It’s just before dawn… being up at this time is something I only infrequently imagined would become an event heralded without the blare of an alarm and groans of dismay… I am grateful for this change in the patterns of my life, grateful to see the wonders of dawn arriving.
The sky moves through changes—sometimes rapid, something creeping-- which begin with a barely perceptible lightening from almost black to iron-gray… then the iron shifts to steel, to overcast, to pale gray to almost white (when compared to the dark).. right about then the first blush of bright apricot tints the point on the horizon that marks where the sun will emerge… and dawn seems to hesitate, hangs there in slow motion, with the apricot smudge spreading out and becoming less vivid, becoming peach and yellow, spreading pale yellow north and south as the western skies begin the change from dark through ever-lighter shades of gray. Is it dawn now, when the yellow encircles to include the north in pale peach and violet and even the west is light? Or is not fully dawn until the blaze of the sun peeks through the dense branches of the wood that lies east and southeast of where I perch on my chair? The ducks tell me it is time now~ “Don’t wait for the sun, we can see and we are up and talking and want out of our house.” The crows begin cawing and then the hoarse sound of a young cockerel just beginning to find his voice, an almost-crow that was at first alarming and now amuses me and calls me to find out which young lad is trying to cock-a-doodle to the dawn. The sky is beginning to blue, it is light and I’m off to tend to critters on the farm… and more than an hour after the process began, the sun has yet to make its dramatic appearance.
Dramatic it was not, today; rather I looked up and saw the glittering light of the sun already half way up. Ah well, it is now a bit before 8 a.m. and I’m back in the house, typing as Sue makes us some scrabbled eggs (from Golda and Violet) mixed with pork sausage (from Rose’s Berkshire pasture-raised pigs). Another significant and truly awesome (as in awe inspiring vs. generic exclamation) change in life~ I know where much more of my food comes from and am aware of when I do not!
When it comes to the pullets, our efforts continue, as do our losses, although greatly diminished~ 4 more have died as we work to address the situation. First, we let the chicks back out for a couple days after the pile-up, and they ended up sleeping on their old spot. When we moved the fence to block them from the spot, they slept piled up against the fence~ no deaths but not a solution. We asked around and found out that once chickens are moved from their first location, they may never sleep in their house again, or it is difficult to get them re-patterned to do so; in some cases, birds die in bad weather because they don’t go inside.
We installed 2”x 2” perches inside their house (and realized we would be wise to add little perches in the brooder, acclimating subsequent flocks to perching immediately); the pullets went inside and perched during the day and slept against the fence at night. So we put their feed and water troughs inside their house in late afternoon, leaving the doors open; then, after full dark, we carried them into their house crate-full by crate-full, carefully setting each bird onto a perch, side by side, tightly packed as they like it, and closed the door. We had already stopped trying to limit the feed rations to what the ‘chart’ told us; our birds acted like they were starving and were in a constant state of panic to eat… so right or wrong, we changed back to feeding enough so that a little bit of feed is left at the end of the day. This decision was confirmed by a very large egg production farm’s nutrition expert, who agreed with making sure they had plenty of feed during their growing period; he said if a restricted diet were necessary later, that could be managed by changing high calorie feed components to lower ones.
The next morning, Sue checked on them right at dawn, and filled feed and water; there were no dead birds which is what we expected given that they’d been moved when they were already in their dark-time stupor. Sue closed the cover to the side that faces their old location, so they couldn’t see where they might want to go and we kept them in food and water constantly, moving slowly and steadily; the pullets were very calm all day. That night Sue watched them settle for the night and they piled up along one long side, where the perches run the entire length; the birds still climbed and jumped on each other as they settled in, but were not frantic and in the morning, none were dead. Good start. Later in the morning, Sue opened the cover to the end and while we kept them in steady food and water and the pullets were calm, they did cluster at that end. That night they piled up more than the previous night, at that end of the house and not on the perches; the next morning there was one dead at dawn and another one found and taken to our hospital pen died later that day.
Still, we left the end open because they have to learn; we also kept up the steady stream of food and water, and kept them inside for the morning while Sue put up a very small chicken wire yard that opened only from the far end of their house and did not let them see their old location. They were outside and inside, with food and water left inside; at night (last night) they all went in and, unfortunately, piled up at the same end as before… not too much, though, since we had no more losses, at least so far. Today we enlarge the yard and move the troughs outside again… I worry about the degree of filth in the water, even though I know it’s still cleaner than many others keep it on a regular basis. I want to get the troughs outside and cleaned; also, the pullets have to learn to eat and drink outside and still go in at night… the next step in what we hope will result in a stable pattern of going in to perch and sleep and not pile up too much.
We have to move the house again and can’t wait much longer, but will slide it over not even a full width this time, using the fence to keep them from seeing or getting to the other half-width. We think we may have to use the chicken wire fence arrangement in an ongoing fashion, allowing the birds no access to where their house sat previously (and as much visual block as possible) and only moving the house to right next to where it just was. I’m praying this will work, along with foregoing the limited feed rations, to keep our gals calm and safe, healthy and happy.
I'll keep you posted, as we learn and grow our farm.
Recent Comments