Gonna get me some chicks.

Just to set the record straight, I always take my wife along when I go to pick up chicks.

It's time to begin thinking about incubating eggs. I've gotten an e-mail from a teacher who has an incubator and would like 18 or so eggs to be hatched before spring break. So now I have to calculate the gestation time of 22 days, and how many days it will take to collect the eggs. I only have 4 Delaware hens, so I'll get 2-3 eggs a day. They're good for about twenty days at room temperature and will only start to develop once they're warmed. Actually, I'd like to have twice as many chicks, at least, since half will be roosters. I don't have an incubator, but my neighbor has two and gives me the use of them.

Last year, I tried letting two hens brood. Out of maybe 30 eggs, only 3 hatched and one survived. And it got taken by something when only half grown. I think I waited too late in the year for the eggs to develop well.

The hawk is still hanging around and I've gotten several good looks at him with the scope. The chickens are only allowed out at dusk, when I'm out in the pasture feeding horses and such.

I've been too busy to blog much, setting up publication for all sorts of books and novels this year. I hope for a banner year. I'll be publishing "...and Remember that I Am a Man." to Amazon in February (I just ordered the proof copy) and Wolfwraith will be put out by Damnation Books in March. A couple of months after that, I'll be publishing The SpaceMonkey Adventures by Monkey John and later the mid-grade, shorter version of the Moses Grandy story, Slave Boy. And in my spare time, maybe I'll invent a time machine so I can have some spare time. That's logical, isn't it? After all, I need some time to finish the next novel, Gandy Dancer, also set in the Great Dismal Swamp.