Dog up chairlift

No we didn't actually take the dog on the chairlift. It is not allowed, and even if it was I don't see it going well!
Doug went up the chair and I walked up with Poppy a bit, then Doug whistled for her and she went running up and up and up. Then I went on the chair and Doug put his skins on and came up to join me while I put my skins on. Then we carried on up. Bit time consuming but a good way to get nice and high without having to walk it all.

The chair. Doug is going to appear as a tiny spec to the very right of the picture. We had to practice a few times the day before with Doug coming closer because Poppy couldn't hear him from too far away and couldn't understand that waving spec was him.

 Stupid/clever doggy

Clever Doug

Rhoda's skis over a MASSIVE cornice drop (ok not massive, but bigger than it looks)

Doug walking up...

View at lunch

Doggy running around joyously

Lunch

View from lunch

Back home - cream crackered!

View from the apartment window of where we were - lunch was just below the middle of the skyline

Spring skiing

Poppy admiring the view from outside the flat

View that Poppy is admiring

Snow that rain has made pretty patterns on

Some slips and avalanches

Doug and Kirsty skiing

Sunset light on the mountains with the moon (from a bit above the flat while walking the dog)

Cute eggs for Easter!

Day 22/23 of incubation

Chicken eggs should hatch on day 21 if all has gone well.
However the temperature can affect the hatching, a little too low and they 'cook' slower and hatch a bit late, a little too high and they 'cook' a bit faster and hatch early. Much too high or low and they just won't hatch at all.
One egg started hatching late on day 22 and two more on day 23. None of the others made any attempt at it. This is clearly disappointing!

The incubator had read correctly throughout, so we are now looking in to what happened. I measured the temperature of the eggs and they were nearly 3C below what they should have been though the incubator readout was showing the temperature they should have been at. It appears from studying the internet that there may be a fault with the incubator, which can be fixed by resetting to factory settings.

Of the three that hatched two got trapped at the side of the heat pad and died. I suspect they were weaker than they should be from having grown so slowly and then had more struggle than normal to hatch. The one and only remaining one is called Chesney (after Chesney Hawkes who had a song 'The One and Only')

It is a shame as I really wanted some Orpington chickens. The person we got the eggs from has a waiting list at the moment so we will put some others on to test the fix... fingers crossed the setting reset has worked and all will be good this time.

I have also thoroughly cleaned the incubator having taken it apart. They do get clogged up with chick dust and little tiny feathers etc. It seems a bit drastic having to dismantle it to clean it, but apparently this is a good idea...

Mr and Mrs Koala have mated

They have been with us around a month now so it seemed like they should be settled in enough.
There should hopefully be little Koala babies in 31 days time. They will be born black and then get the silvering as they grow.

Mrs Koala

Mr Koala (blue patch from the antibiotic spray on his abscess (which as far as I can tell is healing well)

Skiing skiing more skiing and POWDER

Sorry yet more photos. We had unseasonably cold and snowy weather for March with a few days of lovely light powder.

The first day we skied in the trees at Barege because visibility not great and the trees help with that.

The second day we stayed in La Mongie and bounced around various runs including a steepish gully that we may have done before but not often. Lovely.

Dog didn't come skiing but got frosty eyebrows on a walk in the evening

Little walk to a nice slope

V happy!

Mostly our tracks, we went round the same bit a few times

Steep though it doesn't ever look it in photos

Me in Doug's goggles

Day 18 of incubation

The eggs started at 1477g and are now 1308g so they have lost a bit over 11%.
We are aiming for between 10 and 13% in total so should be good.
I candled them again, and only 7 look like they contain chicks.
You can see the difference between an ‘empty’ egg and one with something in it is very big for eggs with as light shells as these. The something is hopefully a chick though occasionally it can be horribly rotted matter. None of them smell so I am hoping for chicks.

Egg with nothing in. The darkish patch is the yolk. You can see the air cell just about in the big end at the top.

Egg which hopefully has a chick in it. The big end with the air cell is at the bottom here. You can see the whole egg is dark compared to the very light glowyness of the other one.

This is not a good rate of growth from the eggs at all. You normally hope for around 80 or 90% (this is 25% and some will fail during hatchng too most likely). These were sent in the post which doesn’t help and were not as new as they could have been because of storms and snow stopping them being posted.

The eggs are now in what hatchers call ‘lockdown’ which means they are not being turned any more and the incubator shouldn’t be opened until all the eggs are hatched. They should start on day 21 (Saturday) and it could take a day or so to all get out. I have turned the humidity up to 60% now and plan on 70% on day 21 until they are all hatched.