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!