Well, I thought it would start off better than it did...the New Year started off with another predator attack. We got a trap big enough for a raccoon and it is set, but we haven't caught anything. The game camera I ordered came in and we set it up and then a rooster was killed in an area that it didn't cover. We bated the trap with the dead rooster, he was missing his head and neck like the others that we found, so far nothing in the trap...we moved the camera too, still have not caught anything on it.
The only other thing we can do is electrify the fence, we think it is a raccoon doing the killing. The last rooster was carried to the fence and I guess the predator crawled over the fence and tried to pull the rooster through the fence by the wing...lots of feathers on the outside of the fence but the body was on the inside. My roosters are not all going into their coop at night, if they are low enough I pick them up and move them into it...but several of them have taken to the trees and roosting 15 to 20 feet up. I refuse to risk breaking my neck trying to get them down. I have been able to get my breeding roosters inside the coop and that is the most important to me. I am not sure I can kill a rooster to process for dinner anyway...I am not quite setup for it yet, but the roosters in the trees are the ones earmarked for dinner.
The Farmers Almanac said we would have an unusually wet winter, and so far it is proving true. We have had a lot of rain lately and the night before last some terrible thunder and lightning. We live in a metal house and the way it is insulated it is hard to hear rain at all...we heard the rain and the thunder and lightning was like major explosions. We got almost three inches of rain that night on top of something like an inch for the previous few days. Needless to say, everything is soaking wet. We have had water standing in several areas of the yard for the past week and when you have Sandy soil that doesn't happen very often...usually. I feel bad for the chickens, their run is soaking wet...water goes up over my feet walking around in there. I have been putting fresh straw down for them every day, but they mix it up and dig down to the dirt looking for bugs I suppose. I am going to have to fix it, but trying to dig trenches to devert the water has not worked very well. We need to get gutters up which will help, but finding end caps for the piece we have is proving to be a challenge. We probably will have to buy new gutters, but everything requires money...and time to do it. Right now we are just trying to not loose any more chickens. If a predator kills my breeding roosters, all my hard work the past year will be down the drain.
I really need to be able to sell chickens and chicks to make money, and hatching eggs. I got specific breeds for that purpose, but still need to build my breeding pens. The rooster coop was more for protection of my hens, I took 18 roosters out of the hen house when I finished it. I still have at least 10 roosters in the hen house, some are going to freezer camp...but some are for breeding. They talk about chicken math...well I have a problem with it, but I hope it starts paying off soon. I have some of the coveted varieties of chickens, Cream Legbars, Black Copper Marans, Easter Eggers, Silver Laced Wyandottes...well, most of you won't know what I am talking about, but these lay pretty colored eggs...so it would be like Easter every day when you look at my egg basket...all different colors of eggs...blues, greens, pinks, peaches, chocolate Browns, golds...light brown and white too. I raised almost all of my chickens from eggs...Ok, maybe not 29 of them, but 100 of my chickens I hatched and raised. I only have a few more to go out to the coop from the brooder. I am going to take a short break from hatching and caring for chicks to get breeding pens built, then I will start hatching to sell this spring.
I need to start preparing my gardens too...ah the joys of country living, I seem to always have pine shavings in my hair, poop on my shoes and plans for another project in my head.
No comments:
Post a Comment