Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Strange things are happening on the farm.

My chickens are really a weird bunch. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe they are lacking something in their diet. Maybe they are sick. Yes, I think that's it. They have been eating their eggs for a while. Cannibals! I have no idea which ones actually break the eggs but I think they will all eat the stuff if given the chance. There have been a few times that I have gone out to collect eggs and I have found one of these...


Most of the time the shells are shattered but I find it extra irritating when they just clean out the insides.


But that isn't the strangest happenings (mostly because it has been going on for so long). A couple weeks ago I found a dead chicken in the chicken yard. When I got closer I realized it was missing it's neck and head. Gone. No where to be seen. I had to shew away a couple other chickens that were actually pecking at her remains. (These chickens are sick.) Then a week later I found another dead chicken but she wasn't missing any parts. The very same moment I found the second dead chicken I noticed another chicken eating something. It was not regular food so I looked closer. I realized what ever it was eating, it was stuck. I went into the chicken yard and found the chicken. As I got a better look I realized she was trying to swallow a baby bird. I have no idea how she got the bird. There are no tree branches with nests over the yard. I was able to pull the bird out of the chickens mouth and save the silly chicken. What was she thinking? Would she eat her own baby? I don't know what's going on. Either way I figure it's time to get rid of these crazy chickens and start over. Unfortunately, we should have ordered the babies back in April because we're a little late on replacing our egg layers. Whenever we do order new ones I think we should figure out how to clip their beaks so they don't peck at each other and don't peck at the eggs. Maybe that will save us some of these issues in the future.

2 comments:

  1. Ok so I looked up some stuff to help you cause you're if your psycho chickens turn on you that would be bad. so the 1st website is good for explaining, second for giving advice on what to do, and the third for what chickens eat. I thought all 3 were super informative. I would start over, but apparently you might not need to! Good luck!

    http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farmanimals/a/eggeating.htm

    http://www.thepoultrysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=730

    http://www.frugal-living-freedom.com/what-do-chickens-eat.html

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