If You Have Livestock You Have Deadstock: Lesson Learned

Part of the reason we moved to this land and home was for sustainability and freedom from HOA's and nosey neighbors.   With that freedom we started farming chickens.  A coop was already on the property although it need a LOT of cleaning.   It was gross and full of old chicken poo!   It was beat up and old with holes and a huge nesting box set up.     

We started with 5 day old chicks in April 2016 (not long after we moved in) while doing all of the other rehab.   The chicks didn't require much.  They stayed in a tupperware bin with a heat light for a couple weeks until they could go in the coop.
They were darling and the kids loved to hold and play with them.    
While we waited for the chicks to grow we were visited often by wild turkeys.  In a sense they prepared us for birds wandering around the yard.   The plan, when the chickens were old enough was to let them free-range around the yard.

As they grew we were anxious to see them outside so many time we would take them out and let them forage in the yard under a close, watchful eye.   Around this time we got Everett.  We figured we had a big yard and wanted a big dog.   A new "chicken" friend was looking to re-home a rooster.  She said he was too sweet to butcher and I volunteered to take him.  His name is Rascal.   We got him at the perfect time too.  The chicks were ready to enter the coop and I had it all ready for them.   It took about 4 hours of sweat and masks to clean it out.   Research encouraged me to use sand as the base for easy clean-up and the weather was warming up.

By this time the chicks were getting stinky so it was a relief to get them out of the garage.

We were so excited....soon we would have fresh eggs every day!   Well....that didn't go as planned.

Inexperience is a danger for livestock.   

We secured the coop with new doors and latches and the weather was warm enough so out they went for their first night alone in the coop. The first few nights were fine.  The chicks jumped up on the low perches each night and Rascal jumped up to the top perch and watched them all from above.  Soon they learned to go into the coop at dusk without prompting.  It was great.  No more smelly chickens in the garage!

I had read that venting is important with chickens and fortunately the coop had a couple windows (although when whoever made the coop installed one of the windows they put it so close the a rafter that it couldn't be opened....DUH!!!.....I fixed that) so I opened them up.  

Well, like the title says, maybe you can guess what happened next.  One day I went to check on the chicks.  I could hear them from my office but on my breaks I would go out and watch them walk around.  They were cute and would follow me around so I enjoyed the breaks and watching them.   So call it chicken TV.    But when I went out I found only 4 and Rascal.  Where did it go?  I was no where to be found.   It was so strange.  It vanished!    The girls were sad and so was I.  

That night around 11pm I was laying in bed.  We had the windows in the house open and I heard something strange outside.  I got a robe on and walked out the coop.  Inside I heard a ruckus, no scared peeping from the chicks but I could tell something was in there.   What was I going to do?  I didn't have anything but a flashlight with me.  No gun or shovel or ..... so I ran back to the house to get Matt.   He woke up, got his night clothes on and came out with his gun.   By the time we returned all was quiet.  We opened the door and there on the floor were the other 4 chickens.  Dead.  No blood, no feathers scattered everywhere.   Just limp, warm, peacefully dead chickens.  No sign of the perp either.   I was devastated!   What was I going to tell the kids?

Rascal was big enough that he was able to get up high.   We saw him, alive, in the top corner.  He was "crying" making a strange sad noise.  He just witness the brutal murder of his fellow chickens but could do nothing about it.  Roosters are notorious for saving their flocks of chickens, or in this case, a cluck of chicks but he was confined and young and could only watch from his perch else he would have been killed too.

We put their limp warm bodies in a box, locked up the coop and went to bed.  What else could we do?   I didn't wake the kids because they had school the next day.  We decided we would tell them after school.   

Here is what happened.  I mentioned we left the windows open.   When I cleaned the coop and changed the dilapidated door and secured everything in the coop to be sure it was safe for our chickens I didn't think about the windows.   They are the type of windows that open outward on a hinge.   The gaps for the opening were small.   WHO KNEW??   That's how the killer got in!   and got out.....

I asked on several FB chicken groups, what would kill chickens without eating them or leaving blood by breaking their necks. What would kill chickens for sport.   The consensus was a raccoon.

not my picture

That next evening we set up a trap and caught a HUGE raccoon who, I believe, came back for more.   Matt sent him to raccoon heaven.

We buried the chickens right after we told the girls.   They were so upset!   SOOOOO upset!   The very next day I went to get new chickens, older chickens that would lay sooner.  Then I got some more and then even more.   It's addicting.  Most chicken people will tell you so.

In talking with a man at a homestead conference he said something to me that I won't soon forget.   He said, "Hon, if you've got livestock, you've got deadstock.  Whether it's killed by you or something else, wild animals, weather, it's going to die at some point."   He is absolutely right!   We learned that the hard way.

Since that first experience with death of our animals we have lost several more.   Its been less than a year but here is the count of intakes and losses.  I think this will be the last time I count.

5 chicks in
1 roo in
                  1 chick lost
                  4 chicks murdered
5 chickens in
5 more chickens in
5 more chickens in
                  1 chicken killed by our puppy!   Another story
2 rabbits in
3 ducks and 1 turkey in
3 rabbits in
                  1 duck murdered by a hawk
                  1 turkey died from shock of seeing the duck murdered
12 babies bunnies born!   Yippee!
2 little chickens in - someone needed to rehome them.
2 rabbits in - someone needed to rehome them - I guess I am now the girl to take in the animals others cannot keep.  1 rabbit out - he was badly hurt and sick when we took him in- couldn't survive
                  2 roosters - freezer camp (don't need more than one rooster and we had too many)
                  1 rabbit - freezer camp (served him for thanksgiving)
                  2 little chickens disappeared - bottom of the pecking order and wouldn't go into the coop:(
                       1 opossum that likely killed the little chickens.
                  1 rabbit - got loose and Everett trampled his foot and broke it!   I was so sad!  He was my favorite buck and the dad of the babies (at least his bloodline continues)  We couldn't save his foot - freezer camp

Picture taken and edited by Rachel Stella

So that's that.   Either the elements or the wild kill them or we do.  Another person told me, "Everything loves chicken."  I can see that!
           

Here are some updates of our animals and coop:

In the back of the coop you can see the rabbit area.  We have since moved that too a hut that we built for protection from the elements for the winter. It too is behind the coop. 

Bunnies are the cutest animals and so sweet!

  

Snow Fell - Busy Weeks

Like the title says I've been so busy.   Firstly, I work from home, full time, as a video editor.   I love what I do and the flexibility of my job because it lets me do so much at home.   Like have animals, which I have not yet talked about.    Sometime I get to travel with my job and that sets back everything!   I was recently in Austin, TX for work.  That was fun and for a bit after that I played catchup at home.

Snow angels are a must but the best place was on the deck?. 

This is a panorama from the back of the 4-wheeler.  It was beautiful out there. 

We got our first snow this week!  Something like 4.5" fell on our Wooded Roost.  The property is amazing with snow and the property is a bit daunting also.   We recently purchased a tractor to help conquer the driveway and falling trees.   Although I insist that it is a TOOL is it also a lot of fun!   Matt has been clearing new trails and opening space for future use....maybe a barn.....?

Most of the day of snowfall was spent in the yard playing, riding the 4-wheeler and watching how the chickens and our 9month old dog Everett handled the snow.   They all did fine.   The girls took out their sleds and we all sled down our hill and did our best to avoid hitting trees along the way.

Matt was able to clear the driveway with no issues!   The UPS guy came up the next day even.   That's been the biggest concern.  Would deliveries and people without 4-wheel drive make it up the driveway.   They did!

Rehab: The Wood-Burning Stove

Craigslist.

Craigslist is a complicated place.  So many negative connotations surround craigslist: dangerous, scammers,  scary.... ok there is some of that but I have found craigslist to be useful in this move.

We needed a wood burning stove.  Like many people in the suburbs I had no idea how to shop for or use a wood burning stove.  Why would I?   We had a furnace to heat all of our homes.   Once we had a fireplace but it was gas.   That's not to say I didn't want one.  Remember when I told you many people in my life were talking about homesteading and prepping?  Would you believe one very important part of those lifestyles is having a natural way to heat your home?   I also said that I wanted a fireplace and a wood burning stove and...I found a house that had one.  Well...it had had one and now I needed to find one to install.  

I visited Menards and Lowe's and Home Depot.   Big wood burning stoves that are new are EXPENSIVE!   Wow!   And they are not very pretty, in my opinion.  

The spot in the home that had the wood burner was lovely and I wanted to find a "lovely" wood burning stove to fit into it.

It had to be special and fit the overall look of the house. It had to be large enough so it wouldn't drown in the space for it and it needed to be modern-ish.

Here are some family friends sitting in the area for the wood burner.  It is not a small space.  

After not finding what I needed in the stores I turned to craigslist.  (side note: I looked up wood burning stoves today and found a couple of interesting stoves but someone decided to list "medical marijuana" and that is what filled my search.... see above note about craigslist connotations).  Would you believe there are a lot of collectors of old wood burning stoves in this area?  If you call them the sellers are very enthusiastic about there collections.  It made shopping for it fun but complicated because, again, I had NO idea what I was looking for, as far as heating and type goes.



I thought this style would be "neat" but not quite right for the space and a bit too large. This one had top cook plates.  I really liked this.  The price was right but it was so rusty and the wrong shape and size.


This one needed too much work and is the wrong look.

Good condition, right price, wrong style.





That is how a lot of them on craigslist are.   I spent a lot of time looking .   I found one that I really liked.  It was a wood burner from the civil war.  It was beautiful and full of potential.   Ok...I know what you are thinking....civil war???   Angela the house is not civil war looking.   You are right but it had fleur de lis, it was local and the man was so enthusiastic about it.  It was rusty but maybe could work.   It looked something like this:  





So Matt and I drove to see it about 35 minutes from the house.  Of course Matt had to come because this was a craigslist listing.....   We were greeted by a very fit 75 year old man.  He welcomed us into his home to show us his wood burner that heated his home.  He told us he feeds it every X number of hours and how much he loves wood heat.  He then showed us the wood burner.  It was too small.  :(   However he had dozens more!   "Come over here!", "Look at this one!", "How about this beauty?"  

Deep in the corner, hidden in the shadows, a black, solid shape caught my eye.   He said, "Oh that!   That's a 'Yodel'; best company for wood burners. It would be a great one to have and I just gave it a facelift."   He said he had just sold one similar but smaller and that this one was $700.   Yikes!   That's more than I wanted to spend.   It had the right look though.  He showed us all the really cool features of it.  Showed us how the doors slid open and how the engineers created the amazing gears and moving pieces to open and close the doors.  He showed us how he replaced this and that and painted it with something that will make it last for ever.   He pulled out the -original- owner's manual and told us it was made in the early 70's and a bit more.... "SHOOT!" We brought out Jeep and this thing was huge!   The man said, "No problem, it comes apart into many pieces. It'll fit."   He said we could have the pretty little civil war parlor burner too for $250 but I had no need for it so we declined.

Matt and I stepped away to chat.  We had brought $600 and he told me he brought the Jeep so we couldn't take anything home right away.... :-/   I didn't know that.  But Matt also liked it so we made an offer.   He accepted!   Yippee!  

He then proceeded to break it apart and lift this giant with very little effort and help Matt put it in our car.   Matt was shocked by this 75 year old man's strength but I guess if you are working with cast iron all the time you stay in shape......

We brought it home in the Jeep and brought it into the house.  And there it sat, unusable for a few weeks, until the chimney guys came to install it and clean out all 3 chimneys.

I loved it in the house.  It was perfect!  Not too big and not too small.   Not too old and not too modern.   There was nothing gaudy and we could open it to view the fire or leave it closed while it heated all night.  Done!



2 weeks later the chimney sweeps came and began installing.  If you are local I recommend No-Mess Chimney Sweeps.  They were professional, knowledgeable and super friendly.   They told us all about how well built the fireplaces in the house were and the excellent craftsmanship that went into building them.  This is the owner's son.  They thought the wood burner was "very cool".  They didn't often install these styles but explained that the old ones were solid and last forever.  He also told us, after ready the manual, it can hold up to 27# of wood.

Installed. The kids put magnets allover it for fun.  The middle magnet is a thermometer to help maintain the right temperature.

. 

 They told us both fireplaces were custom made and very expensive - not your "run-of-the-mill" they said.   They even showed us the mason's mark on the brick inside the upstairs fireplace. 
Downstairs they explained to us that the holes in the top and bottom and around the basement were heating vents that will release the hot air when this fireplace is being used.   Cool!


I have one thing to add to this.  I love my wood burning stove.  It is so cozy when it is lit and it certainly heats the main floor and much of the upstairs.  If we loose heat or electricity for any reason we can still stay warm!  I can add a pot to the top and boil water to add to the air and I can burn LOTS OF STUFF!  ;)   There is a learning curve when using a wood burning stove.  I'm still not sure I'm doing it right but I love to add wood to it and feel the fire.  Matt even bought a flame thrower to help ignite the fire.  Ask him about it, he LOVES to show it off.
But....they require a lot of attention.  Every few hours we need to add wood.   I'm not complaining; I'm still learning.