Well, last night we lost all our chicks to a bear. And what a ruthless bear it was. I discovered the destruction this morning when I went to let the hens out and check on the chicks, and it was like stepping into a war zone. What we thought was a strong, nice, high fence, was buckled and smooshed, the big sturdy brooder box torn apart (Not just broken in to, but torn apart, and the thing was built like a freakin tank, it was only a 4' cube but weighed several hundred pounds and was made of 2x6's and stout plywood, with construction sturdier than most houses...) and the carnage... Oh, the carnage... 45 chicks must have been quite the meal (I originally thought we had 46, but my math was off), as there really wasn't much left, though little bits and pieces and just a few mostly intact casualties were strewn all over the pens. I shudder to think what a terrible end they met last night. I am quite thankful that our hens are all ok, but now we're worried about their safety, as surely the bear will be back for the main course, now that the appetizers are gone.
I'm feeling lucky that the friend who paid for all the chicks (in exchange for us raising them, and him getting about 18 of them once they were grown enough) is very understanding of the situation. Pissed, I'm sure, as they weren't cheap, but understanding. If we had paid for them ourselves, I'd be super pissed. As it is, what upsets me the most is the time that is now gone. The Buffs were a full month old, and the Australorps were just a few days shy of a month, and with chicks, the first month is the hardest and most involved (and the entire reason why we were doing the dirty work for others, if it weren't a pain, they'd have done it themselves). We were SO close to having them weaned off of light, and therefore ready to move on to their next homes, but now we have to start over. And more than just over, cause it's not just a matter of ordering more chicks, as we now have to figure out a new brooder box, and install electric fencing. We should have done the fencing last year, but we couldn't afford a new system at the time, and thankfully we've since been given a used controller box dealie and the wire, but we still need the little transformer clips that you attach the wire to the posts with. Not a big expense, and really there's no excuse for why we haven't done it sooner, but we just didn't, can't change that, and now we can't change what happened last night. All we can do is move forward, do our best to protect the hens and any future chicks or livestock, and deal with whatever may happen in the future. Hakuna Matata, or something...
No comments:
Post a Comment