This post is kind of an unhappy one. Hopefully I will get some time to spend with my featherheads this weekend and it will cheer me and bring back that happiness I feel when contemplating how much I have really accomplished on the homestead...besides, who needs tv when you can watch chicken football? However, this past week has made the dangers of other people in association with my homestead become abundantly apparent.
I live on an acre of land with several pens and two barns. Behind and on the sides are 12 acres of farm fields and behind that are 70 acres of woods. I rent the house and if I owned the place I would probably put up a permanent 6 foot wooden fence in the front by the road. However, since I don't I have pens set up with chicken wire and netting on the green posts.
My chickens free range and have a large shed as a coop that I closed in and has a door. The barn holds two coops in the back and the front area is for the rabbits and it has a screened door on the front. In one coop are Big Tom and the other turkeys that stay here and it is open to a big pen that is netted over. The other coop is super secure and set up for babies. I raised 4 turkeys in there and until recently had the 3 girls and one boy turkeys I raised.
The muscovies decided that they wanted to free range after the hurricane which is fine because that is what I wanted them to do for their health and bug control. They wouldn't use the chicken coop like I tried to train them to but they liked one tree to chill under at night.
All was working well until last week. First the muscovies decided to hang out in the street and people drive way too fast. Lancelot, my black and white breeder drake, and one of the girls were killed. So, the muscovies are all locked in the chicken coop now and the poor chickens have been kicked out for the moment because the muscovies are too smart for the front pens.... the chickens have a favorite roosting place but I worry about them in the cold weather. I am very sad I can't continue to free range the muscovies and I obviously have to figure out something else for the pens, bigger and tighter.
That was all sad but it got even worse. One day last week someone stopped by the house, drove into the driveway honking and told my brother he wanted to buy the two drakes that were up in the front pen. My brother said they weren't for sale and the guy was not happy. I was gone over the weekend and my brother fed everyone but he doesn't spend much time with the animals, they are all mine... so he fed and watered and made sure everyone was alive and healthy but he doesn't know them well enough to know who belongs where. He was able to feed most everyone without opening the gates. Since I was away, there was times when no one was here.
When I got back and had a chance to check on everyone individually, we realized that my tom from the secure pen was missing and the straw bale that was in front of it was still there but was a little loose. No feathers anywhere, no possible way for the turkey to get out of the coop or the barn. Someone came onto the property while we were gone and opened two separate doors and took my tom that I had planned for the holiday dinner plus soups and broths and such.
It has all made me very sad in a time that should be filled more with joy and hope for the future.
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So sorry to hear about all your losses - I hope the next few weeks were better!
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