This morning was just that! I went out and turned the chickens and ducks loose in the old barn and duck house, then checked the brooding house for the duck that hatched last evening. He was well and ready to move into the heat box with the other two guys already there and there was another still wet, indicating he had just left the egg shell. I was really happy as I headed for the big barn and let those chickens out. The sheep we doing fine and the alpacas seemed to be in favor of keeping them now, so that was a plus too. I entered the bunny brothel and checked the bunnies and five Pekin ducks we housed there in a child's playpen. They were doing dandy, so I fed all the animals and was about to leave when I remembered BG and turned to check her nest box. It was full of pulled fur and dead baby bunnies! Eight of them!!! All were still birthed. A result of BG's extremely high body temperature from Wednesday, I'm sure! We stopped the miscarriage when we lowered her body temperature ion the basement, but the damage had been done and I'm sure the babies died sometime between Thursday and Friday... being expelled by miscarriage last night sometime. How sad it was to loose Andrea and ten baby Bunnies. The value of all of them was probably around $1925.00, figuring Andrea was worth $175.00, thus making each of the ten bunnies the same. The money wasn't even important, because we would have given that much, just to have the babies and Andrea alive and well. No farmer wants to lose any of their animals to death, especially if you can help it. We were lax in thinking that the fans would keep the heat in check, but we were wrong. When conditions deteriorate that quickly, you better be on top of your game or you lose. We lost......Dearly. Andrea was probably the most perfect of the four German Angoras we had...and almost losing BG, our prettiest of the bunch...our only female Giant Walsh Angora, then actually losing her ten babies which were purebred Giant Walsh bunnies, fathered by Jack-in-the-box, our only male Giant Walsh Angora is really a devastating loss to the Cluckin' "A" Bunny Brothel. We will wait until later in the fall when it starts to get cooler before breeding BG and Jack again... if BG is ok and able to breed by then.
After disposing of the bunnies, we were visited by a new local business owner that wants to serve our eggs exclusively in their breakfasts as soon as they open in the neighborhood. After that, we finished the wire installation over the stall boards to eliminate the possibility of the lambs escaping between the fence rails. We then took a few minutes and ran to the Tru-Cut sawmill to pick up our 2x4's which were ready cut for the turkey house we are building. It has to be completed to accept the turkeys we will raise under free range conditions for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays later this fall.
Tomorrow is shearing day for the alpacas. That will be an all day event. I'll post pictures of that all day venture tomorrow evening if I can, so keep checking.
019002© Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC
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