Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Warning! Graphic Post!

This is what greeted me in the old henhouse this morning: 


Yes, my poor old Butch is gone. 

I brought him into the house on Sunday afternoon, to show Keith... who counseled that yes, indeed, he did not look good... but we should let nature take it's course.  I don't blame Keith, it is always he who must put down hurt chickens.  Butch did not recover from his fight with one of the Elvi about 3 weeks ago. 
He had been torn across his head, and for a while, I thought his only eye was not going to function. 
I wonder now if it was.  Buffy, his companion, was staying close to him when I got out there. 
I shoo'd her over to the coop side... remember, they lived on the feed room side... so tomorrow, I'll shovel up all that straw and spilled feed, and put it on the compost heap.  I find it interesting that he made it through the week with the unbearable below zero temps, and died this week, but I think his age and the fact that he was hurt so badly contributed. 
So, our numbers continue to fall... we are down to 13 birds from 50 or so at tops in that henhouse. 


The hens are jam up and jelly tight in the henspa.  That's a VERY popular nest box. 


And the ducks are overjoyed that they are able to actually SWIM this week, and clean themselves up. 
You notice the big ice piece has barely melted. 


The goats were soaking in the sunlight when I left to go out for a while.  Delilah has settled in so very well... it makes me feel good to know that she has become part of the "herd".


The big white chicken in the middle is my next worry... she is an older girl, and is not moving around very much.  I have checked her... feet are okay... I think she is just feeling her age.  She doesn't go outside, and mostly stays under the heat lamp. 


As the little brown hen says:

"That's it for today from Calamity Acres!" 

11 comments:

  1. Gosh,, were sorry about Butch! That is quite shocking for you to find him like that.
    We do see some blue skys in this bloggy-- another hopeful sign that things will get better
    love
    tweedles

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry to hear bout Butch dogonnit! Well hopefully the count stays......

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry to read about Butch!! I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry about your Butch, I hope your big white hen is ok.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mary Ann,

    I'm so sorry to hear about Butch. Hopefully, your old girl will hang on. She may just need a little more warmth than usual.
    Have a great evening, and don't work to hard.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We let nature take its course with our hens as well. I always made sure they were comfortable, of course. We had between 6 and 13 hens... 50... wow! What did you do with all the eggs when you had that many? We are planning to get chicks in the spring. I miss having chickens. I miss their eggs and I miss their contented clucking.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That would definitely be the hard part of raising animals on a farm. Loosing them. Our warm spell is a thing of the past here. Almost 20 degrees colder here this morning than it was yesterday at this time. The sun is trying to come out but it is faint. Hope your Wednesday is a wonderful one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh no, so sorry. How long do they usually live?
    Lily

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm still down to 2 non-laying hens. Sorry to hear about old Butch.

    Those ducks looks so happy playing in their puddle.

    I'm glad the goats are getting along well now.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So sad to hear about Butch. I couldn't raise farm animals...I get too attached.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh sorry about Butch, he had a good life with you guys though. Delilah sure does look totally settled in the herd now, that's one lucky lady!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!