Homestead Ups and Downs/Life and Death

 We had four hens go broody at the same time. As much as I've tried to break them, it was to no avail for two of the younger hens. They'd sit on empty nests for days upon days these past two months. Finally, I said enough. I tried moving them off the nests, breaking nests apart, rousting them every couple hours, collecting eggs six times a day, cool bathes, and time out cages, and nothing worked. Within days, these two were broody again.

If these last two hold out are sitting on nests, taking needed nest boxes, and not laying eggs, then I'm going to use it to our advantage.  They are now sitting on 22 eggs. Well, that's not entirely true. One of the blue egg laying hens went broody with the Silkie. This nest has two mother hens who sit on the eggs. The white polka dot hen trades off sitting duties with the white Silkie. This way when I is sitting, the other takes a break to eat, drink, and be sociable, and vice versa. One the other nest, the one pictured, she is the one and only mother hen. I put food and water in the box with her, and  she's on the front porch while the other nest is in the coop. This morning she kicked two eggs out of her nest.

Mel had better get busy on the new coop and run before the cooler temperatures set in. The old coop and run will the broody grow out pen. Now how she is going to get the three hens which prefer to roost in the tree over the coop, I'll never know until she does it. She's got until the middle of the month before these broody mamas will need the present space exclusively for their young. The chicks my be a Rhode Island cross breed (from our rooster) But the chickie babies will lay eggs. We are still talking about a pure bred flocks too, but these additional hens will suffice for egg production. The roos will be freezer/canner campers. We don't need cross roos although Big Red is ending his fourth year of fertility. This hatch will tell the tale. We'll candle the eggs later this week to see how many are fertilized and viable.

Patches in happier times

With the up and life side of the coin discussed, now it's time for the down and death on this cockeyed homestead. It tok me a while to write this and still it hurts. We lost my beloved Patches this week to liver and kidney cancers that we didn't know she had. It wasn't until we took her to the vet for drastic weight loss that we found out the cause.

She was our youngest daughter's cat that we got from the Humane Society. When our daughter went to college and was gone for six months, this cat warmed up to me rather than than attacked me. She was a 6-month old feral kitten that chose Jennifer at the shelter. She jumped onto Jennifer's shoulder and dared her to look at any other. We renamed her Patches rather than Pockets because her tortoise shell coloring. Mel later dubbed her "Apache" because she always remained aloof and ready to attack. Being feral, she only took to Jennifer and sometimes my husband.

When she realized that Jennifer wasn't coming home for a while, she changed her manner towards me in small increments. She started being my escort to and from the house. When I was out in the yard, she was with me. A healthy six feet at least, but she was there. Her aloofness continued somewhat until two weeks before dying. She was never one to be held or cuddled. Instead she would lay on top of you while you slept, or up against you. I never quite knew whether it was a show of affection, or an effort to stay warm with shared body heat.

But then again, when my husband was finally bed bound, she lay beside him except for about three hours a day to take care of her business outside and eat. Even the Hospice aides had to work around her to do his care. She just couldn't be budged away from him. Even after they took his body away, she laid on the spot where he lay until they took his hospital bed away. Even then, she laid on his pile of sheets grieving his passing.

Why did we wait so long to get her into the vet? Once she heard the word vet, she'd go into hiding and wouldn't come out until after 5 PM. Safe from going and she knew it. We also had car trouble with our only vehicle that lasted a week, but that's another long, cockeyed story. Finally, she came out of hiding when Mel returned from the grocery store (long after her appt time). She was lying on the walkway. Too weak to even meow. She was badly dehydrated and she hadn't eaten all day...safe in her hiding place.

Being after 5PM, Mel hurriedly called the vet. Could we catch her and bring her in on Saturday morning. That night, we tried to entice her to eat with a can of tuna (people food not cat food). As much as she wanted it, she couldn't eat or drink. Later, Patches went to the water bowl on her own. She was too weak to lift her head long, but I watched her lap up some water. As the weight of her head pulled her nose under water, she raise up enough to rest her head on the dg food dish to allow the water to drain from her nose and mouth area. After a few minutes rest, she'd dip her head towards the water dish again to repeat the process. She finally stopped and lay down beside the water dish. I didn't expect her to live through the night.

During the night, Patches did something strange. She lay next to me. Crawl about six inches and lay her head on my available body part, stay there for a few minutes, and then move on. From the top of my head and back again. I thought it was Patches touching my body warding off evil because she would be able to protect and escort me anymore. Mel said, because she couldn't see that well that she was using my body as a reference point. It could be that both of us are right. We'll never know for sure.

airplaned ears

Saturday morning, I put Patches by the water bowl. She was still there when I returned from changing my clothes. I picked her up. Her ears airplaned because I was loving on her and she detested being cuddled. I gently put her in the carrier. She tried to scratch me and I made a shushing noise and put her in. She hated that carrier since she was in it for six hours on the move up here. She resigned herself to be carried in it. I had made a nice comfortable bed in it for her.

At the vet's office, the aide put the cat onto the scale...5.5! She'd lost half her body weight. Patches regular weight for the past five years has been around 10 lbs. She wasn't fat just a big, short haired cat. In her younger years, she weighed in at 15 lbs of muscles and bones, not fat. But, age has some strange ways. That and her lifestyle here with of plenty of tree to climb, rats and rabbits to catch, and two acres or more to roam of hilly terrain made her more svelte. Unlike her human counterparts.😸

After finding that her liver and kidneys had palpable masses, and the blood work, there was no question about it. Her kidneys and liver functions had shutdown. She was dying quite painfully of starving to death as the rest of her body caught up with her liver and kidneys. Tears coursed down my face as I denied a hospital admit to run IV fluids to bolster her up. There was simply no treatment for a cat this age. At 18 years old, I had to let her go. I rubbed her head as they gave her the injections and in a few short minutes,  she was gone.

RIP Patches. You had a life full of taking care of others. You deserve it. While you're up there, tell your "Daddy" I miss him too.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Grieving Jo

More Deaths on the Homestead and Update

Once again we have two more RIPs to report this week. Mel's beloved special needs cat, Devon Angel has gone to the big litter box in the sky. He has always been a sickly, mentally retarded cat since birth. He would rally and start failing. He did this for seven years. We dosed him repeatedly all winter long with various antibiotics. At times, we fed him bone broth through a syringe and against all odds he survived the winter.

On a beautiful spring day this week, Mel carried him outside to his favorite spot and for hours he scratched a fallen tree limb and enjoyed the sun on his body. We knew it was coming. This was his last rally. For days he had neither drank or eaten. The odor of death bombarded my sinuses when I was near. Isn't it a strange ability to have? Being able to smell death approaching? But it is a sense I've had since childhood. Later that evening, he died.

The second death was Kieran, my meat rabbit buck. This was totally unexpected. You might remember Kieran got out of his cage a couple weeks ago and was sowing his wild oats with the local rabbit population. A sweeter dispositioned rabbit as I could ever ask for. He was a fantastic sire for our meat rabbit needs. I walked into the greenhouse and found him. I was doing my morning chores which included watering the seedlings. It looked like he had suffered a shoulder injury. But he returned home to die. The greenhouse entrance is in front of Colleen's cage. It looks like the local pet store has closed so we are currently out of the meat rabbit mode. I may buy more, but not immediately. I've had Kieran for three years and he was my boy. I usually tend not to be too sentimental about meat stock, but this death stung.

We've had more of our share of death and dying on this homestead in the past three seasons. What with losing the angoras during the summer heat wave. Bennie Dufus getting hit by a car over the Christmas holidays. The predator attacks that wiped out three quarters of our chicken flock over the winter. Even this morning I found one of our Jersey Woolie/Lionhead bucks dead. Hopefully this streak is over. I know. I know. Death is part of homesteading. You do what you can, but it happens. It's the reality of homesteading. But I'm not without feelings. I'm not heartless. Even butchering our animals for our needs, is done in reverence and with respect for the life given. We love all our animals. Death is never easy. Some sting more than others, but we continue to move forward.

This blog started out really morbid. Now onto other things with a more brighter outlook. The chicks, although they've gotten so big that they don't resemble the tiny puff balls they were, are doing well free ranging on their own on the property. They still are scared of us, but I have found that if I sit still they will come within hand reach of me.  All twelve have survived! Yippee! I had expected to loose a few. They are now flying, eating, scratching, fighting, and getting into my garden like regular chickens. We do have two roosters each of Buffs and RIRs.

The new carport rabbitry/chicken house will be delivered on the 25th. Then the building of the run and dual coop begins. The chicks will hate being cooped up. They have taken to roosting on the porch rail at night. So they'll be fairly easy to relocate once it's complete. We've been so busy with dismantling the old coop, spring cleaning, and the garden...we forget to bring the camera along until well into the projects at hand. Bad us. We'll have to do better.

Our four remaining New Hampshire Red hens will continue to free range. They've taken to roosting in different spots at night. Each one in a separate spot instead of as a flock. Without a rooster to corral them, they've taken to doing their own thing. They won't associate with the chicks other than to pick on them. One hen we've named Brat. She picks and mounts all the others. She is copying Cuddles' old habits as lead hen now that Cuddles is gone. Brat is taking on rooster characteristics now too with a larger comb and wattle. I'm expecting to see tail feathers any day now. This isn't as strange as it sounds. It happens in roosterless flocks. The only problem is this hen is not the protector and provider for her flock. She is a greedy bully. She chases everyone away from the food. She attacks the other hens at will. She may be destined for the canner if she continues.

Our injured New Hampshire Red, Broody, is doing well. She still only has use of one leg, but she's laying eggs again. She is now not the low man in the hierarchy the chicks are. So she is hobbling along. She does have some use of her affected leg, but it's not that much. She is friendly and still allows me to pick her up to cuddle/ save her. She follows me around the yard. While she cannot roost high up like the others, she settles down under the porch at night. I always feed her the looses seeds from the fodder system so each morning she hops to the rabbitry. She's happy and healthy other than the bum leg. I'm glad I decided not to cull her this winter.

All the other animals on the homestead are faring well. With the warmer temperatures the bugs have returned in abundance. Several butterflies, moths, and bees are busy pollinating our plants. As soon as the carport/rabbitry/chicken house are done other destruction/construction begins. The new driveway goes in. The electrician rewires/restructures the panel box for the house with dedicated circuits for the barn, rabbitry/carport, and the rabbitry/storage. The plumber comes in to work on the well water pipes. A long list of need to do comes into play.  One step at a time.

Until next week...

Y'all have a blessed day!

Saying Hello and Goodbye on the Homestead

This week brought more loss to the homestead. We lost our New Hampshire Red rooster to a stray dog. Whitie was our last surviving rooster. He will be missed. So we were left with four remaining hens plus Broody.

Broody still hasn't laid an egg. But she's in her protected new home on the porch. A medium dog crate. The other hens come to visit and talk to her but are unable to peck her. This is until I can build a tractor for her. She still has the use of only one leg.

In the meantime, Tractor Supply has "Chick Days" going on. While we had eggs in the incubator, I basically ignored it. But we had four viable eggs in the incubator at the time. This was until Dervish, Mel's cat, tipped over the incubator and cracked open all of the eggs. None of the chicks survived. With the death of Whitie, we needed a rooster for our free ranging flock of Reds. This was coupled by the concern Nnyus had actually killed Whitie. This seems unlikely to me because the dog had lived with this free roaming rooster for almost two years with no problem. So I blame a stray. We've had a few over the past few weeks. Not having our acreage fenced, this is a continual danger.

After some discussion, we agreed to purchase six Rhode Island Reds and six Buff Orpingtons. Straight run so the odds are 50-50 of gaining at least one rooster for each type. The weather has turned warmer. So we set the brooder up on the porch. We still have a heat lamp hanging in one corner. The huge 3'x5' brooder seems like over kill for so small a number, but they won't be small long. In a few short weeks, they'll have feathers and more than doubled in size. In the meantime, they have plenty of room to run around. I would have loved to find some Americaunas too, but there are none within a 50-mile radius. Maybe next year. If YouTube chicken sexing videos are correct, we should have two roosters and four hens of each. I could be wrong though. Extra roosters are just destined for their next stage of life when they are big enough. We'll be separating the Rhode Island Reds and the Buffs so we'll have pure bred chicks to sell or increase our flock. So now we'll be building three tractors.

FOR RABBITS

I pulled all the sprouting containers to be washed today. Our fodder and sprouting grain operation will be up and running again after the winter lull. It's hard controlling the temperature over the winter months so we suspend the operation. I spent 15 minutes mixing a 5-gallon buckets of wheat, barley, and sunflower seeds. The first cup of the mixture is soaking as I type. Over the winter I purchased another 100-pounds of wheat and barley and 40 pounds of sunflower seeds. To make sprouted grains for the chickens, I'll need to add oats, corn, and Milo.  Cost wise, rabbit feed costs $34 a month for our rabbits in commercial pellets. For sprouted grains, the cost is $100 for nine months worth of feed and it's better digested. The fact that it's non GMO grain is an added benefit. The seeds for rabbits are sprouted for seven to eight days for optimum protein for the rabbits. For the chickens, they eat half as much plus their free ranging for optimum protein only takes three days. Total cost for the chickens eating sprouted grains per month is $17 instead of $34 for commercial feed. The cost consideration is important to the homestead finances, but the animal's health and what they pass on to us in their meat and eggs is even more important.

FOR CHICKENS

That's it for this week.

Y'all have a blessed day!