Life on our little hobby farm is generally wonderful. Really. It is hard work, but offers many great rewards. So many that I can't name them all and we are experiencing new ones all the time.
But.
Matt and Tyler have been raising a new batch of chickens in order to increase their egg business. They chicks were about two months old and the boys have faithfully taken care of them in this unusually cold weather. We finally felt they were old enough to stay out in the henhouse/coop area instead of taking them in and out of the workshop each night.
Well, we were wrong.
You know that old saying, "She doesn't have sense enough to come in out of the rain?"
Well, our chicks didn't.
They stood out in the freezing rain Monday night (instead of going into the easily accessable henhouse), and when Matt went out there Tuesday morning eighteen of the twenty were dead.
Apparently you have to lock them up in the henhouse the first few nights so they can "learn" to get in out of the rain.
So, in true farm fashion, we will start again.
I guess we will always be learning something new, and in this case we learned that chickens are very stupid.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh Mamahen! I'm so sorry the boys had to experience this! We are all in the learning process with this homesteading thing, so don't feel bad! I too, lost some chicks to a thunderstorm one time. We live and learn from our mistakes. They will do better next time around! Blessings from Bama!
ReplyDeleteChickens are also very scary. It might be best to keep them in the henhouse ALL the time so that there will NEVER be a chance that they would attack a certain Aunt
ReplyDeleteWhen she comes to visit. (It didn't let me finish.)
ReplyDeleteHow awful. My dad had chickens and has been battling hawks.
ReplyDeleteOh no! I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteOh that stinks! Sorry Wendy! :(
ReplyDeleteOHH, poor chickens, poor boys=(
ReplyDeleteIs it true there is some farm animal that will look up at the rain, and drown....is that chickens?
Janet, I have heard that about chickens, but it has never happened to us in the ten years we have had them. This bunch apparently just stood in the puddles and watched as the water rose around them. It was not a pretty sight when they were found.
ReplyDelete