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Death on the Farm

by ChickensGetting Started with the Farm

Last week was a hard week. We lost three animals in the same amount of days. So sad.

It all started on Tuesday night, when CJ went to put the egg laying chickens in the coop. We had been letting them free range around the yard for a while now and have had no issues. They loved wandering around the yard and making dust baths under the trees/bushes. They would follow you around if they thought you had treats. Occasionally the rooster would be a

little jerk and come at me, but I made sure to keep Tank near me to keep me safe from his shenanigans. Betsy the chicken, would get separated from the group often because she was not paying attention, or the other chickens would wander away. It was a little funny because she would start to panic. She would just stand there and scream for her friends. We would have to locate her and guide her back to the group.

The chickens always put themselves to bed at dusk and CJ goes out to close the coop once it is dark. However, that night, he could only find 5 chickens. One was missing. We all grabbed our flashlights and went out as a family to search for whom I was sure was Betsy the lost chicken. There was no sign of her though. We did see a fox run off into the woods. We were worried but could find no sign of her. We locked up the coop and just hoped she was sheltering down in the woods safely somewhere.

CJ saw no sign of her the next morning either. It was only later when I went looking for her again that we discovered the truth. Betsy had been murdered! On my walk, down by where we had seen the fox, I noticed a large swath of feathers. There had been a struggle here and Betsy had fought hard. Walking further down below Cow Cow’s pasture I noticed several more areas of feathers, in sections, quite far apart. One location was but a single feather and a small pool of blood. Oh… poor Betsy! She had wandered off by herself, with no protection, and had lost her life. She had put up one heck of a fight, but she was not strong enough to fight off her predator. It was a sad day.

We assumed it was the fox we saw. However, later that day I was making my rounds and noticed a HUGE vulture hanging out on our fence post. With my chickens very near. Mr. Rooster Gooster (that is his name) was being a lazy bum and not even paying attention! I ran up screaming to scare away the vulture. I will add here…. Those are big birds when they are on down on your level. Holy moly. His wingspan was just as long if not longer than Tank! Thankfully, he flew away. I would have had some serious issues if he had come after me! After saving my chickens lives, I stood there making sure I had all my girls accounted for. Rooster Gooster had been standing by me (with no issues) the whole time. Suddenly, he decides that he is jealous that I came in and did his job for him. He huffed up as big as he could, flapping his wings, and came straight for me! I kicked at him to back off, but he was truly offended this time and proceeded to try and kill me. I ran.

That mini velociraptor was hot on my tail. I ran faster. Tank could not see that I was in danger, and with my brain in full flight mode I forgot about him being outside. I remembered about halfway to the house and screamed for him. He cam running but was too far behind. I ran even faster. I was getting a side stitch. Evidently roosters do not get side stitches as he was never more than two feet behind me. I was close to the back door of the house but then realization hit! I will never get the screen door and the regular door open in time. He is going to catch me while I am trying to get the screen door open and I will die. I spot one of Tank’s toy balls on the ground and swoop down during my run to grab it and throw it at him. Rooster Gooster don’t care; Rooster Gooster ain’t scared of no ball. He never falters. Yep. I am going to die via chicken. Thankfully, right as I reach the screen door, Tank catches up and saves the day. He stands between me and Rooster Gooster daring him to come near his mama. That will teach you, stinking rooster!

 

We decided to put the chickens in the pasture with jasper and added the electric poultry net back up as well. I do feel bad that they do not get to wander now. I may go out and put some wire up on the gates so they can free range in the pasture with Jasper there to scare away any predators. On a good note, that darn rooster will not be able to come after me again!

Poultry on Pasture
They are now double-protected with the poultry netting and the donkey!

That same night, Lil CJ came down to tell me that he thought his guinea pig (named Rat) was not feeling well. I went up to check and it was obvious something was wrong with him. A quick google search of his symptoms made it clear he had an upper respiratory infection. We carried him into the bathroom, and I gave Alayna permission to take the longest, hottest shower ever while I sat with him in the steam hoping it would help him breath a little easier. It was almost 8pm so there was no option of a vet. I tried to look up anything I could to help him, but the only thing that could help him were antibiotics. We made him as comfortable as we could and let him sleep in the bathroom where it was still warm and steamy. Unfortunately, he did not make it through the night.

The next day I dug a small hole next to two doggie graves from the previous property owner and Lil CJ and I buried Rat the guinea pig. We lined his grave with bricks, just like the others and placed a small piece of split wood on top for added protection. It was very sad.

 

The Day after that, CJ announced that we had lost the 1st meat bird from the brooder. We are not sure what happened. You always expect to lose some of the meat birds, but these were doing so well I had hoped all 100 would make it out to the pasture. It was so close too! We had planned to move them out the following week! Poor little thing. All the others were happy and healthy, so I am thankful we only lost one bird.

 

That is the hard part of owning so many animals. You always do your best to take care of them, but death is a part of life. We must learn to deal with it as best we can and keep moving forward.

RIP Betsy, Rat, and meat bird who had no name because I cannot name 100 birds.

Chickens Growing on Grass

Farm Life

by Getting Started with the Farm

 

Things are going great here on the farm!

Cow Cow on the move
Cow Cow likes the attention

Cow Cow is doing much better and getting heathier every day! Once his nutrition is under control, we need to move on to other things with him. At some point we will need to bottle break him and get him to drink milk from a pail instead of a nipple. He knows how to drink water from a pail, so you think this would be easy. Wrong. He refuses. If it is milk it must be consumed via nipple. There is no other way in his mind. Set the bucket in front of him and he will just continually search for the nipple. We will also need to get a halter and halter break him. He has a large pasture to roam freely and a shelter to bed in, but there will be times when we may need to get him from the pasture to the barn, or from point A to point B. We have some time before these things need to happen, but it is something I should spend some time researching now.

The broiler chickens are doing great! They are living life out in the pasture in their chicken tractors. They get plenty of fresh grass each day and fresh bugs to eat. They are getting bigger each day. I do not think we will have any problem reaching our weight goals for these guys. Butcher date is approaching soon (June 25th) and so far, we have only lost 4 birds. This is much less than we expected, especially being first timers! I believe it is typically expected to lose about 10% of your flock before butcher date. So, we must be doing something right! We are getting everything lined up for butcher day and are looking forward to seeing everyone at pick up!

Little CJ has done a great job of helping with the chickens. I am so proud of him! It is quite difficult to move the chicken tractors in that pasture as the grass is taller and much bumpier. The chickens add to that by being lazy. They do not move quite as fast as our larger egg layers. Those chicken tractors are heavy and with the birds not moving as fast when you drag the tractor, it can be very easy to accidently run over a chicken. For these reasons, Dad has been moving the tractors each morning. Then, Little CJ goes out to feed and water all tractors. Little CJ checks on them throughout the day and goes back out at 3pm to feed and water again. He is also in charge of checking on the egg laying birds during the day and collecting eggs. He gets up with Dad around 6-6:30am every morning and does his job without complaint. I cannot express how impressed I am with his commitment to help!

Alayna does not have such an interest in the farm yet. I was hoping she would with Cow Cow, but since he went all crazy that day, I am hesitant to have the kids go in the pasture alone to help with him. He will get bigger one day and I do not want them to feel overly confident and end up getting hurt. I am thinking of having her put her artistic skills to use and design something for us. Even if its just labels for the shrink-wrapped chicken. I want to find a way to include the kids on the farm, but I also want it to be something they enjoy doing and take pride in.

Jasper the donkey is doing great! He is very low maintenance. Grass, water, and an apple treat each evening is about all he needs to stay content. I do try to include the kids when giving treats in the evening. He is a little jealous of the cow. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Cow Cow up at the other pasture, and Jasper has noticed! If I spend too much time over there and do not give any attention to Jasper, he will run to the gate braying as loud as he can, ending in a big ole huff and puff! He demands I come give him some loving and I always oblige. He is a good donkey.

Jasper Smiling
Jasper smiling for the camera

The egg laying birds are doing great as well! The new coop is working great out in Cow Cow’s pasture and they get to free range in a large area each day. Today they rewarded us with 7 eggs! We only have 6 hens! Guess someone was working overtime! HA! The rooster is settled into his routine and is doing well with the girls. He is a talkative fellow and crows quite a bit during the day. They have a poultry net fence that surrounds their area to protect them from predators. It is charged by a solar powered battery that connects to the fence. Cow Cow decided they no longer need this since he was there to protect them and chewed through the battery wire. I have no idea how he managed to do this as the wire was live and would have been shocking him. At least CJ thinks it was Cow Cow, we do not have proof that it was him. Either way, thankfully, CJ can fix the wire so that we do not have to replace the battery. We will have to come up with a way to protect the wire from future chewing though. We may end up just blocking off one end of the pasture so Cow Cow can not get to it. We shall see.

All in all, things are coming together nicely here at the farm! It is not always easy, and things go wrong (almost always for me), but we are taking things one day at a time! We can do this!

Did I say we? I totally meant CJ… I will be in the house not dying via cow.

Happy Chicks in the Brooder

The Chicks Have Arrived!

by Getting Started with the Farm

New Chicks!

Chicken Brooder Set Up
Our initial setup for the brooder based on guidance from Darby Simpson

 

Today has been a day, let me tell you! This post is long. Just like my day. There is just no short way to describe it. Buckle in and enjoy the farm life ride….

Tank laying outside brooder
Tank is laying outside the brooder waiting for the chicks to arrive.

Yesterday we picked up the adorable little chicks! We brought them home and set them up in the brooder. They seemed to be doing great! We hung out with them for a bit and then let them be. Checked on them before bed and in the morning when we woke up. 

I actually didn’t sleep well last night because I kept worrying about them or dreaming bears got into the barn and ate them all. We don’t even have bears here…but a mama’s thoughts always go to the worst case scenario! I woke with CJ at 6am to come out and check on them. This is very unlike me! I don’t get up early if I don’t have too! But I needed to make sure they were safe. 

Upon checking on them we found that they were safe. Although, we did lose one chick. He had a difficult time in transport and just didn’t recover. All of the other 99 chicks were safe though.

 

We did notice this morning that the temperature was dangerously low in the brooder. It should be 95 degrees, but it wasn’t even reaching 80 in there. CJ placed a foam board outside the brooder and some wood on the outside of the barn to help with the draft. He had to leave for work so advised me to keep an eye on them.  As I checked on them the temperature was not coming up. We have two heat lamps in there. One is a regular heat lamp that produces a red glow, the other lamp provides heat but no actual light. Under the regular heat lamp, the chicks looked comfortable, moving around, not huddled up in a pile. Under the other lamp though, they were huddled directly under it, trying to stay warm, often piling on top of one another. 

 

I tried to get in touch with CJ, but as life with an Army guy would go, he was working in an area with no cell reception and I am all alone on this one. This dream of his is now in my hands… this dream, these chicks, that he has told me will absolutely die if they get too cold and I don’t know what to do. 

 

I know what I’m not going to do though… let those chickies die! Commence Operation Warm Up! This is not the 1st time I have been left alone with little ones depending solely on me for survival… I do have two real children, they lived. I can do this. 

Chicks in the brooder
The Chicks are finding the most comfortable place under the lamps

First, I join at least 10 chicken groups on Facebook. Use what you got! Posted pictures and asked questions. I did get some good help there, it was unanimous that I close up the brooder area. CJ had used a square area that was walled on two sides. He enclosed only the bottom of the other two sides with wood to keep the heat in. However,  the top on two sides were still open with nothing but hardware cloth (which is just wire to keep predators out). It was NOT holding heat. 

Ok, so I look around trying to find anything I can to enclose the area. A boogie board, random piece of foam board and a wood board. That made the one side a tad taller and did raise the temp to 82, progress but not enough. 

Ok…  new idea… Blanket fort here we come! I run in the house and get two old comforters. Now I am a short woman, and I knew this was going to be difficult so I got the kids out there to help me. Lil CJ climbs up on the top of it, (there is space above for storage) and Alayna and I throw the blanket up. He moves all of the items up there in a rather haphazard way (sorry CJ, lives were at stake here) and places some heavy items on top to hold the blanket. On the other side of the brooder there were some nails already up so Alayna and I draped each end on a nail and hung something heavy over the blanket/nail to hold it on. I have no clue what that heavy thing was, Alayna guessed something to do with putting horseshoes on horses??? I just know it was heavy, metal, and it held the blanket. Use what ya got! This raised the temp to 84. More progress but still not enough. 

More looking around outside for random material. I notice we have some aluminum sheeting that’s nice and toasty warm in the sunlight. I also notice that there is light coming through the outside wall of the barn allowing draft to enter the brooder. I have a plan. I go to lift six of the sheets to move over there. Ummmmmm…. These things are pretty heavy for thin sheets! Also, again, I am short so I can only lift them so far off the ground. Ugh. So I have to move 2 at a time, I get them there though. Only to find, of course, that they are too long. There is a wood stack in a metal holder in the way. Why can’t anything be easy?   I know what I have to do. I unstack most of the wood and call Alayna out to help me. I slide the metal frame out just enough that we can get the sheets behind it to fit the area. Alayna has to hold each flimsy sheet up with her butt while I get the others. Once they are all there, we realize that we don’t know how we are going to keep them there. Oops. didn’t think that far ahead. Alayna has the easy job of standing there butt holding them while I brainstorm. I can’t drag the metal holder (still has enough wood in it to make it too heavy to drag) and even if I could Alayna would be in the way, if she moves, they fall. Sooooooo I slide it back over just the end of the sheeting and Alayna uses a tall board and Tanks 5 gallon bucket of water to hold the middle. That worked surprisingly well so we added some more boards and water buckets. Of course the water bucket I chose had holes all in the bottom that I did not notice until it was full and leaking everywhere. Ugh, thankfully we have a surplus of random buckets here on the farm. This works great and increases the inside temp to 86. UGHHHHHHH…. Still not enough! 

 

Ok, I can’t enclose this thing anymore than I have. Something else has to change. The source. It’s walled, covered, and still not enough, let’s look at the source of heat. They are still huddling under that one bulb. I don’t like that bulb. I get out a ladder and go climbing around the storage area of the barn looking for more bulbs. Of course, I find more of the bulbs I don’t like and none of the ones I do like. Fine. In the car and off to Ace Hardware I go. I buy another bulb. 

 

On the way home I listen to (or rather blare) “Staying Alive” by the BeeGees and changing the words to “ I I I I will keep you allliiiivvvvveeee” and emphasising “somebody help me, yeah”. I can admit this. I was stressed. 

 

Just moments before I get to my driveway, I get a notification on my phone that a package was just delivered from Amazon. Pull in and yep…. Can you guess what it was???? Replacement bulbs for the bulb I just bought. Seriously? 

 

I get in the house, grab the gloves that we keep by the wood stove (to handle the hot bulb) and head out to the brooder. I unplug the heat lamp, wait a min or too and go to change the bulb. Now I know that it is a heat lamp. I know that bulb is hot, BUT I figure these gloves that we purposely keep by the stove are designed for really hot things. They are not. Not at all. Smoke forms, and I feel the heat. Gloves are burning. This is my life. Ok, I wait a little longer. I chill for 10 minutes or so playing with my chickies. The bulb is safe to handle now. I do set it outside the brooder on the concrete just in case though. Change the bulb. Now we wait. No use going back inside the house. I’ve already got so many pine shavings stuck to me that I look like a chicken myself. I need to make sure the temperature rises and holds. It takes about a half hour for the temp to rise to 95 and another half hour of it holding at that temp.

 

Operation Warm Up is a success!!!! I have single handedly saved the lives of 99 chickaroos! I shall henceforth be known as Chicken Master. I saved the farm! I am incredibly proud of myself, in case you didn’t notice. 

 

CJ arrives home and I advise him of success, my name change, and inform him that these are now MY chickens. I also inform him that I really really deserve that new Samsung fridge with interactive display that I have been wanting! (can’t hurt)