RANT of the day !!!I hobbled out to see the chickens and was very sad at what i saw. if you want something done who do you trust to do it? yourself, no one else. they have no food no water, their water bowls are dusty all 4 of them. the 2 new leghorns have clear snot and are puffed up. and dirty too. i stood there and cried . i was able to throw some corn in there but no water yet. i called the one caring for them and she will be here soon she said. one looks like a really bad case of leg mites. I know the whole coop was dusted but thats all. no eye problems at all thank goodness. so they dont get colds i have been told. but that is what it seems like. a sneeze here and there to clear the sinus.
I went to Coral's capon clinic on Saturday. We had to leave here before 4am to get there by 9 am. We got there early but that is beside the point. I didn't know how long the clinic would last but we couldn't let my chickens out before we left because we have had some more chickens disappear and it was still too dark for them to be safe. I had written out a list of how to care for my chickens, morning and night for my son to follow. We didn't plan on being back until Sunday night. My son needed to let the chickens out Saturday and Sunday morning and herd them into the coop Saturday night and feed and water them. He refuses to have anything to do with them but my daughter had plans and some of them were for work and others for school functions. I have young chicks in the house and some young ones in the coop that needed to be fed and watered.
After the caponing clinic in Ok, we headed over to Tx to get the geese that a member here at BYC gave me. We got there about midnight Saturday night and located her home. It was out in the middle of nowhere so we pulled to one side of the driveway and slept in the car. Next morning we went in and got the geese, headed home. When we got home we put the geese in quarantine and went to put my chickens up. It was well after dark and most of the birds were in the coop. Sometimes the ducks can be a little difficult but they finally went in.
Monday morning, I fed and watered the ones in the house, went out to feed and water the ones in the coop. There were several birds loose in the run that must have been hidden under the building the night before. I have some birds that can fly/climb over the fence and won't go in the coop at night so we leave the gates open in the morning on the run so they can get in while we are setting things up. They didn't come. I was worried about them but wherever they were there was nothing I could do about it. I put food and water down, relocked the gates and let the chickens out of the coop. While they were eating and drinking, I went in to feed and water the ones in the cage inside, then to gather the eggs. My son was given the option of gathering them or not and he didn't. That was ok. I went around to the back side of the coop and was putting down the ramp for the chickens and found my red production hen dead. I couldn't find anything wrong with her. About then my wild boys show up from the kitty corner of the house from the run. They never go back there and I left out the part where my chickens acted like they hadn't eaten in a week.
I can't accuse my son of not following the steps I gave him but I have to wonder if he even let my birds out while we were gone or if he waited until Sunday afternoon to let them out. I have to wonder if he stood in front of the door after he opened it and got hit by a flood of chickens and maybe kicked at some of them, injuring my red production hen. I have to wonder why my wild boys were in a part of the yard that they never go.
I am very angry but if I asked him questions, I wouldn't know if he were telling me the truth or not. I have to find a way to let the anger go, it isn't doing me any good and I can't do anything about it. You should be able to trust family to do some simple, easy jobs without needing someone hanging over their shoulder. Back in 2010 another son was "watching" my dogs but when we got home, we found one dead under our bed. He didn't know when or how it happened. This son still at home should have remembered how much trust I was putting in him and done his best to earn that trust. I don't think he did but I will never know.
Last edited:
