Our Maker's Acres Family Farm: Animal Planet

Friday, December 28, 2012

Animal Planet

It has been a very eventful past few days in the barnyard. I'll get you caught up on the happenings. As the old saying goes, "Some you're gonna win, Some you're gonna lose, Some are gonna get rained out."

The Winners:
Once we got the pullets familiarized with roosting in the bigger chicken tractor (since the meat birds are occupying their old one), we opened the doors and now they are roaming free on the pasture. Boy, are they ever happy. You can really tell a difference in the darker colored yolks now that they are able to forage more freely.

While I was harvesting some carrots and broccoli in the garden, I took a few pictures of Russ. I call him the "Chicken Whisperer." The pullets were following him around like an old friend.

Howdy neighbor!

When he bent down and was talking to them, he was able to pick one up and pet it.

The Chicken Whisperer training his chickens

The Losers:

As Tricia was milking Rosie the other morning, Rosie kept moving her legs uncomfortably. She normally stands still when we're milking. Upon closer inspection, she had a couple of cuts on her one of her teats. OUCH! How could this have happened? Well, as she started milking her, it became evident that someone had already gotten some of the milk... Maggie!?!? Yes, Maggie, even though she had the weaning clip (shown below) on, had figured out a way to turn her head in such a fashion that she could rob some of our milk. In doing so, the nose plate cut Rosie's teat. That big galoot - she is a year and a half old and should be weaned by now. So I took the nose clip out and deposited Maggie in the paddock with Stryker, the bull. We'll just have to move Maggie out when she's in heat. We treated Rosie's teat with some triple antibiotic ointment and it scabbed over. In two days it was completely healed.

Maggie Mae's weaning clip that cut Rosie's bag.

When Maggie did come in heat, we moved her into the corral to be away from the amorous Stryker. With lots of hormones and activity going on, apparently there was an injury in the barn to a barred rock hen. When we got to the barn the next morning, the hen was sitting in the hay not moving - odd. I picked her up and it was then I noticed that she had a broken leg. I know exactly what happened. Maggie Mae was romantically inclined and was running around the barn and undoubtedly stepped on the hen. That's gotta hurt!

Instead of putting her out of her misery, we began nursing on her, feeding her some of Rosie's milk and some rice. It has been a couple of days and she's standing up on her leg now and sort of hobbling around. (Maybe I'll get the chicken whisperer to make her some crutches.) Looks like she's getting better!

The chicken infirmary

Getting rained out:

So now Maggie is in the paddock with Stryker so she can't get our milk. We have to keep track of her cycle so that we move her out when she's in heat. Rosie, who lost her baby in early November, is going back in heat as well, so we have to keep her away from Stryker too.

Out in the rain

Additionally, and sadly, the rain claimed two more meat birds today. We're down to 47 now. We lost one to suffocation several days ago and lost two today to rain/wind/hypothermia in the pasture. I was at work when a deluge came through and dropped almost 3 inches on the farm, flooding the pasture and the chicks in the process. Tricia and Russ were out in the rain holding the soaked birds up to the heat lamps and were able to revive all but two of them. I attribute that to poor planning on my part. I should have checked the weather more closely and had hay ready to put down in the tractor to keep them high and dry.

I like to leave on some good news, though. The cows are so funny. When I'm in the garden, they'll come begging by the garden fence for some goodies. "Hey, Mr. can you spare some change?" I took my pocketknife and pulled up about 7 or 8 turnips, cut them in chunks, and fed them to the poor old girls. First Rosie...