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Have you ever come home to a masacre in your back yard? We did. A fox had gotten itself into a frenzy on andreneline and killed 1/2 our flock when we had about 50-100 birds. Our poor rooster did everything he could to fend off the fox but lost the battle. We had come home and Joe was able to stand about 5-10 feet away from the fox, without it even noticing him, and shoot it.
Now we have 2 Great Pyreness dogs who stand guard and bark at things that should not be around our farm.
Personally I wish they didn't bark so much - but then I remember what it was like to pull up after Christmas shopping and see the number of chickens dead or left for dead on my yard. Then I also hear friends tell me about similar situations in their enclosed coops during the night - racoons getting in and killing all their chickens.....all of them.
Part of our livelihood depends on eggs. We are known for them and we sell out quickly (in case you didn't notice at the markets). If we were to lose our flock of chickens, it would mean a financial hardship in some ways.
So again, I wish the dogs didn't bark so much on clear nights when they can see everything. But at the same time, I really don't want to come home one day and no longer be able to pay a bill either.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I think these creatures want to die. I really do. We have lost a TON of the birds (maybe 20-30 so far? out of the 60 we got in!) That's why we had to stop taking orders for them. It's very stressful when you plan something out and nature just doesn't go along with the plan you have in mind. I hope to know a little more soon about the birds and WHY they all decided to just poop out and die on us. Our broilers never had this problem and we ran through a lot of them this past year.
Ok - so I didn't really want to butcher all 60 - so that's the positive part about it :) But I wanted to do 40 at least and it seems like that's just not going to happen.
Guess I'll be buying my own turkey for Thanksgiving this year.