Flock frustrations, other frustrations

One of the young ladies that work for me, Camille, has recently gotten some chickens. Since Mama and I have chickens and since she knows nothing about keeping chickens she asks questions of me and shares her daily updates as well. Some of these are quite humorous.

Recently she had one of her fancy hens fall ill; mucus drainage through the beak and mouth, lethargy, etc. She has been trying to encourage the chicken to eat but it has just gotten weaker. Tuesday evening she made a slurry of chicken feed, antibiotics and vitamins to feed to the chicken through a syringe. Her husband and friend were disbelievingly curious of the results of such an effort.

In spite of the dissenting crowd she got hold of the chicken and proceeded to force feed the listless bird – which suddenly found a reserve of energy it had not tapped into of late. After ten minutes or so she managed to get a full syringe of her doctoring goo into the chicken. (A struggle that resulted in her having to take a shower to remove the feed that the chicken had not swallowed.)

Her husband and his friend were so impressed that the friend confessed that if he had to come back to this world in any fashion, he wanted to come back as a chicken – but only if owned by Camille. As of yesterday morning there was no noticeable improvement in the hen but Camille assures me she will press on until the chicken is better or dead. I should get another update this morning.

Mama is having her own chicken stories to tell but most of them recently have to do with trying to keep the pigs out of the chicken feed. Dottie, one of our little pot belly pigs, has learned that there is a “second breakfast” waiting for her in the chicken coop if she can get there before Mama. Molly and Chloe do not seem that interested in raiding the bird feeders but they can be persuaded to go along in most instances.

All the gates I have built have proven unsuccessful in restraining the pigs without keeping the chickens out of the coop as well so Mama has started putting the feeders on the roosting boards – about twenty four inches off the ground. This too has proved problematic. The chickens would rather eat the leftovers from the hanging feeders – if there are any – than to hop up on the roost to get to the feed.

Eventually I will have to maintain separate areas for each species but at the moment the chickens and the little pigs will share the barnyard and we will just have to figure out how to manage the voracious appetite of the miniature swine. Mostly we just laugh about the conflict but every now and then it becomes an issue. Even the steer we have left has taken to running the pigs away from his feed trough – even if there is nothing in it. Fortunately, they haven’t found the dog food yet.

Mama and I will be packing tonight and tomorrow. Last night Mama had a bit of a moment. She was quite upset about nothing in particular but I get the impression that it stems from the fact that I have not yet participated in getting ready for the trip we are beginning Saturday morning. Every evening this week has been busy and every day at work for the past month has been almost overwhelming so there has not been a huge investment on my part in preparing for the coming vacation. Those emotional strains along with selling the farm and searching for a place to purchase and move to has Mama and I in need of some time away.

All of this will eventually work out and we will look back and laugh at the times we worried over the things God is already taking care of. We will trust. We will learn to wait. We will give God the glory.