skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Off With Her Head!
21 January 2009
Only a week later and things have changed a lot on the block.
For the past week one of our hens has been sitting on eggs in her nesting box. We hadn’t expected this to happen at all and decided it would be okay if she had decided to have baby chickens. It would just mean no chicken eggs for up to 6 weeks.
However, on Sunday morning when I fed the other chickens she got off her nesting box and ran over to the food. The other chickens automatically jumped on her and started attacking her quite viciously. This shocked me completely and it was a couple of minutes before I could get the attacking chickens out of the coop. The chicken went back to her nesting box. All morning Marty and the other hen tried to get back into the coop. That led me to believe that the hen is not broody but sick.
Of course automatically I start thinking “Stuff this! I’ve had enough of chickens. I hate f***ing chickens”. Aaron rang from work and I told him what had happened. He got more upset than me and suggested I go out and chop all their heads off there and then.
We haven’t though. They’re now too old to eat so it would be a waste. I’d be happy if they all left home and went bush permanently but I know this isn’t going to happen.
What has in fact happened is that we have built a temporary shelter in the bar and rehoused the broody hen and her nesting box.
Despite the new environment the hen seems completely uninterested in food and drink. Aaron was sure she was sick and dying but she has very bright, alert eyes so I’m not so sure.
This morning I googled “broody hens” and sure enough, she’s definitely broody. Unfortunately she’s obsessive broody, which means she’ll sacrifice her health and life for her eggs. This is not a good situation. She now has to be coerced into eating and drinking and let’s just say our relationship’s not close. Tonight I am going to shove ricotta and cat food in front of her face. Let’s just see her refuse those!
It’s All Perfectly Ducky Now Darling
After nearly 2 weeks the ducks are now quite used to me and no longer run when I go to feed them. They will stand about 3 or 4 metres away and quack enthusiastically as I pour food into their container. Perhaps in another week or two they will stand next to me as I pour the food in. After that I hope that I will be able to get them to come to the top of the hill to get their dinner.
The Piglets Have Their Ups And Downs
The piglets are 3 weeks old and growing fast. Joy on the other hand is now a slim pig. Gone is the wobbly bottom and jowls. She’s actually looking quite trim. However, that’s as thin as we want her to get so now we are increasing her food intake.
Standing on your children can be hazardous to their health
Just a week ago we had another piglet accident. Joy saw Aaron come down the drive with food and started running to the trough. The piglets started running too and one got in the way and Joy stood on its head. Let me tell you, when a 200kg pig stands it hurts. When your only 3kg and it’s your head that gets stood on what results is severe concussion.
Aaron was convinced there was no hope for the little fella and that he would be dead within 24 hours. He was so upset he ate dinner and went to bed early. I stayed with the piglet for a couple of hours and I have to admit that the vomiting, loss of balance and inability to feed had me worried. However, only the day before I had Googled info on piglets and discovered a site that advised that piglets can recover quite miraculously from severe injuries.
And so I sat with the piglet inside the shed. Trying to rub his back and belly and trying to get him to drink milk from a saucer. All of which he refused.
Amazingly, during that time 3 of the other piglets took turns to look after him while the rest of the family played outside up the hill.
Eventually I decided to leave in the hope that he would sleep it off over night. But as I got up concussion piglet and his sister followed me to the gate. When they saw I was leaving they started to head off into the paddock in search of their mum. They were going the wrong way.
I raced ahead of them. “She’s not up there. She’s back up this way”. I turned and walked up and around the back of the shed. The piglets turned and trotted after me.
We found mum eating grass and the siblings involved in a boisterous piglet brawl. The 2 piglets walked through the middle of it and unfortunately concussion piglet got tackled. However, his sister guided him out and up the hill to mum. When they got to mum the little sister squeaked and squeaked until eventually Joy lay down. The 2 piggies latched on and within 30 seconds the other piglets had joined them. I pushed all the piglets to the back of mum so that the sick piggie wasn’t disturbed. He had a good feed and seemed remarkably more stable than he had when I first saw him.
24 hours later it was hard to tell he’d ever been hurt.
Filling Up at the Joy Station
Our piglets are growing at vastly different rates. One day last week we were watching the piglets.
I looked at one of the piglets as he lay down on the grass. “Oh my God. Who ate all the pies?!” Quite frankly he appeared to be a little bit on the obese side.
“We shall call him Georgie Pie” said Aaron
It had suddenly become very obvious that we have 2 large piglets, 2 medium-sized piglets and 2 little piglets.
Aaron wasn’t happy. The small piglets were too small and there was clearly something wrong.
“I don’t think there is” I said “They have far too much energy”.
“I think you need to watch them feeding”.
And so I did…
I can only be glad that spending time with the piglets is not a hardship as it meant several hours of observation.
But I found our answer.
Each time feeding time commenced I discovered that Fatty 1 and Fatty 2 docked in the middle of mum, latched on to one teat and sucked for all they were worth.
The middling sized pigs docked at the front and made use of 2 teats each.
The 2 smallest pigs docked on the back half of mum. They had between them the choice of 6 remaining teats. And therein lay the problem. Faced with so much choice it was as though the piglets had been sat down at an ‘all you can eat’ buffet. Their mouths and bodies were a whirr of activity as they tried desperately to suck from each teat in as quick succession as possible. The result being that in their haste to move on they often missed a teat. Their lack of decisiveness about which teat is best has clearly led to a lesser intake of milk than their siblings.
Not only do they have this to contend with but their constant moving and squirming can eventually annoy their fat siblings who in turn will start a mini piglet riot. The result is ears, trotters and teats flying all over the place, not to mention much squealing, and eventually Joy tires of grunting at them to calm down and she gets up and walks off leaving the piglets in a heap on the ground.
Faced with this sight I find myself unable to stop giggling. Aaron on the other hand finds it worrying. When it comes to food it’s every pig for himself and as the 2 fatties get fatter they may prevent the 2 smallest from eating.
I agree that on a bog-standard farm this may be an issue but I can’t see it turning into a major problem on our block. If the worst came to the worst, when they’re weaned we would have to place several feeding stations at different locations. It would be a hassle for us but it would mean well fed piglets.
After nearly 2 weeks the ducks are now quite used to me and no longer run when I go to feed them. They will stand about 3 or 4 metres away and quack enthusiastically as I pour food into their container. Perhaps in another week or two they will stand next to me as I pour the food in. After that I hope that I will be able to get them to come to the top of the hill to get their dinner.
The Piglets Have Their Ups And Downs
The piglets are 3 weeks old and growing fast. Joy on the other hand is now a slim pig. Gone is the wobbly bottom and jowls. She’s actually looking quite trim. However, that’s as thin as we want her to get so now we are increasing her food intake.
Standing on your children can be hazardous to their health
Just a week ago we had another piglet accident. Joy saw Aaron come down the drive with food and started running to the trough. The piglets started running too and one got in the way and Joy stood on its head. Let me tell you, when a 200kg pig stands it hurts. When your only 3kg and it’s your head that gets stood on what results is severe concussion.
Aaron was convinced there was no hope for the little fella and that he would be dead within 24 hours. He was so upset he ate dinner and went to bed early. I stayed with the piglet for a couple of hours and I have to admit that the vomiting, loss of balance and inability to feed had me worried. However, only the day before I had Googled info on piglets and discovered a site that advised that piglets can recover quite miraculously from severe injuries.
And so I sat with the piglet inside the shed. Trying to rub his back and belly and trying to get him to drink milk from a saucer. All of which he refused.
Amazingly, during that time 3 of the other piglets took turns to look after him while the rest of the family played outside up the hill.
Eventually I decided to leave in the hope that he would sleep it off over night. But as I got up concussion piglet and his sister followed me to the gate. When they saw I was leaving they started to head off into the paddock in search of their mum. They were going the wrong way.
I raced ahead of them. “She’s not up there. She’s back up this way”. I turned and walked up and around the back of the shed. The piglets turned and trotted after me.
We found mum eating grass and the siblings involved in a boisterous piglet brawl. The 2 piglets walked through the middle of it and unfortunately concussion piglet got tackled. However, his sister guided him out and up the hill to mum. When they got to mum the little sister squeaked and squeaked until eventually Joy lay down. The 2 piggies latched on and within 30 seconds the other piglets had joined them. I pushed all the piglets to the back of mum so that the sick piggie wasn’t disturbed. He had a good feed and seemed remarkably more stable than he had when I first saw him.
24 hours later it was hard to tell he’d ever been hurt.
Filling Up at the Joy Station
Our piglets are growing at vastly different rates. One day last week we were watching the piglets.
I looked at one of the piglets as he lay down on the grass. “Oh my God. Who ate all the pies?!” Quite frankly he appeared to be a little bit on the obese side.
“We shall call him Georgie Pie” said Aaron
It had suddenly become very obvious that we have 2 large piglets, 2 medium-sized piglets and 2 little piglets.
Aaron wasn’t happy. The small piglets were too small and there was clearly something wrong.
“I don’t think there is” I said “They have far too much energy”.
“I think you need to watch them feeding”.
And so I did…
I can only be glad that spending time with the piglets is not a hardship as it meant several hours of observation.
But I found our answer.
Each time feeding time commenced I discovered that Fatty 1 and Fatty 2 docked in the middle of mum, latched on to one teat and sucked for all they were worth.
The middling sized pigs docked at the front and made use of 2 teats each.
The 2 smallest pigs docked on the back half of mum. They had between them the choice of 6 remaining teats. And therein lay the problem. Faced with so much choice it was as though the piglets had been sat down at an ‘all you can eat’ buffet. Their mouths and bodies were a whirr of activity as they tried desperately to suck from each teat in as quick succession as possible. The result being that in their haste to move on they often missed a teat. Their lack of decisiveness about which teat is best has clearly led to a lesser intake of milk than their siblings.
Not only do they have this to contend with but their constant moving and squirming can eventually annoy their fat siblings who in turn will start a mini piglet riot. The result is ears, trotters and teats flying all over the place, not to mention much squealing, and eventually Joy tires of grunting at them to calm down and she gets up and walks off leaving the piglets in a heap on the ground.
Faced with this sight I find myself unable to stop giggling. Aaron on the other hand finds it worrying. When it comes to food it’s every pig for himself and as the 2 fatties get fatter they may prevent the 2 smallest from eating.
I agree that on a bog-standard farm this may be an issue but I can’t see it turning into a major problem on our block. If the worst came to the worst, when they’re weaned we would have to place several feeding stations at different locations. It would be a hassle for us but it would mean well fed piglets.
No comments:
Post a Comment