Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[punkin]

Oh Quail, it is so easy for me to sit here and say how beautiful it is in the pictures.

I'm sorry you're going through so much frustration and I'm glad your pigggies are well.

We have has such a WET season. Ponds have sprung up everywhere. The ground squishes when you walk. Any ditch is now a stream. It's been so grey and dismal lately.

I'm ready for spring and sunshine!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Folks, I was never interested in having Cuckoo Marans, so at Christmas time 2008 when keljonma offered me a pair of Cuckoo Marans, I fully intended to give them to my mother.

That is, until I saw them.

I fell in love with Elizabeth and Monroe and decided to keep them, with the promise of sending some chicks to my mom when I had hatched some.

Last Summer I added 2 more cuckoo marans pullets to my flock.

Last week I had put all of my Marans in their own pen. I have some pre-orders for eggs and chicks, so I was thinking separate and test fertility here before I'm ready to sell chicks/eggs.

Last night Monroe was in the wrong coop. We put him in the small coop with his three ladies, and told everyone goodnight.

This morning I couldn't get in the Marans pen right away. Took care of the pigs first.

Went back out a little while ago, started shovelling stuff outta the way....and had my 8 yo DS out helping. I managed to get the Maran gate open enough for DS to slip through. He started shovelling snow out of the way so we could get the gate open. I said, "Wait, look and see if there's a rooster in the coop."

His reply was, "No, mom, but there's 3 eggs in there."

Well, that's cool, 3 Marans hens, 3 eggs, awesome, the Marans are laying....but where's Monroe?!

E came out, and I'm in near panic screaming "Monroe is gone! Monroe is gone!" (don't laugh, ya'll know i love my chickens!)

I was pretty spastic, cuz well, we'd had a lot of losses with the chickens this winter, and I already lost Louisa out of the fab five, and I really don't think I could handle another loss. I mean, c'mon! how the heck am I supposed to make my poultry biz work if they keep disappearing or dropping over dead?!

So, I did what I always do, I immediately start praying for God to give us a chicken miracle, if it was His will - while in the back of my mind I am wondering if I can add a Golden Cuckoo cockerel to one of my chick orders and hope he's old enough to do the job before the season is over....

We start checking all the other pens. The goose pen is the only pen that had an open shelter he could get into, other than the cow barn. He was in neither.

There were no tracks, nothing, to show when he'd got out. E said he must have flown back out last night after I had put him in, and been out in The Big Snow all night.

I freaked out, worried he may have roosted on the top of the pig pen and been buried in the collapse. I "rooted" up all the snow clumps in the pig pen, with the piggies help.

No Monroe.

I'm trying really hard not to cry at this point. E walked through all the Marans pen, kicking at snow clumps, no Monroe.

It was at this point, E says, "If he's under snow somewhere, we won't find him until it all melts."

Yea, that's not what I wanted to hear! that would mean he's dead!!

I started praying harder....and still trying not to cry.

My other roosters started a crowing competition.

E says, "I hear a roo, sounds muffled, and towards the house."

What?! Maybe it's Monroe, right?!

So I'm trudging as fast as I can to the back yard infront of the coops...the roos have stopped crowing. I am walking around the old Chevy van we were thinking of turning into a coop. E is standing between the Old Chevy and our mini-van.

He says, "He's either under this big van, my mini-barn, or the trailer. I can't get down to look under this van....."

I stopped listening after that. I laid down in the 2 foot of snow in front of that van and looked under it.

No rooster. But wait! what's that?! Looks like...yes it is MONROE'S TAIL FEATHERS!!!

He was on the drivers side of the van, so I skidaddled to that side and yanked him out by his tail. He had roosted all night up on the torsion bar of the van!!!! OMG!!

AND HE'S ALIVE!!

So, NOW I'm crying! Honest to God! I'm just so happy, he's alive, he's ok....and I am SO MAD at him for being SO STUPID!

Ok, he's not that stupid, he did find a shelter of sorts!

Now, that's enough excitement for this winter....C'MON SPRING! DARNIT!!!

 

[kcsunshine]

- get a big mug of hot chocolate and breathe. Glad you found Monroe.

 

[Blackbird]

Aly... Do NOT come to Minnesota then!

 

[TanksHill]

OMG, We posted at the exact same time this morning so I did not see the piggy pics. Glad to hear they are ok.. And now the great rooster escape. Farm life is way to crazy for me. And that snow.

I am having second thought about leaving Ca.

gina

 

[TTs Chicks]

We have has such a WET season. Ponds have sprung up everywhere. The ground squishes when you walk. Any ditch is now a stream. It's been so grey and dismal lately.

I'm ready for spring and sunshine!

Me too!! Come on Spring !

 

[big brown horse]

Everyone ok after the big snow? Glad you found Monroe!

I have a question for ya about your piglets. They seem to be the same age as my pig. Do yours like "piglet food"? Mine hates it and refuses to eat it.

 

[TanksHill]

BBH, I have zero experience with pigs but.... do you think because your little guy was on the loose at such an early age he/she just nerved got used to it. Pig feed that is. Do you think maybe it prefers the bounty of nature or whatever it ate while wandering?

gina

 

[justusnak]

WOW QA, so glad you found Monroe...and alive! I tell ya, these darned animals will sure put ya through it wont they?? Never a dull moment. LOL I agree, COME ON SPRING!

 

[big brown horse]

BBH, I have zero experience with pigs but.... do you think because your little guy was on the loose at such an early age he/she just nerved got used to it. Pig feed that is. Do you think maybe it prefers the bounty of nature or whatever it ate while wandering?

gina

That is what I'm thinking. (He LOVES dog food and is driving my old dog insane! Today he gets another new fence...third one now. He is looking yummier and yummier by the moment! Thankfully he is making me NOT want a pet pig! I won't feel any guilt when it comes time to butcher him this summer.)

Q_A, I hope you are hanging in there with all that snow. I've been thinking about all of you over there in Ohio etc. Snow is pretty, but when you have outside animals it can be a royal pain in the arse!