Tag: farm animals

Betty, Luna, and New Friends

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Betty and Luna are not the new friends. Luna is on Day 7 in the house, and Betty is very curious. Luna is very cautious.

I think it was the third day Luna was in the house that Betty grew brave enough to investigate the duck. Betty did not like the quacking and seemed to just stay away from Luna at first. I thought this was fortunate because I was worried about Betty deciding to pounce. But, on that third day, I guess curiosity got the best of her–plus, Luna was quiet.

I was working on my laptop at the kitchen table, very near Luna, and she let out the loudest quack I have ever heard. It echoed! I jumped and saw Betty scrambling, terrified. She flew through the kitty door and down into our basement.

About 15 minutes later, I heard the kitty door open, and in slow motion, Betty made her way through the door. With her paws stretched, she walked back by the duck–ever so slowly. It was like she was afraid to take a step near the monster. I laughed at poor Betty’s fear. I asked her if she was okay, and she glared at me, just glared. How dare I bring this monster into our house? It was the cutest thing, but poor Betty didn’t think any of it was cute.

Betty is getting curiouser and curiouser.

After another day or two, Betty got brave again though, and this time, Luna didn’t scream at her. This has led to some bravery on Betty’s part, which has led to some stress on my part.

Thankfully, Luna has made a friend. It’s our teenage son, and I am surprised. At first, he complained when we lost the guest bathroom to another duck. That kid is going to have some stories when he grows up.

I noticed he kept asking questions about her though, and by the end of the first day, he was asking about petting her. I told him he could see what she did. If she seemed too nervous, maybe not. I explained the nature of Indian Runner ducks. I thought she might be nervous about someone who is essentially a stranger, but then I remembered he was very involved in the raising of our ducks when they were babies. They loved him, and he spent a lot of time with them.

Maybe she remembers him or maybe it’s just that these two connect, but I am shocked by how much this duck loves our son in just a week. The first time he leaned into pet her, she raised her bill up and touched him, and they have been fast friends ever since.

I noticed Luna, who is getting frustrated with her hurt leg, was starting to complain more during the day. This, coupled with Betty’s fascination with her, made me wonder if I was going to have to think of another solution for Luna during the day, but the best solution arose. Luna loves our son so much that she is content just hanging out in his room and being near him.

She’s safe from Betty’s curiosity and seems to be in heaven hearing our son’s voice. Interestingly, when he’s been outside and comes in the house while she is having a tub soak, she hears his voice and starts quacking. This is all fascinating stuff. As an animal person, I hoped both my children would be animal people. It’s great when they are. Animals make us better humans. Luna can teach him things I can’t.

I hope they stay good friends.

Luna’s Day 2 or Rehabilitating a Duck with an Injured Leg

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Luna had a tough day today after a good start to a really tough process yesterday. Her leg is more swollen, and she is not eating. This happened with Ana Sophia though. For several days, she wouldn’t eat very much, if at all. I was very worried about losing her when I finally convinced her back to food with bites of Ron’s homemade whole grain bread. After we got some of that in her, she perked up and did so well. Even though she would have months to go in the house, once we got her to really eat for us, I knew she would be okay.

Because of my experience with Ana Sophia, who broke or severely sprained her leg in 2019 and is going strong still with the flock, I thought I would do my best to chronicle Luna’s rehabilitation process (I mean, hopefully, I can heal her) in the hopes that it might help someone else in a similar situation.

I feel I should first explain why we have not taken Luna to the vet, just in case some are wondering. I have taken a duck to the vet one time and a chicken to the vet one time. The only thing I got that was helpful to me was a prescription for antibiotics, and honestly, I now know that those weren’t the best decision in the situation. I hope this does not sound arrogant, but I knew more than the vet in both situations. I was, honestly, devastated to learn this. I needed someone to know everything I didn’t about the animals I love.

In one case, there was nothing that could be done, as I had thought, and I had to pay the $100 office visit bill. In another case, the vet wanted to do an x-ray on something that I was like 99 percent sure was bumble foot, but it was my very first time to experience it. The x-ray was going to cost $450 on top of the visit and the meds. I paid for the visit and the meds and passed on the x-ray. The vet bill was nearly $300. We had to make the decision that we could not really afford vet bills for all of our farm birds but that we would do our best to learn how to treat everything we could and always consider quality of life for the animal.

I have spent the last ten years reading everything from Facebook posts to scientific journal articles. I took an online class from the University of Edinburgh. I studied our animals as much as I could. There is still so very much I don’t know, but I did help a duck recover from a broken or severely sprained leg in 2019 and have since learned that duck leg injuries are not uncommon in backyard ducks, so I am going to chronicle what I do with Luna and record what works and doesn’t work and hope that most everything works well and that Luna will have many good years in front of her.

I won’t blog about Luna every day, as I will have other stories to tell, but I will chronicle Luna’s journey until she, hopefully, recovers.

On Day 1, she was run over accidentally by our young Per who was playing near the ducks. Ron was there at the time of the incident, so she was put into a soak tub within minutes while we assessed the damage. It is easier to assess leg damage when they are floating and their little legs can dangle. We decided it is severely sprained or slightly broken. Within an hour or so of the incident, we swelling was super noticeable. She did very well in the house the first day, to my surprise. She ate well.

On Day 2, she has been in more pain, so I researched pain management. I read a lot of conflicting information, but without a prescription, most people recommended aspirin. Of course, the internet is like the Wild West, so I kept looking until I found a site I trusted. I looked for something from a university cooperative extension because, truly, they are the best, and I found helpful information from Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension, so Luna now has a dose aspirin, as per the instructions on the site, in her drinking water. I did not use aspirin with Ana Sophia, so I am nervous about this; however, Luna’s leg is worse than Ana Maria’s was. It seemed necessary to do something for Luna’s pain.

As I mentioned before, she has not eaten well at all, so I am hoping a little pain management will help. We have brought her inside to live in the house until she is healed. She stays in our bathroom when we are away from home to keep her safe from our dogs and cats. When we are home, she is either floating in the tub or in her bin where she is in a nest of straw the ready access to food and water. Right now, we are just keeping her off of her leg while also making sure she gets enough tub time to keep her nostrils good and wet throughout the day.

Listening to cello music calms her down a lot, though she was hand raised and knows us pretty well. Still, she is an Indian Runner Duck and, therefore, very high strung in general. This is not an easy experience for her, so we are doing everything we can to keep her comfortable while still living our lives. She likes to be around us and not be alone. Ducks are social animals, so, even though we are not her ideal people, we are still people. She is definitely happier when she is with us.

Those are the key things I can think of right now. Hopefully, they will be helpful to someone, somewhere, at some time. And, hopefully, little Luna will get better. uc

The House Guest

~ Crystal Sands ~ 5 Comments

This is Luna. She is going to be staying with us a bit. Bairre was playing with Boudica this morning and accidentally ran over her. It’s devastating because Luna’s leg is hurt pretty badly, and I was very, very upset this morning–upset at Bairre (only in my mind, as I would never blame him because he’s a puppy, and this was our responsibility), Ron, and the universe. In the end, I could only stay a little bit mad at Ron and that wasn’t for long. I mean, this stuff just happens sometimes.

Ron was outside with the dogs and ducks when Bairre ran over the duck, and he had turned his back on Bairre. That was the mistake it seems. He said he should have kept Bairre and Boudica away from the ducks better. It’s risky when they play near the ducks, and we try to stay on top of it when they play. Ron just turned away for a bit, and he said it was then he heard the commotion. He turned around in time to see Bairre running by and little Luna lying on the ground unable to get up.

I was in the house when Ron came to the door and told me to get ready to nurse a duck. His face looked so pale. I could tell he was devastated. I am just so thankful it wasn’t her wing. Still, her leg injury is pretty bad.

I don’t think she has internal injuries because she seems to be doing okay and in good spirits otherwise; plus, she ate peas, homemade bread, and her food today. This morning, I was devastated that she was going to be devastated to be stuck in the house without her people for months, but the first day went swimmingly.

She had tub time for many hours to soak her leg, and then, while I baked cookies and then cooked dinner, I put her in a clear bin with straw and set her on the table in the dining room, so she could see me while I cooked. We talked. Okay, I talked, and she listened. And we both listened to the Bach cello suites. She was very curious about everything I did and just watched me the whole time. She literally never took her eyes off of me and just seemed to enjoy taking everything in. Plus, it’s warm in the house. Plus, there’s the Bach.

Over the years of having ducks and periodically having to have a duck in the house for treatment of injury of some kind, we have learned that ducks really love cello. In fact, it was in 2019 that little Ana Sophia broke her leg and had to be in the house with us for a couple of months. In was during that time that we saw Ana Sophia fall in love with the cello.

It would calm her when we played cello music, and when my son played his cello, as soon as she could walk, she would come from whatever she was doing in the house and sit right under his feet and listen to him play for his whole practice, which was like an hour. She just loved it. It was wild to witness. At that time, I didn’t know everything I know now, and I was amazed by all of it. Now, I know to play Bach.

Tonight, at dinner, I said to Ron, “Luna had better be okay. I’m in love with her.”

“You love all of them, right?” he said.

“I love her more now. I need her to be okay.”

Please send good vibes for Luna. I don’t believe she has internal injuries, but I will feel better in the morning.

A Fortnight of Music

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Tonight, my son played in an orchestra concert. They played Beethoven’s 6th, and it was beautiful. Out of the last 14 days, this was night number 12 for being away from home for our son’s music activities. This has not been easy for me. I don’t like being away from the farm animals too much. We cannot leave Bairre and Boudica outside to guard while we are away from home, so the birds are all defenseless. I try not to worry, but I do.

I am so happy to report that, tonight, I am not only celebrating beautiful music in my life, but I am also celebrating the fact that everyone made it. The chickens are all tucked in, and the ducks have had their peas and been put to bed. By the way, Fernando is eating a few little bits of peas. He’s still shy, but he’s making progress.

I feel a kind of relief in my body that I almost can’t explain. I was so happy tonight when I said hello to the baby chickens and collected the eggs (we got 2, which is not bad for this time of year). I pet Rooster, who is actually doing pretty well. He doesn’t like to be pet, but every now and then, I just sneak in some pets.

I am also relieved for my son. He has worked very hard as a cellist the last two weeks. He works pretty hard at it most of the time, but he got his first job and had work on top of his normal work. He played in an orchestra pit for a musical, and the last show was last night. He has had many nights of long rehearsals, but it turned out to be a great experience for him–plus the musical was fantastic. I watched it three times and loved it every time. Then, tonight, the youth orchestra he is in played Beethoven. It’s a challenging piece for students, but most of the kiddos in this orchestra are pretty strong musicians. I am in awe of them. I am still taking cello lessons and have an even greater admiration for string players than I had before–and I already had a great admiration.

I am exhausted in a way I haven’t been in a long time. I told Ron I think even my cells feel tired. But I am grateful for the music and for these opportunities for our son. I am extra grateful that it all went well for him and that all of our ducks and chickens are okay.

Oh, and we definitely have an opossum living in the chicken yard! Opossums generally do not harm chickens, but they have done it. I’ll have to write about this tomorrow. It’s both a worry and quite fascinating at the same time.

photo credit: Lucas Alexander, Unsplash

Six Little Hens and the Perks of Barnyard Mixes

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I would not think it possible, but I am writing tonight with the best news! I became pretty sure after spending some time in close study last week, but I am sure now. Petty has raised six little hens. Every single one of the babies is a girl, it seems! I am going to have to write that again. Every single one is a girl! Can you believe it? It’s like a chicken miracle!

The last one that I thought, perhaps, was the only boy turned out to be a girl too. Her comb developed a little early, so it was bigger than the others for a while. She is also a big girl, so that made me think maybe boy. I mean, you can’t get six girls when you have six baby chicks, so I thought this was definitely my one boy. Still, I did wonder because I never saw boy behavior. I saw very little chest bumping and very little aggressiveness.

The best part (and I can’t believe there is anything better than getting six little hens) is that this little girl is from Pumpkin. I don’t know if you remember Pumpkin, but she is the one who disappeared one summer for several weeks and showed up squawking outside of our bedroom window in the middle of the night.

I love Pumpkin. She’s chill and sweet and curious, and when I was choosing eggs for Petty to hatch this year, I thought I might try a Pumpkin egg. She is getting close to five years old, and we do not have any babies from her. I thought it would be so great to get one.

When this baby was born, I couldn’t tell she was a Pumpkin baby because she looked all Welsummer. If you look at the picture above, there are two little Welsummer babies with the stripes on their backs. She is the lighter one. She looked just like Rooster, but now that she’s older, I can see she is from our Wyandotte line. Pumpkin is from the line.

Our Wyandottes were beautiful and were the first ones I ever bought after our original Rhode Island Reds, but they all passed away over time. Well, one poor girl was a victim in one of our two hawk attacks we have had over the years. Gosh, that was rough.

I found a picture of two of our Wyandottes when they were little, so you could see them. Ours were Red-Laced Blue Wyandottes, and they were so beautiful. I miss them so much looking at this picture. They were Hecate, Hecate’s Sister, and Little Miss. Little Miss was a mama hen one time, and she was a pretty terrible mama. She had just one baby, and she was a very, very bossy mama. That poor baby! We still have that baby, S’more, but she lays very low out there in the flock.

As you might imagine, I am over the moon to see the history of our flock right here in this beautiful new member. She is so beautiful and very unique. She is orange from the Welsummer in her (Pumpkin is very orange and only looks like a Wyandotte in her comb and body shape), but you can so clearly see the Wyandotte in this new baby’s feather design. I can’t even believe this good genetic luck. We have four birds from our Wyandotte line–Pumpkin, S’more, Phoenix, and Circe–and none of them have the beautiful lace design of the Wyandottes. But here this one is in all of her glory. She is like a breed of her own–an Orange-Laced Gray Wyandotte.

Thankfully, because she was raised by Petty, she already likes me a lot. I’m determined to make her love me. I named her Annie. Isn’t she magnificent? I love barnyard mixes.

Petty, Super Mama

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

Petty’s babies are getting so big that they are nearly as big as she is, but she is still fiercely being a mama. It’s fantastic to see, but we have this tiny flock of nearly grown chickens running around the driveway and garage. This means we have chicken poop everywhere. Last week, Ron said, “Aren’t Petty’s babies like 8 or 9 weeks old now, old enough to go with the flock.”

I couldn’t remember how old the babies are, but I could see they are big enough to go in with the flock. Petty will just have to stay with them within the flock, but this is a hard thing to do. Petty loves her life living in the front yard and loves being a mama with her little gang. I was said but had to admit it was probably time. Most of our hens will be finished with babies at about 6 weeks. I just counted the weeks and realized Petty’s babies are 10 weeks old!

Still, I’m so worried about the change for her.

This is Petty and her gang from a few days ago. Don’t they truly look like a gang?

Today, I did the deep clean on the coop. It was epic and exhausting, but I made it all super clean to make space in there for Petty’s crate. Tonight, we put the crate in there, and Petty will be able to stay with her babies in the crate at night, but during the day, they will have to be a little gang within the flock.

I think the babies are going to be fine. Our flock is kind, and the babies have been wanting to get into the coop for weeks. In fact, today when I was cleaning, Petty’s babies made a run on the coop and played and played in there. However, I am very worried about Petty. She gets into fights when other hens even get near her babies. She is the fiercest, kindest, most wonderful mama hen I have ever seen. It has been a joy of my life getting to know Petty these last 10 weeks. I can see for sure that she is absolutely at the top in terms of chicken intelligence I have seen.

Oh, and speaking of intelligent chicken, Mary Jane is still doing well. In fact, she’s a little better than she had been. She likes the cooler weather. Today, when I opened the coop back up after the deep clean, she came in and just played and played and even jumped into a high nest box. I was impressed she was getting around so well. That chicken is amazing, and her daughter is really amazing too!

There are times in my life I feel like such a failure. Recently, I have really been struggling with this. I try to remember that I am a work in progress, but sometimes, I feel down that I didn’t do more with my life. I don’t know what that more is. It’s just this feeling. But, as I write these words and think about how lucky I am that I am a human who gets to know Mary Jane and her amazing daughter, Petty, I feel really lucky. What more could I want? I mean, really.

Saying Goodbye to Vanilla

~ Crystal Sands ~ 5 Comments

This morning, when I went outside to let out the chickens, I wondered why things were so quiet in the coop. When I opened up the little coop door to let everyone out into the chicken yard, right at the door was a dead chicken. It was sweet Vanilla. I wrote about her a couple of weeks ago. I gave her a spa day then but realized she was near the end.

I had this small hope though that she would be like Mary Jane and would surprise me and somehow keep going despite having some health issues due to old age and meat bird genetics. But Vanilla seemed really, really tired yesterday, and her comb was dark. I gave her a pet, but she acted weird about it. I decided to leave her alone. I wish I would have said goodbye better.

I am going to try to tell myself, however, that she must have known I loved her. She had a lot of spa days and lots of treats, and I always made sure she got some of the good treats when I would feed scraps to the chickens, even when she was really slowing down. Surely, she knew. I hope so. I think she had a good life, and it was quite long for a pardoned meat chicken. She was five years old.

Interestingly, after I moved her little body, the rest of the flock wouldn’t go near the door where she had been and refused to leave the coop. They were sad too, or at least really out of sorts about it. I used treats and finally got them out.

It’s hunting season, so we couldn’t take Vanilla to the woods to feed a fox or somebody. Ron and my son dug a grave for her. I am really going to miss that sweet girl.

Yoshi’s First Egg

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I won’t write much tonight, but I had to share a picture of Yoshi’s first egg. Yoshi is our pardoned meat chicken. She’s doing very well. The flock seems to like her pretty well, which is great for a newcomer. Her egg is the smaller, light-colored one. I put it next to one of my favorite eggs for comparison.

Poe Jr. Jr. and Her New Feathers

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

One of my favorite movies ever is a film called Everything Is Illuminated. In the movie, there is an older man who has a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. I loved this dog and loved this name, so when we were hatching eggs from Poe’s son in 2021, I decided, if we got a black hen, I would have to name Poe’s granddaugther Poe Jr. Jr.

We got one, and she was beautiful.

She was also very shy, very standoff-ish, but I figured I could win her over in time. I always do, but Poe Jr. Jr. was in for a tougher time that I thought she would be. Because Poe Jr. Jr. was a loner like her famous grandmother, she became a target for a young rooster born the same year. He got on her too much. Eventually, I decided it was just too, too much, and he had to go; however, when a rooster gets on a hen too much, he damages some of her feathers. I make little jackets when this happens, but it helps only in certain areas. Still, Poe Jr. Jr. wasn’t in too bad of shape at all, and I knew she would molt in the fall and get all new feathers.

For some reason, she didn’t molt.

I have never seen such a thing. Every year after their first year of life, chickens molt to get rid of their old feathers and grow new, beautiful feathers for the coming year. They usually molt in the fall, so they are ready to go for winter with a nice, thick batch of beautiful feathers. The molt can be hard on them. Well, it almost always is. It takes a lot of work to grow new feathers, and the pin feathers can be painful to touch. When we have a chicken having a “hard molt” where they have lost a lot and are growing many new feathers, they will just hide from the rest of the flock for days or longer. Still, the molt is necessary and wonderful in helping a chicken live a happy, healthy life. New feathers once a year are critical.

When Poe Jr. Jr. didn’t molt last fall, I was worried. She had some bald spots for sure, and it seemed so strange that she never molted. I thought maybe she was off schedule, but fall came and went. Winter came and went. Spring came and went. Still, no molt.

By this summer, she just looked downright scraggly. I was so worried about her and not sure what to do. Chickens will just naturally lose feathers to normal wear and tear throughout the year. After two years without a molt, I was worried she wasn’t going to have enough feathers to make it through this coming winter. A couple of times, I captured her in the evening to make sure she didn’t have mites or a skin condition. I could see nothing wrong, just a relatively bald chicken.

My plan was to look into having a sweater made for her for the winter. I cannot crochet well enough to make one for her, but I know people who can. And, if that didn’t work, I thought she was either going to have to move into the garage, or I was going to have to take her to a vet, even though I had zero hope that any vet would know anything at all.

Then, last month, I noticed that maybe her little underneath feathers were coming out. It looked like a molt, but I wasn’t sure because of her history. I kept a close eye every day, and finally, I saw them–the pin feathers! Poe Jr. Jr. was finally getting new feathers.

And, oh my goodness! When she finally got her new feathers, they were more gorgeous than I could have imagined. When chickens molt for the first time, you really see who they are in terms of their feathers. They will change some, and though I have found that they will change a little with each molt every single year, there is nothing as big as the change after the very first molt.

Poe Jr. Jr., who was all black before with a little bit of green sheen, is now still mostly black, but there are little random brown feathers in the mix. Her green sheen is also just extra. It’s almost blue. She looks like a model chicken, and I am so happy for her.

On top of this, she is no longer hiding from everyone. She is still a bit of a loner, but I see her with her people a lot more. Plus, she doesn’t run from me anymore. The other day, Poe Jr. Jr. took a treat from my hand for the first time in her life! I had tears.

And, I swear, when I went to take a picture of her for this blog post, she let me do a full photo shoot of her. She definitely knows she looks better. She must feel so much better. I love this little chicken, and I am hopeful that now I can really get to know Poe Jr. Jr.

The Last Duck Eggs

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

In the last week, we have gone from getting 10 chicken eggs per day to 7 eggs per day. They have done pretty well this fall in terms of giving us some eggs, and I am thankful. It won’t be long before they are all resting for the most part. It’s always the worst between Thanksgiving and the Winter Solstice. Thankfully, they will be laying again within weeks of the Solstice. That light is like magic for the hens.

The ducks, however, are all getting older, and though we would normally get between 1 and 3 eggs per day from them in October, this year, we are lucky to get a single egg. They are all over five years old now, so this is to be expected. Still, I’m always sad when the ducks take a break for the winter because they take a long break. That’s probably what helps them live to be like 15 years old though, so I am thankful the ducks get to rest.

The night before last, Ron made his famous-to-us challah bread and potato soup with potatoes and onions from the garden. It’s one of my favorite meals of all time. This was our first soup and bread of the season, and it felt extra special. When Ron was making the challah bread, he held up a duck egg before he cracked it and said “the first challah and the last duck eggs of the season.”

I knew exactly what he meant.