OOPS
I left my little island on Saturday, was gone for about 8 hours. Came home to find a hose on the pond pump had pulled lose and water was pumping not into the filter but into the dirt outside the pond. This caused the pond to be drained and the pump in the filter to burn out. UGH! Will have to order a new pump before I can refill and get the pond going.
Here is another throwback post to a mistake I made a few years ago with my birds; this mistake had far more serious consequences.
A stupid mistake, then, tragedy
It’s been an emotional roller coaster the last few weeks here on the farm. With fall approaching, I have begun working on fixing up the house in addition to trying to keep up with the gardens and take care of the animals. With Al gone off island for work for most of the week, most of the work here has fallen to me and I am feeling overwhelmed.
The garden is pretty much dead. The growing season here is so different from what I am used to. I think I started my seeds way too early. In Vegas if I didn’t have my plants harvested by July, they just burned up in the heat. Here, end of July and August seem to be the peak growing season. Also, the plants I put in the ground and in the expensive garden soil I bought were stunted or didn’t grown at all. The best results were from the plants in the horse manure.
In another week or two, I plan to turn under the remaining plants, cover it all with manure and let it compost till next spring. I am also doing a variation on huglekulture. I dug a 10 x 3 x 2 hole, filled it with branches, wood chips, grass, straw and some other organic matter. This will also get covered and left to compost.
The raised wood beds did not impress me, instead, I am building the beds up to 2 or 4 feet and will build small rock walls around them. I will also add a watering system such as sprinklers or soaker hoses. And I will be more selective about what I plant. I did not realize that we would have such hot days…full sun for 12 or more hours.
When I last wrote, I was still trying to decide what breed to buy for the meat birds. Eventually we decided to try some of the Jumbo Cornish Cross. Despite my concerns about the ethics of raising birds that were genetically disposed to heart attack and serious leg problems, we have learned this is not true in all the birds. In fact, one of our friends has a bird that is six years old and no problems with its heart or legs. So we placed our order and within days we had 20 chickens and a bonus 5 Peking ducks.
I had also planned to wait 3 or 4 weeks and order some Jersey Giants. And to allow our birds to hatch some chicks and raise them for meat. We would then compare the breeds and decide which one to go with permanently.
Eggs, did I mention eggs? We are averaging 6 eggs a day in dark brown, tan, pink, white and blue green. I’ve read that the first eggs can be deformed, even shell-less and very small. The first we found were perfectly shaped but very, very small. I have switched them to a laying formula and added a calcium supplement. When we had collected four dozen of these mini eggs, we had scrambled eggs for breakfast…yummy!
We are now up to 6 coops plus the two rabbit hutches and an aviary, I have one more coop to build. Because everything is so piecemeal, I am going to paint them all the same color. They will be lined up in a U-shape with the two waterfowl pools forming the fourth side. The whole enclosure will be surrounded by an electric fence – three feet of net on the bottom and three rows of tape on top for a six foot fence.
While we are painting the animals homes with leftover paint given to us, I have hired some locals to paint the house. They used a high pressure sprayer to clean the mildew and remove all the loose paint. Next they will replace the damaged siding and then paint. Right now, I am leaning to a very pale lavender with a deep, steel gray trim.
Finally, I need to talk about the part that is going to be hardest to write; and probably the real reason I haven’t blogged in so long. Lost birds.
We have had a problem with predators since we moved in. We have spotted both stray cats and raccoons in the yard, sometimes so bold as to approach the coops even when I was out there working. We’ve also had issues with injuries and illness.
To date we lost:
Thumbeline when my little nephew dropped him onto a glass table.
Thimble who got his head caught in the wall of his cage and broke his neck struggling to get free.
Pixie was taken by either a cat or raccoon, pulled out of the coop through a 4 inch air vent about six feet off the ground.
About this time we noticed our mascot, Little Al, was not growing. Although the same age and when we got them, the same size as Loretta, he was now only half her size. We isolated him and gave him extra rations and vitamins. Eventually we learned he had ear infections and put him on medication.
Azul, my pet goose, was taken. We never learned what got her, we only found feathers and blood on the fence.
Shortly after, the remaining goose and the ducks began fighting going into their coop at night. Since I know that wild birds don’t have coops and deal with predators and because Amaretto had grown so large, we decided to leave them out overnight. The next morning, the only sign of Baxter, my pet duck, was a trail of feathers leading to the brush across the back of the property.
That evening, Little Al disappreared. There wasn’t any evidence of violence, but on talking with the grandkids, I learned one had taken him out of his coop, where he had been placed with the turkeys who adopted him as their parent. She realized she never put him back. I was distraught bedding down the rest of the birds that night and I don’t know why, but I checked one last time, in and near all the coops and there was Al tucked away in the tarp on the goose coop. Sadly, he died a week later and was eaten by the turkeys. We don’t know what killed him as all that was left was a bloody skeleton and a pile of feathers.
By now, the whole family was very upset, I even questioned if we should get rid of all the birds and focus just on the gardens. But we had just received our meat birds and so decided to push on. We reinforced the coops, tightened up the fence, got raccoon traps and started checking on the birds three and four times a day. They were only allowed to be out of the coops inside the fenced area if someone was out there with them.
A week ago, we caught 4 baby raccoons in the traps. Several times a day, Mama came to check on them at yell at us. Our friend who lent us the traps agreed to dispose of the babies, but he couldn’t come to get them for two days. I had a dilemma, I knew the animals would be put down, but I don’t believe in being cruel, so I wanted to feed and water them while in our care. Because we are having some unusually high temperatures and lots of sunshine, I wanted to be sure they had shade also. We couldn’t open the trap without the raccoons escaping, so we couldn’t put a water dish in for them. Finally we settled for spraying them with the hose and letting them lick the water off each other and from the puddles formed under the cage. We dropped dog food through the wired top of the cage and placed a board over it for shade. Then we went inside to escape the heat.
About an hour later, I realized in my concern about the raccoons I had forgotten to check on the meat birds. They were in a solid wood coop, 90 degrees outside and the heat lamp still on. When I got there, only three were still alive. I immediately hosed them down and grabbed a syringe to force water into them to rehydrate them.
I was sick to my stomach and fighting tears, doing all I could to save them, but one died before we could even get any water into him. For the next hour my daughter and granddaughter worked to cool them down and make sure they were getting lots of water.
I spent that hour burying half of my flock, including my pet duck, Basil, who had been in the coop to protect him from the new goose we got to replace Azul. I think the sight and smell of that afternoon will remain with me forever.
Of the two survivors, one is doing well. We have named him Hercules and he is the new mascot for our farm. And for me, a reminder of my responsibility to my animals. The second bird never fully recovered. He was unable to walk without stumbling and spent much of his time sitting in the food dish. Yesterday as I was moving them back out to the yard, he suddenly flopped over onto his back and started thrashing. I picked him up and held him for a moment, then he made a strange gagging sound and died.
I spent a few debating with myself, I am so discouraged and heartbroke that I decided to give up and close the farm. I can grow flowers with a lot less effort and cost. But then I thought about my grandkids. What kind example was I setting for them? One setback and give up? And what about the birds I let them have as pets, that they raised from hatching to adults? Anyone I give or sell them to would certainly butcher and eat them. I can’t cause the kids any more grief than they have already experienced. I sure there will be more losses in the future, but I won’t cause them intentionally.
Today I am going to start building a new coop for the new meat birds. This time it will have an automatic watering system and NO heat lamp. I have also heard about a thermometer that goes in the coop with a remote display for in the house, so I will be looking into that. I am also looking into motion activated lights and other means of scaring off the predators so the coops can be built with better ventilation.
8/24/2012
Update: A lot of my plans never came to fruition, in part because I have no reliable help, I was sick for a while and unable to do more than basic daily care of the animals, but mostly because I was trying to do too much. I have consolidated my birds into two large coops and a small brooder coop, and have just one shelter for the goats. I wrote out a 6 page to do list and take just one thing at a time and work on it till it is done. Eventually I may get through the entire list, but maybe not. That is ok too. I am just taking life one day at a time, and taking time each day to relax and enjoy my life just as it is.
8/23/2017