47,600m
Total distance for this year: 195,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 15,000m under
Today I took the incubators off the cradles and removed the dividers so the eggs are just lying on the incubator floors. I also lowered the temperature half a degree and pushed the humidity up a little.
At the same time I weighed the trays for the final time. The eggs in the Suro incubator have lost 148g, or 12.9% of their weight. Those in the Brinsea incubator have lost 13.4% of their weight. I think I can be happy enough with that though in a perfect world I might prefer 0.5% less.
Sadly I just haven’t had time to organise anything camera-wise, but I’ll try to take some pictures as they hatch.
Yet again I was late to the pool today, but at least this time it was due to the arrival of a dumper truck that I’ve rented for the week of half-term so I can shift a load of spoil from building work we’ve had done. More of that in another post perhaps.
So, yet again just a front crawl swim, this time of 2,600m, instead of the repeat of the Swimfit session I did earlier in the week that I had in mind. It felt quite tough, though wasn’t that fast based on the time taken. Given the heat today it was very pleasant just to be in the pool, a fact particularly brought home by spending two hours poolside coaching in the evening when it would have been far more relaxing to have been in the water.
I’m very keen to keep up the distance at the moment. If I can I could reduce the distance that I’m behind target by quite a big chunk.
Total distance for the month: 45,100m
Total distance for this year: 192,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 15,500m under
Very late to the pool today and missed about a third of the session, so I just got on with some front crawl and swam until the bell went for the end of playtime, which turned out to be 2,400m so I wasn’t at all displeased with my performance. I could possibly have squeezed another 100m in, but I’d have been taking the mick in all honesty.
Total distance for the month: 42,500m
Total distance for this year: 189,900m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,100m under
Today I finally decided to move on to the next Swimfit session, which was comparatively short, but involved quite a few pairs of fast/slow lengths:
20 lengths front crawl
1 minute rest
6 x 1 length front crawl, 20 seconds rest
6 minutes front crawl, alternating slow/fast lengths
rest until breathing returns to normal
same number of lengths as previous set, but faster, 15 seconds rest after each length
3 minutes breaststroke, alternating slow/fast lengths
1 minute rest
6 lengths easy front crawl
I made up the distance to 2,500m with more front crawl and 300m front crawl kick practising breathing to the right.
This wasn’t a bad session at all. I think I managed twelve lengths in the six minutes of front crawl, but was slowing down quite noticeably towards the last. In the breaststroke I think I only managed four lengths. I feel as though I could justify repeating this session once more later this week and then moving on again.
Total distance for the month: 40,100m
Total distance for this year: 187,500m
Distance compared to annual target: 16,500m under
I was contemplating another SwimFit session today, but didn’t get myself organised in time and was feeling somewhat jaded having spent another weekend at Millfield pool, so took the easy option and ploughed through 2km of front crawl followed by 500m of front crawl kick practising breathing to the right and finally back to front crawl for a 300m swim down.
I still don’t really feel very relaxed breathing to the right though that may just be residual stiffness in my back from the weekend. I shall continue with the kick for another session or two before swapping to pull.
Total distance for the month: 37,600m
Total distance for this year: 185,000m
Distance compared to annual target: 17,000m under
