The Cycle of Life
Tough week for critters. We lost Bathtub Chicken, Boss Becky and the little pig. Totally unrelated as far as I can tell. The pig was the biggest blow to the farm, but we'd become very fond of BC in the years she was with us. Boss Becky survived a hawk attack as a pullet, only to shuffle off over three days.
It looks like Rhode Island Reds are more susceptible to EY Peritonitis than the others, BC is the second RIR we've lost to it. Awful. Even if we took her to the vet and had her pumped full of antibiotics and drained she still would only have had a 20% chance of survival. The little pig seemed to have the same ailment as the other two we lost, he just got tired and quit eating, we got him medicated pig feed, got him his own comfy bed and all the lovely food he could eat. No help, he faded out. We have three other pigs who are doing fine, the rest of the chickens are good, and even the lame duck is getting around all right. And Becky, my chicken. Saturday I just wanted to get home and give her a hug. She isn't appreciative, but it's the price she pays for getting all the best treats.
Never a gap in the critter count, Saturday I got home to five new little black copper marans. Not only are they horribly cute, they're proving to be fearsome moth hunters. The wild bird population may have a force to reckon with when they get bigger.
Next year if all goes well we can perhaps breed these new babies with Julian the new rooster.
I never thought I'd like raising turkeys. My first encounter with the species was highly unpleasant and I was always told they were unforgivably stupid. While they won't be doing my accounting any time soon, they have a perfectly reasonable intelligence level for domestic poultry. They're certainly smarter than the sheep we had two years ago. Basically fearless but not aggressive, they just hang out like mobile lawn ornaments. They know when it's time to go in and will grudgingly come when I call. The only thing that makes me a bit insane is if there is a fence and a direct line of sight between them and where they need to go, they would probably starve to death before it occurred to them to backtrack and go AROUND the fence. Even the chickens figured that one out. Luckily they get bored easily and tend to wander out of the pastures in search of more comfortable places to decorate.
We've got time! Work is slow enough right now I've actually started on redoing MY website... which is like operating on yourself. I did NOT think it would be thing much of a slog, nothing is cool enough. So *ahem* IF you need some work done, now is the time.
It's hot. We haven't had rain for weeks. There's a 50% chance of thundershowers this evening and I will gladly tolerate a little lightning* if it means I don't have to water the garden for awhile and we can get some precipitation and avoid a fire ban. Two cars got washed today, I figure that is the best summoning ritual one could preform.
*Note spelling. THAT is how you spell lightning. "lightening" is what dishwater blondes do to their hair
It looks like Rhode Island Reds are more susceptible to EY Peritonitis than the others, BC is the second RIR we've lost to it. Awful. Even if we took her to the vet and had her pumped full of antibiotics and drained she still would only have had a 20% chance of survival. The little pig seemed to have the same ailment as the other two we lost, he just got tired and quit eating, we got him medicated pig feed, got him his own comfy bed and all the lovely food he could eat. No help, he faded out. We have three other pigs who are doing fine, the rest of the chickens are good, and even the lame duck is getting around all right. And Becky, my chicken. Saturday I just wanted to get home and give her a hug. She isn't appreciative, but it's the price she pays for getting all the best treats.
Never a gap in the critter count, Saturday I got home to five new little black copper marans. Not only are they horribly cute, they're proving to be fearsome moth hunters. The wild bird population may have a force to reckon with when they get bigger.
Next year if all goes well we can perhaps breed these new babies with Julian the new rooster.
I never thought I'd like raising turkeys. My first encounter with the species was highly unpleasant and I was always told they were unforgivably stupid. While they won't be doing my accounting any time soon, they have a perfectly reasonable intelligence level for domestic poultry. They're certainly smarter than the sheep we had two years ago. Basically fearless but not aggressive, they just hang out like mobile lawn ornaments. They know when it's time to go in and will grudgingly come when I call. The only thing that makes me a bit insane is if there is a fence and a direct line of sight between them and where they need to go, they would probably starve to death before it occurred to them to backtrack and go AROUND the fence. Even the chickens figured that one out. Luckily they get bored easily and tend to wander out of the pastures in search of more comfortable places to decorate.
We've got time! Work is slow enough right now I've actually started on redoing MY website... which is like operating on yourself. I did NOT think it would be thing much of a slog, nothing is cool enough. So *ahem* IF you need some work done, now is the time.
It's hot. We haven't had rain for weeks. There's a 50% chance of thundershowers this evening and I will gladly tolerate a little lightning* if it means I don't have to water the garden for awhile and we can get some precipitation and avoid a fire ban. Two cars got washed today, I figure that is the best summoning ritual one could preform.
*Note spelling. THAT is how you spell lightning. "lightening" is what dishwater blondes do to their hair