Some thing murdered all of our egg hens. All but two. This happened in July. It’s an awful feeling. We eat a lot of eggs here at Chez CURTIS, so losing our egg production is a major bummer. Minty ( our daughter ) runs the egg hens. She went out to feed and water the two living hens and heard a cheeping sound. She comes back to the house and shows me a little chick. One of our egg hens, who was now dead, had sat on a hidden nest and hatched some eggs. We were so excited to have a little chick on the farm. We named him Chuck. Minty went out to see if she could find any more. She found one other chick, but he wasn’t doing so well. We put it with Chuck and tried to nurse it back to health. We named it Wilson … The kids figured if Wilson didn’t make it, we could yell “WILSON!!!” like Tom Hanks in his volleyball movie.
WILSON!!!
With Wilson gone, Brent, Minty and Z went to get some interesting egg hens to keep Chuck company. They came back with quite a peep! All sorts of interesting chicks that lay eggs with a range of colors.
We’ve put the remaining egg hens, Brent calls the Mother Cluckers, in a new location with a hot net and now a wildlife camera. We have no idea what killed our chickens, so with the new camera, we can see what we’re up against.
The chicks today are a lot bigger so we’ve put them temporarily in an outside pen until they are ready to go on the pasture. We can’t put them out now because the birds of prey will snap them up like peanuts.
… and here’s a ballsy scooter lady in a local village. If you knew how many giant trucks speed around that roundabout … dude
The chicks are so cute! We’ll probably have to get one or two when we move. The lady next door has 29 layers and it would make more sense to just buy them from her. Still they are fun the watch.
DEFINITELY! If you let them free range the property, they keep the snakes away … but then it’s hard to find the eggs …
Welcome back, I’ve missed you! We have a 15-year-old who says she wants to be a farmer. Perhaps you’d like an intern at some point?
Pasture farming is the best. So much life in the pasture and soil. We’ve taken interns in the past … the work is not glamorous 🙂