HEARTACHE ON THE HOMESTEAD
Some mornings, it is great to wake up, until you realize what happened the night before.
Today was one of those days. I had woken up early to get some T-shirts made and some fence put in before the heat of the day. I made my morning post and enjoyed a cup of coffee. When I started to make my rounds though, my heart sank.
The back door of one of our chicken tractors was open. Such things should not be. This was the first clue that I was not going to have a good morning.
Inside, I could already see that there was a whole mess of feathers. Since we had not fed our chickens Alka-Seltzer tablets as an after dinner snack, the cause of this was limited.
Sure enough, broken eggs and feathers were all over outside of the chicken tractor too. Someone had enjoyed a feast last night, at the cost of our animals. When it comes to chickens, we still previously had nine hens, and two roosters. Additionally, one of our Muscovy duck mamas had taken to laying her eggs in the chicken coop. Since they were all getting along, we just let her make her nest there. Thankfully, I did not see any duck feathers, so that gave me hope. Soon I was searching the woods around the pen, looking for that lost duck.
As heartache would have it, I soon came upon the cold corpse of what had once been our duck. It is a tragic sight to behold. The duck wasn’t really even eaten, and was mostly intact. It had just been killed, and its neck had been nibbled on.
Most likely, one of these guys came over to see if it could get an easy meal last night. Unfortunately, it did. This Raccoon was one that we had recently trapped, and the photo is from another post that I had made. We enjoyed catching some fish as a family and used some the extra ones to bait traps with, since some of the neighbors had been having trouble with them lately too. It looks like I'll have to set some more traps. Tonight, I'll chop up the duck carcass and bait some traps. Hopefully, I can catch some more raccoons before they continue to feast on my flock.
Upon further investigation, I found the root of the problem. When the @little-peppers locked up the animals last night, they did not really lock them all up. This chicken tractor can be closed without locking it, as the door fits inside the metal roofing and pops shut.
This lock is supposed shut at night, but, unfortunately, it wasn't. If it had been done properly, it would have looked the photo above...
But, it looked like this instead. Lessons like this are tough ones to learn. Obviously my @little-peppers could have done a better job, but then again, @papa-pepper could have done a better job training them, or at least double-checking their work.
Since we have been hatching out a few ducklings, we were excited that our second mother duck was laying and sitting on the eggs. This could have meant a lot more free ducks for us. Thankfully, our first mama duck is hard at work raising the two she hatched first.
Additionally, one of the other babies that hatched later is still doing well, though we had to separate it from the others. For some reason, it's mother is very aggressive towards it, so we are having to raise it separately, which is fine. We would rather put forth the effort of raising it ourselves than have it end up dead.
In the end, at least we got the three original ducks that we had for free. Now, one of them is dead, but the other mother has blessed us with three new ducklings, so we are still up five ducks. Interestingly enough, one of our chicken hens has actually taken sitting over on our dead ducks nest. She has been there all morning. We are really hoping that she will hatch out the eggs that our dead mama left behind. I'll keep you posted.
Also, for those of you who were wondering, yes, "Heartache on the Homestead" is a variation on the series that @bluerthangreen has been posting, called "Hardships on the Homestead." You should check out some of those posts from @bluerthangreen. Hopefully, he will get past his hardships and I can get over my heartache.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-heartbreaking-morning
Until next time…
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You really look like a wild person, do you manage to make steemit your primary income source ? this is so amazing. I wonder when I'll be able to do the same!!
Raccoons can be some pretty vicious creatures. They are very smart as well which enables them to find their way into everything. Haven't had them get any chickens yet, but have heard some bad stories. Thanks for the post! Steem on!
Yeah, they are crafty and cunning.
This is very sad. Raccoon are cute but always out to get their next meal. We had the same thing happen to our baby ducklings.
Good post, thanks for sharing
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I am sorry for the loss of your family. Yup I understand that they are family. I once raised a duck for two years. She would follow me everywhere. She was even house trained.. Mostly. She loved it when I showered but sadly one day while I was at work the neighbours dog jumped my fence and killed her.
Dogs, another potential menace. At least you had some great times first.
It does not matter if it was locked as raccons easily figure out locks especially latches. Probable woukd have unkatchec them. If you had guinnees they woukd have had such a loud noise you woukd gave known.
The loss is hard ,but even harder when they are left nearly intact,and not eaten.
I understand nature and have respect for the wild things that we have displaced for our comfort and civilization. But I also recognize the need to establish these process's ,and to try and find harmony. Glad to see use of live trap,rather than poisons,or other deadly means.
Amazing how fast animals will foster an others young so easy!,even across species lines. ... love the animals ,be wary of the humans... :-)
Hope you have a good day!... "life is to short for bad day's!"
namaste!
Thank you, life needs more good days. Mine are all pretty excellent overall. Thanks.
Aww, wow. Sorry for such a sad morning. I do feel bad for the little pepper who's responsibility this fell too, but what a visceral lesson! Not one that will be easily forgotten.
It's lessons like these that are impossible to learn without tactile experience. I think life on a homestead is powerful, particularly for young kids (this is one of the primary reasons we moved our family out to the Ozarks, too!) I used to work at a school that "padded" everything for the children. Nothing too upsetting, controversial, or difficult--and as a result, I don't think that those kids were experiencing reality, or being prepared for the real world. The real world can be hard, cruel, and it makes you tough if you're willing to learn. The real world is also beautiful at times, and the grace of having another bird take on the dead duck's brood is a gentle reminder of that as well.
Hope that the littles on the homestead recover, a little wiser, a little more tough, and a little more grateful. Thanks for a great article!
In my neck of the Caribbean Rain Forest, I have a problem with Jaguarundi, a smaller version of Jaguar who are being forced out of their natural habitat due to rain forests destruction and development and into my cacao farm. Last week, one literally jumped my into my fenced yard around my house, even though the dogs where nearby and grabbed the chicken who it had missed a few weeks earlier. I was shocked that he would be so bold with dogs and all, but gosh, they are hungry. A few weeks earlier he took 2 hens. I didn't feel so bad about it, as I know that they have to eat too. He missed the 3rd hen, as she was in the house "setting" at the time. But since she lost her tribe, she has been sleeping near our house, which I have a fence around for my dogs and puppies. I never thought the cat would jump the fence, for fear of the dogs. Poor thing, he must be extremely hungry.
I thought that he got the 3rd hen as I did not see her for several days. I must have scared the cat when I started screaming when I heard the scandal; when I investigated I saw a slew of feathers and no chicken, so of course I thought the worst. She appeared back but she has a broken wing and a loss of feathers. I am considering giving her away. Poor thing.
I know how you feel, @papa-pepper!
Man that sucks. Well it could have been worse though, and that means today is a good day to teach your little peppers a lesson and help them grow! Glad that your looking at the postive parts. Hope the chicken hatches your duck eggs too!!
If that hen hatches those eggs, it will receive a place of honor among my people.
Then I'm your people because I will honor him too haha
when I was homesteading on the Llano back in the eighties
I slept lite..and had a shotgun beside my bed.
If I heard a racket...I grabbed my gun and run
a LOT of coyotes, coons and stray dogs.
BOOM!
din't run fast enough.
another one bit the dust.
We got all three of them out here too.