This morning I had breakfast w/my motorcycle group. From there I went straight to the Nature Center for the photo judging and judge reception. I'm going to admit to being a bit nervous. I have never entered anything like this B4. Nor I have had any type of art/photography instruction. I don't have a really good camera, and I was pretty sure that the others who have entered the contest have had some type of background in photography, but I've been told by several people that I take nice photos. And the one person that I could have asked for help I couldn't ask and that's RU. She's a retired art teacher, but was also one of the judges. There were 4 categories and 3 different age groups. There was only one from the child age group, so that child won by default. The spider web was in the zoological category. This is a favorite photo of mine, but I really wasn't sure of the best way to present it. Well, it didn't place. The judges felt that the spider web was kind of lost in the background. But, they also told me that if I had zoomed in on that, I would have won either first or 2nd place. The lake scene was in the general category. This came down to basically what the judges liked best. One judge liked my photo, the other 2 judges picked others.
After the contest I showed the judges a pic that I have in my camera. It's one I would have liked to have been able to enter, but the pics had to come from one of the county parks. And this was from the lake near my house. I was told that if I could have entered that photo, it would have won! Even though I didn't win anything, I feel validated. RU is going to work w/me some so I can learn how best to present my photos. If I'm ever able to write the nature books I want to write, I want to be able to have photos in it that I've taken.
Got home to no more chicks. So I got changed, grabbed the chicks and went to the farm. They are w/the mother and they're quite happy. I think the hen is starting to feel a bit puzzled. After all, she started w/3 eggs. She hatched out 2, then went to 4 and is now up to 6. (I did find out that KN wants to keep the 2. Since they were her eggs, I can't really say no.
) Of course we all wasted some time watching them. But they're all happy, so that's good. I finally got working on the house. I have just 4 more boards to cut. 2 will go on, and then I'll be painting it. Once it's dry, I'll be putting it in my broody pen. The last boards will go on then. 1 is the roof. I want to put a board on it so that I can hang a feeder off of it in a couple of places-1 inside, 1 outside. The roof will be hinged so I can open and close it. I figure that will make it easier to get bedding and feed in there. I have a section that's for a nesting box. The roof isn't as high, and is sloped. That board will go on once it's in place. I figure it will be easier to move that way. And 1 board is a hatch for the nesting box. This way, I can check a hen from the back, even add eggs if I need to. Plus, this way when I want to clean out the pen, all I have to do is open the hatch, use the kiddie hoe I have and pull all the bedding out the back.
I would have been finished but my DD called me. The egg that had pipped had hatched and there was another chick almost all the way out! So, of course I had to leave. They thought another egg had pipped, but it was just some stuff on the egg from the chicks. So, I may or may not get more. There's still 3 in the bator. I felt a bit bad about the one egg the hen was sitting on. She gave up on it. So of course by the time I got there, it was cold. I opened it up very carefully to see if it had developed. I found a fully developed chick w/it's beak in the air sack.
So I don't know if moving it killed it, or if she just gave up too soon.
Out of the 4 chicks that I got, 1 looks to be from one of my eggs. It looks 100% Ameraucana, so that would be from one of my hens. 1 is from a white egg, so it's half leghorn. It's a tannish color, so I know which rooster is the father. I just don't know if it's a hen or a roo. One chick was from a green egg, the other from a brown. I wasn't sure if they were from my chickens or KNs. Well, the chicks look like a barred rock, so they're from one of her hens. So, I don't know if they're going to be hens or roos. But since I bought the 2 chicks, I know at least those are hens!
