What has you feeling overwhelmed?

[Banana01]

I am getting totally overwhelmed every day. I have too many chickens and animals that I have to care for and has become an all day chore. When I do get to leave the house to buy them food and medicine, I can only be gone half a day, because I have to give water to the ones that can't care for themselves.

I know I cannot sustain what I am doing. When I put their food out in the morning, other animals come and eat it too. My fence has holes I cannot fix. My hens don't have enough cool and dry places to lay eggs. I have too many chickens, but still have 20 more eggs coming due because I didn't take away the broody hens eggs. One of my main places where hens were supposed to lay and raise babies got over ridden by mites. I have to constanly treat my flock for worms. Every day I wonder what my life would be like if I cut down my flock size by half, I could manage better. I have to manually put a dozen chickens to roost at night because they can't climb. When it rains the roof leaks in my coop. There is always something that needs done because my flock is continually outgrowing my house and spaces. Despite having very little building materials and cool, dry spaces, we are here. But even though there is places for them to go during the day, some of the ones that need me most are starting to suffer because I just don't have the time anymore. I culled two sick chicks recently, and the feeling was huge relief because it was quick and painless. I am thinking of culling more the ones that I have to.

I would love to hear other peoples frustrations with what is causing frustration with your animals, and better share how you are dealing with it.

 

[cheepteach]

nothing I say will be kind. You are responsible for animals under your care and it is past time you downsize your flock to manageable size. Since they are sick or diseased that means culling them. You need to regain control over your life

 

[Isadora]

I am getting totally overwhelmed every day. I have too many chickens and animals that I have to care for and has become an all day chore. When I do get to leave the house to buy them food and medicine, I can only be gone half a day, because I have to give water to the ones that can't care for themselves.

I know I cannot sustain what I am doing. When I put their food out in the morning, other animals come and eat it too. My fence has holes I cannot fix. My hens don't have enough cool and dry places to lay eggs. I have too many chickens, but still have 20 more eggs coming due because I didn't take away the broody hens eggs. One of my main places where hens were supposed to lay and raise babies got over ridden by mites. I have to constanly treat my flock for worms. Every day I wonder what my life would be like if I cut down my flock size by half, I could manage better. I have to manually put a dozen chickens to roost at night because they can't climb. When it rains the roof leaks in my coop. There is always something that needs done because my flock is continually outgrowing my house and spaces. Despite having very little building materials and cool, dry spaces, we are here. But even though there is places for them to go during the day, some of the ones that need me most are starting to suffer because I just don't have the time anymore. I culled two sick chicks recently, and the feeling was huge relief because it was quick and painless. I am thinking of culling more the ones that I have to.

I would love to hear other peoples frustrations with what is causing frustration with your animals, and better share how you are dealing with it.

Whoa! That is quite a lot to deal with. I'm glad you recognize it's a problem. My question is how are you going to fix it? You mentioned you were thinking of culling some, and I heartily encourage you to do so. You want the chickens in your care to have the best care they can have, and right now it sounds like you just have too much to handle, along with the issues you're experiencing. Chicken keeping can be great fun, but when it changes to the house and takes away our joy, something has got to change!
Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed with preserving our harvest. Our peach tree produced a ton of peaches and I've been working on canning them the last couple days. I just learned how to can at two days ago, so it's all new to me. I'm trying to get all the peaches finished before I have all my big tomatoes ripen, but I think I'll be a little behind the eight ball there.
With my animals, I wouldn't say anything in particular is overwhelming me, but I do have a few things I'm trying to figure out. I hatched some ducklings recently, runners and pekins. I sold the runners and the lady is picking them up next week, so I have one pekin left. We raise pekins for meat. I don't want to raise this lone duckling by itself, so I have to try to find a buddy for it. I don't have a lot of luck finding ducklings locally, so it's bugging me that I have to do this.
Also a coyote has been hanging around, so my chickens haven't been able to free range.

 

[Isadora]

nothing I say will be kind. You are responsible for animals under your care and it is past time you downsize your flock to manageable size. Since they are sick or diseased that means culling them. You need to regain control over your life

That's not unkind. That's the truth.

 

[Sally PB]

I culled two sick chicks recently, and the feeling was huge relief because it was quick and painless. I am thinking of culling more the ones that I have to.

Start with this. Get the size of your flock to a more manageable level.

If you are to the point of not wanting to have chickens anymore, cull, sell or give them away. That right there will solve your coop/run/fence issues. Then when things calm down in your life, you can reassess whether you want to have chickens again and fix what needs to be fixed. Buying chicks is the cheapest, easiest part of getting chickens.

 

[Kiki]

Help all of the sick birds today.
By help I mean end their suffering.

Pick up all of the eggs that birds are sitting on and get rid of them.

Stop letting birds sit on eggs if you cannot take care of your current amount of birds.

Do not allow more birds to be brought onto your property.

 

[Sequel]

I get overwhelmed with things too. I have found that it’s important to organize your priorities. Write it down if you need to, it sounds like you’ve got a good start so far by recognizing what the problem is (too many animals) and you have a goal ( cut the numbers by half).
Break it up into manageable chunks. First the sick or suffering. If you can cull, do so. Then find if there is a market or someplace where you can sell some. Are there areas where people are hungry? If so give them away. You will feel so much better!
Good luck!

 

[Kiki]

I get overwhelmed with things too. I have found that it’s important to organize your priorities. Write it down if you need to, it sounds like you’ve got a good start so far by recognizing what the problem is (too many animals) and you have a goal ( cut the numbers by half).
Break it up into manageable chunks. First the sick or suffering. If you can cull, do so. Then find if there is a market or someplace where you can sell some. Are there areas where people are hungry? If so give them away. You will feel so much better!
Good luck!

No selling allowed if you have sick animals on the property. That is just wrong.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

Once you enter into a contract with Mother Nature, such as taking responsibility for some of her critters, you are expected to keep your end of the bargain. Don’t … and the Mother can, and usually does, make things bad for you.

Look at the balance of nature in your “backyard” at the moment and you will find it out of control and you are on the same level as the animals you are supposed to be caring for.

Fix it … or Mother will

 

[sdm111]

You need to cull every single chicken. It sounds like you have a perfect storm for sickness. All kinds of sickness