The Animals – Page 3 – Peacock Orchard

Pig breeding failure

Our sow came into season in November. I had been checking her so I could figure out when piglets were due. I have to tell you, I could not tell she was pregnant for a really long time, however, based on mucus excretion I saw in November I believed we had piglets expected mid March.

So I began the process of separating the pigs. Holes had to be cut into the barn and a wall build. Not a huge deal except the weather was gross.

Eventually Tu-Tu (sow) was undeniably pregnant and her teets were begining to hang. This should have been an indication I was off on my timing but I was still pretty sure mid March was it for us.

Well, I wasn’t completely wrong. We had piglets in March. March 1st. I wasn’t home. Not expecting piglets I was out pretty much the entire day. I went out around 5p.m. to feed the pigs and Tu-Tu met me at the gate, as per the usual. I didn’t notice anything different about her. It wasn’t until I got the hose to get her fresh water that I heard screaming from inside the barn. I went in and there was a piglet screaming it’s head off. There were 2 other piglets who appeared to get stuck in one of the boards on the wall and I’m guessing froze to death before I found them. The living piglet seemed ok. Tu-Tu was eating her food with 0 interest in her piglet. The piglet was cold so I decided to take it inside to warm up while I rigged up some extension chords to the barn for a heat lamp. (We were struck by lightening and the power stopped working in the barn. We MUST fix that!)

Once the heat lamp was rigged up I grabbed the piglet and took it back out to Mama. She came over and they laid down together near the heat. I thought all was going to be well.

Coming back after dinner it was clear to me that Tu-Tu wasn’t doing well. She was shivering, grunting and digging, digging, digging. I thought she must still be in labor. I had to move the piglet back inside as Tu-Tu was burying it in her digging.

I went inside and did some Googling. Decided I should reach in and see if a piglet was stuck or if her uterine horns were twisted. I got some gloves and lube and headed out. I must say that was something I hadn’t expected would ever happen. I didn’t feel anything. Tu-Tu was still distressed. I stayed with her most of the night. I tried milking her for her piglet at one point. She would let me for a bit and then she’d have to dig again and fill my cup with dirt. She started to get feverish.

Of course, I dropped the bottle of penicillin and it splattered all over my kitchen. I had to wait until morning.

The piglet did not survive the night. Horribly depressing. Tu-Tu was still ill. Still shuddering and digging and breathing heavily. I went to Murdoch’s and got more penicillin (which is a story in itself that involves losing both of my kids and dropping 3 buckets on my daughters face). Giving a pig a shot is hard. They have thick skin. I broke the first needle off in my attempt. She also didn’t exactly stand there and take it. She ran. I did manage to get her with persistence. We managed to get one other shot into her before she never let us near her again. Pigs are not stupid!

I was pretty sure she was going to die. She didn’t. She seems perfectly fine now. Joey, a week and a half after her farrowing began tearing down the fences. He wrecked several fences and 2 gates. Eventually I gave up trying to keep them apart. The damage was likely done anyway.

So I guess we will see if we have more piglets and if any of them survive. I’d rather eat her, as I believe she’s a bad genetic candidate for motherhood, but the hubs thinks we’ve invested a lot in her and might as well give her another attempt.

Kitchen Cupboards as Chick Brooders

As with most small holdings, chicks seem to be a never ending job. In the fall we killed every single bird we had, chicken, duck and turkey. The turkeys were fated for the table anyway. The ducks and chickens got themselves into that situation on their own. You see, the chickens were eating their eggs. We couldn’t figure out who was doing it so they all were culled. The ducks were laying their eggs in the pond and only the pond. I’d see them float to the top after they’d rotted. Not what I was keeping ducks for so they were also culled. At the moment we have pigs and peacocks and that’s it. Well that was it until yesterday.

I decided we needed to be more practical. No more random chick purchases and no more allowing the hens to hatch eggs (we had one hen that could hatch out 2 nests a year). We really only need 6 chickens for our personal egg consumption. I did not want to waste money getting a rooster either. So off to the feed store to pick up 6 red sex linked chicks.

I’d been checking the feed store for them so you would think I’d have prepped the brooder beforehand. I did not. Everything was a bit dusty and needed a rinse but it took only a few minutes to prep the old kitchen island for it’s newest chicks.

The chicks seem happy!

The island is large enough that even though the heat lamp is pretty close to them they can get away from it when they are hot.

View of the outside of the island here. I removed the drawers on the top and one of the doors for ventilation. I just used molding I already had to keep everything in place. Unfortunately the kids are always pulling the top screening down so they can peak in.

The following pics are of the nonworking brooder in the barn (nonworking as the power is out).

I just modified an over the fridge cabinet by extending half of it (again with things I already had hanging around). The extension is where I put the food and water. The bottom is hardwire cloth so everything just falls through to the barn floor.

I mounted the cabinet but had to use a bit of a prop for the extension I made.

So, if you don’t have any stock tanks or other containers around, old kitchen cupboards can find new life as chick brooders.

Rascally Raccoons

Early spring we began losing chickens. Some of them were gone without a trace. Others were found partially eaten. We knew we had a problem, we just weren’t sure what form that problem was taking.

As we have a well fenced run area I felt confident crossing coyotes off the list. They have never made it over the fence before, it is unlikely they learned how now.

That leaves a few possibilities. Ok, tons of possibilities. raccoons, badgers, skunks and weasels to name a few. Raptors were not on our list. We have witnessed great horned owl carnage before and this was nothing like that. There were no holes dug anywhere under the fence so that pretty much crossed badger off the list. I did not think it was a weasel. We had seen a stoat about the property before but it was really small and seemed to be happy killing the ground squirrels we have plenty of. I didn’t think fox because what I understood about foxes is that they’d kill everything just for the pleasure of it. This led me down a raccoon path that was pretty much solidified by a neighbor confirming they had a raccoon family nearby.

So we started baiting a life trap, closing the gate on the barn itself and we bought and placed a trail cam to catch the culprit. The first night we caught a cat. I had wondered if it might have been a cat but I wasn’t confident this cat was our killer. So, after debating it we let the cat go and put the trap out again. The next night we caught…..something. It ripped the door off the trap so we had no real idea what it might have been.

Then we bought the pigs. We were worried, they were small when we purchased them. Still, pigs are ferocious when needed. The killing stopped for a time. I was hoping it had moved on, or the presence of the pigs in the barn was enough to discourage it. It wasn’t to last. Soon we lost a turkey. Our security doubled down. We were trying all different kinds of bait in the trap but never caught anything else. The trail cam never captured any useful photos either.

We went on vacation and I worried we’d come back to nothing. Thankfully everyone was still alive when we returned. We did have some ducks build nests outside of the run though. I had some hog panels I zip tied in a circle around the hens. Everything was going ok. The hens were set to hatch their eggs any day. Then I went out to find a wing and no other trace of the hen. The eggs were also gone. I was devastated but had hopes for the other hen. She was well hidden, it took me weeks to find her myself.

Around this time the peahens also went to brood. I saw them each day as they flew over to eat. Then, one morning, no peahens. My heart dropped and I went in search of them. I found feathers, so many feathers, and eaten eggs. No peahen. She obviously gave her attackers a struggle. We were hoping she was injured and in hiding. We searched everywhere. We’ve never found her. The other duck was also killed the same night. Her body was strewn about in several locations, her eggs eaten. At this point I called game and fish. I didn’t think a raccoon could take a peahen. I’ve seen those girls attack our dogs and win.

Game and fish came out and confirmed it was a coon. They’ve told us to stake it out and shoot it. The chance of trapping it is so slim shooting is our only option. So we have the game cam out, baited, trying to figure out which days and times the coons come around. So far we haven’t caught any pictures of them. We did get an entertaining coyote chase though. You can see the rabbit racing away in one shot and the coyote chasing it in the other.

We are nearly out of chickens at this point. We have a single turkey left. We also only have one peacock left. The male peacock went missing during the night a week ago. The ducks seem ok. Other than the ones who were nesting no ducks have been harmed. I’m guessing it’s their alert state at night that has kept them safe thus far.

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Farm Scenes

Sometimes there are no words. Pictures are all that I have. There is so much I have not accomplished. So many things yet to be done. In these times of chaos it waters my soul to settle for a minute and photograph what has been done. The beauty that surrounds me but that I don’t notice in my busyness.

Cherry Blossoms

Plum Blossoms

Medlar Blossoms

Radishes

Sparta confused about what I’m doing.

Chicken Adventures

Ducks, Ducks, Ducks! The reason we never have clean water anywhere.

Turkey poults tasting some grass for the first time.

Piggie pics

Jiki found some fresh coyote poop near the barn to roll in. Yay…

Sparta running to catch up to us. Me thinks he’s gotten fat.

Pretty as a peacock.

Sparta peeking around the corner at the bacon bits.

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American Guinea Hogs for the farm

I am excited to announce we have a breeding pair of American Guinea Hogs chomping away on grass as we speak.

Joey is a 7 month old boar. He was calmly walking around the pasture when we first saw him. Meanwhile his brothers were madly humping each other. We picked the calm one. He doesn’t mind pets. Doesn’t seem to mind much of anything. He’s a chill little dude.

Tu-Tu (Can you tell the kids named them) is 11 weeks old. She isn’t too fond of being touched but she’ll tolerate it for brief moments if it means food. Her mom was a calm sow.

I’m hoping for calm pigs with calm kids. It’s rather imperative since our kids help out with chores and do love their piggie pets.

Sparta, our lovely Akbash, is desperate to make friends with the piggies. He stands off to the side whining and wagging his tail and trying to get close enough to sniff.

I have modified the barn and runs so that the pigs are separated, sort of, from the birds. The birds have no problem fitting through the hog panels and the gate slats. The pigs aren’t able to squeeze through quite as successfully. This means I haven’t had to stop allowing the birds to free range.

Size reference for ya. Tiny pigs still!

While the birds have no problem going after the pigs food they aren’t a big fan of quick moving, loud grunting pigs. Enjoy this sequence photo of the birds happily grouped and then scattered to the winds when the pig came back. lol

Goings on

Life has been moving quickly around here. I’ve began digging mini-kraters for fall seed planting. It has not been going well as the ground is hard as a rock. I’ve began making the new kitchen island butcher block. It’s going poorly to say the least. Hopefully it turns out well!

The animals are all doing well. The babies are growing. Unfortunately at least half of the baby chickens are roosters and will be culled this fall. The ducklings and peachicks genders are still indiscernible.

Mama pea has been buys teaching her children how to break into the food and how best to tear up my garden for dust baths.

We got a new puppy. He is a great pyr/Anotilian shepherd. He is adorable and prefers to be outside. Can barely keep him in the house. He is learning to like the poultry, though he was initially terrified.

We named him Ramsey after our two favorite people, Dave and Gordon.

If he’s like his mom he’ll be a hyper guard. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not yet.

Prince is losing his tail now that mating season is over. I’ve been collecting it from all over.

We rescued all the tadpoles we could from shrinking water puddles. They are non-existent puddles now but the tadpoles are doing well in their swimming pool.

Our oldest is starting school in a week and we have been busy preparing. Life, it is busy!