Sorry I haven't checked back in, things have been hyper busy. We ended up with 12 chicks: 2 Porcelain Belgian d'Uccles, 1 Black Mottled Belgian d'Uccle, 1 Black Silkie, 1 Cuckoo Silkie, 1 Blue Giant Cochin, 2 Lemon Blue Giant Cochins, 2 Golden Laced Giant Cochins and 2 Salmon Faverolles. As for my suppliers, I got all of my eggs of ebay this year. The breeders are extremely nice, down-to-earth folks who replied with friendly emails, bent over backwards to please and in most cases put in an extra egg or two. They also wrapped the eggs extremely well and marked the boxes as to the contents. I did continue to have a low hatch rate this year, even for shipped eggs. I incubated 25 eggs in each incubator, and had 5 hatch in one incubator, 7 in the other. At least hatching eggs by mail this time tells me that it isn't my flock that's to blame. I opened the unhatched eggs, and found eggs at all stages of development, literally from just-started to full-term chicks. They seemed to be spread out equally, too--I didn't see a higher percentage of chicks at certain stages. And both incubators reflected the same results. So I really don't know WHAT is going on with the incubators. One is 10+ years old, the other 2 years old and are identical. I am following instructions religiously, temp and humidity are maintained correctly. From now one I'm not going to incubate more than a dozen or so eggs at a time and see how that goes. The incubator thing is making me crazy. Anyone else who hatches eggs in an incubator--how many eggs do you set at once? Have you ever loaded your incubator to it's maximum number? Velvet ~:>

Ho, the word 'rush' simply never figures in my confused but hipefully benign worldview. Given the horrible news regarding our iconic ash trees (a rerun of Dutch Elm again), the poplar monoculture suddenly seems like a good option since we can gradually restock with an eye to pathogens decimating our ecosystem. But yep, we aim to be more Norfolk than Norfolk and allow pioneers such as downy birch and crack willow a chance to re-establish once we have done a bit of creative felling. Even so, 6 acres of woodland is a far cry from 36 square metres of urban garden and a quarter acre of public allotment. We are probably going to need to invest in a bit of helpful machinery as I cannot see my trusty spade making much of an impasse on the swathes of bramble and nettle. We are horticulturists with a limited knowledge of arboriculture but are willing to learn and have a couple of strong sons (under the maternal thumb and all). As for wild animals, we are singularly blessed (or cursed according to viewpoint) with every type of bat endemic to the UK plus a startling array of birds including the heartbreakingly lovely skylark (I can hear Vaughn-Williams Lark Ascending in my head already). Less welcome is the horrid little muntjac deer (fencing and hedgelaying is going to be a major task) but they are, at least, edible (along with a million coneys - mmm, rabbit pie!) As something of an amateur basket maker, I have already sequestered a corner for the osier beds. Here in the UK, flooding is cecoming a major issue but so far, we have, as a nation, been tardy in considering swales, berms, rain gardens and other man-made solutions to challenging water flows and, as it would be prudent to expect at least one overtopping tidal flooding of the Yare every winter, this is a potential game-changer (our local Cam is a mannerly urban river managed by the usual lochs and gates with only an occassional flooding of the nearby common) so water, in its many manifestations, is probably the most worrying element. A crazy adventure but still, we all need to dream.......

TreKaren is correct. Head circumference is one of the three measurements that the ped's office takes at every well-baby visit and they track it to see if there are problems. Your friend should bring this question to the ped so that he/she can allay her fears. If the ped hasn't said anything, doubtful that this is anything more than a big-headed baby! :)) Btw, both of my children have heads in the 95th percentile. When my ped mentioned this the first time, I looked at him and said "I'm VERY familiar with every centimeter of that kid's head!" LOL! ;) I then looked at my DH and said "It's all your fault!" (Which eventually turned into my theory that if I was thinking straight when I was dating, that I should've only gone out with pinheaded men! :)

bumping down...