Bye Bye, Birdie

The saga is over. We are done with the leghorns. For all the “animal lovers” who cringe at the thought of knowing the feathers that once surrounded the meat on their plate, no, we didn’t kill them. We gave them to friends. Why didn’t we slaughter them? We just plain don’t have time. Our weekends are dedicated to fencing our pasture and the few free week nights just don’t allow enough time. And it was urgent that something be done now. As I stated in the last post, the chickens had gotten into the garden and ripped up plants. I gave the plants a bit more time to get established and left the chickens penned. However, Friday we had another dead bird. Saturday I tried to put them in the electric netting that confines the goats. I had the electricity turned off, put in the first bird. By the time I got back around with a second, the first had already gotten out. So I turned on the electricity and threw the second in. By the time I got back with a third, the second was dead. So, I once again just let them roam. They did fine Saturday. A couple plants were ripped up on Sunday. On Monday they TOTALLY trashed the garden. Drip irrigation hose was strewn everywhere. The newspaper underneath was shredded and sitting on top. Plants were ripped up all over to where I can’t even find them to try to save them. The sorghum has beak marks in it. The mulch defining the walkways is spread all over the beds, burying plants. Dust bathing holes screws up the even watering causing puddles and dry spots. Being completely stuck, I called some friends who have a fenced area where their chickens run free. They said they would take them so after a slightly humorous chicken chase, we got all 10 remaining birds loaded into the trailer and we were off to give them a more appropriate home. It was a good feeling this morning to fix the drip irrigation line and know it wasn’t futile. Some plants are lost for good, but we still have several of each variety so I think we will keep decent yields. We also played musical pens. We moved the meat birds to the larger pen and the turkeys into an actual pen instead of their children’s gate with plywood top that was protecting them. We’ll be starting over with plymouth rocks after the fencing project is completed. And until they start laying well, we'll be supplementing the Rhode Island's eggs with the leghorns- purchased from our friends.