Cleaning, catch and release, Chinese eating

Mama and I spent the entire morning Saturday cleaning out the chicken coops. It was high time to get both sides cleaned – especially on the side with the chicks. What we ended up doing was taking the large cage out of the coop with all the growing chicks in it, and completely emptying the coop before cleaning the floor. It was quite a mess and neither Mama nor I wanted to just put the maggot infested combination of feed and manure anywhere on the farm so we bagged it up and took it to the dump. My biggest concern was that the bag would break on me and I would be left cleaning up the mess a second time. Fortunately, I got it to the dump and deposited in the container there with the bag fully intact. To get all of the slurry loaded into the bag Mama and I put it in an empty trashcan and loaded it that way so we did not have to sit and hold the bad open while loading it. That worked really well – especially since I know who would have been holding the bag open to load it.

Once we got the mess cleaned up Mama, we thoroughly cleaned the floor and got it prepared for the chicks to be turned out – without the cage. To do that, Mama and I placed the cage on end in the doorway of the coop and fished out the terrified chicks one by one to be treated and released. When all were free (sort of) we backed the cage out the door and set it on a couple saw horses to be washed by the rain. By the time we got the other side of the coop cleaned, the chicks were on the roosts, on the nesting boxes and everywhere else in the coop. I thought it was quite a feat since the roosts are about three feet off the floor. The will really grow now. The problem will be cleaning up the coop with all of them loose. We both showered after we finished the cleaning chore.

Saturday evening, Mama and I went out kind of late to feed. I normally feed the goats while she tends to the other animals. Maybe it is our left-handed, right-handed nature but she and I do the feeding completely reversed from each other. When I opened the door to the well house I could immediately tell I had caught something in the livetrap. The trap door was shut and a couple things near the trap had been knocked about. When I picked up the trap to see what was in it a large snakehead poked out the side at me. It was a very large rat snake. He could only get a few inches of his body through the mesh of the cage. I picked up the cage – with the head and neck protruding and carried it through the garden to find Mama.

When she realized what it was she went to the house to get her phone so she could take a picture. She went a step further and videoed it as I shook the snake out of the trap to release it. The video went well until the snake headed toward her. Then all you could see was the ground. When we were at a fellowship at the church Sunday night she must have showed the video twenty times. It was the most interesting thing I have caught in that trap. I leave the trap, set and un-baited, at an opening the rats chewed through the doorjamb at the well house. So far, I have caught eight rats as they dash through the opening into the trap. I suppose it is a great shock to the m to end up in the trap, but it works for me. Now, I can add a five-foot rat snake to the list of trapped animals. So far, it is the only captured critter to have made it out alive.

Sunday after church, we went to the Chinese restaurant and spent some time visiting with Cheyenne’s parents and her uncle Ling. He is also raising rabbits and has two young females to give us for breeding to the male, Jack, that we have now. While we were talking about rabbits, Mama asked if they would want any chickens. Ling asked if they were older or younger. He was excited when we told him they were older. He told us the older ones make better soup. I agree. Mama does not. So, we are going to make the exchange tomorrow morning. I will pluck them off the roost tonight. I asked if he wanted the chickens alive so they could kill them. “, Yes, alive is better.” He responded, “We will kill them because we eat everything inside.”

Mama almost lose her lunch.