In all the five plus years we've had chickens we've had aerial hawk attacks, sneaky opposum visits, dog chases, raccoon break ins and fox drive by's - we sometimes lost just a few, sometimes many, but we always had some of our girls left... Up until last week when I picked up apple pumace for the goats and compost (bruised apples & winter squash) for the chickens. I had noticed the cracked corn on the pile but dismissed it as spoiled animal feed... except it wasn't, it was spoiled mouse bait dumped by an unthinking farm employee. By the next evening all my chickens we're either dead or dying and we ended up loosing 15 hens and 2 ducks, including Moe's girl Olivia. I am just grateful my two geese are OK, they're nesting right now, and we have at least a few khaki campbells left over for eggs. Of course, the hens had just started laying that week with us waiting all winter for fresh eggs!
I really miss the girls who helped me dig in Spring... the three Araucana hens we'd had for four years and knew what me kneeling in dirt meant: worm time! I would toss them any of the big worms that would inadvertently come up... The two bantham Buff Orpingtons I got last year thinking they were normal sized ones and wondering why they didn't grow, but they were the first to start laying. The assorted bunch of Columbian, Barred Rock and Buff Orpingtons we were given last year as replacement for the ones killed by the fox... They were raised by indoors and really friendly, so friendly I would trip over them if I did not look out when carrying buckets! They'd caught on to my compost buckets real fast and loved eradicating all the nearly, almost and pretty much spoiled foodstuffs I could haul home! I have so much left over now we actually dumped a bucket of mushy apples on our manure pile which is a first - I've never had enough foodstuff leftovers to compost, ever!
I'm glad we had already ordered replacement chicks and now have a sunroom full of squeaky peeps - not quite the real thing but getting there, haha. We also were lucky to receive nine four month old mixed breed pullets so should only have to wait for a month or two before eggs start showing up again... But I must say, this was the single most heart breaking experience I've had in my animal husbandry years... it was good having a really big bonfire a few days ago to clean up, say thanks and remember.
I really miss the girls who helped me dig in Spring... the three Araucana hens we'd had for four years and knew what me kneeling in dirt meant: worm time! I would toss them any of the big worms that would inadvertently come up... The two bantham Buff Orpingtons I got last year thinking they were normal sized ones and wondering why they didn't grow, but they were the first to start laying. The assorted bunch of Columbian, Barred Rock and Buff Orpingtons we were given last year as replacement for the ones killed by the fox... They were raised by indoors and really friendly, so friendly I would trip over them if I did not look out when carrying buckets! They'd caught on to my compost buckets real fast and loved eradicating all the nearly, almost and pretty much spoiled foodstuffs I could haul home! I have so much left over now we actually dumped a bucket of mushy apples on our manure pile which is a first - I've never had enough foodstuff leftovers to compost, ever!
I'm glad we had already ordered replacement chicks and now have a sunroom full of squeaky peeps - not quite the real thing but getting there, haha. We also were lucky to receive nine four month old mixed breed pullets so should only have to wait for a month or two before eggs start showing up again... But I must say, this was the single most heart breaking experience I've had in my animal husbandry years... it was good having a really big bonfire a few days ago to clean up, say thanks and remember.
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