Lost more than 40 chicks! So angry!

[KKatknap]

First - I hope you are able to sleep and help yourself get better.

Second - All of you scolding her for leaving for her son's special time...back off! Read her entire post, not just the headlines. She spent a long time showing these people what to do and left them details on how to do it. Don't be in such a rush to judge others. Especially when they are down!!

I am so very sorry for what you have gone through. That's my nightmare every time I go away. My heart goes out to you. You are a better person than I, I don't think I would have paid them - I cannot believe they would accept it after failing so miserably. I certainly would not have!

Hang in there - it will all be ok. Get better.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Thanks everyone and especially Kim for answering so many questions in my absence. I have H1N1 on top of everything else so I've been in and out of bed.

As Kim said, I live in a very small town. The fire department had the generators to our home 15 minutes after we called. Its just the way it is in a small town. They not only set them up, they set up the electric heaters, brought gas for the generators and kept calling the family that I had staying here to make sure they didn't need any more gas.

I want to clear something up.

I moved to NE TN 13 months ago and met a local family who was native to this area. They had farm animal experience, (they actually helped me out in the beginning), but were extremely poor. Less than $600 a month in income. My husband and I took this family under our wing and taught them how to care for our parrots. We paid them a salary and let them plant a garden on our property. We gave them chickens and eggs so they would have meat and eggs to eat. They would pick fruit and nuts from our trees as well. We tutored their two teenage boys, one who was in danger of dropping out of school. We were hoping that this would be a win/win situation for both of us.

I was hoping that when my son was going to get engaged I would be able to trust them to run our place and we would be educating them on how to be self sufficient (we were learning as we went), and we were paying them a weekly wage to supplement their income.

Twice my husband went to NY to visit family and I stayed behind because I didn't think they were ready to be left to be the sole responsibility of the parrots. This last time though, I did feel they were. They were "in training" for 13 months.

It hadn't yet snowed when we left. They were saying we were going to get 5 inches of snow. When we got to NY we heard that there was going to be a foot! The total turned out to be 17 inches!! The generators were brought to the house within 2 hours because of the parrots. Although they can handle temperture drops they need consistant temps. All my parrots are fine, thank goodness. Most that I have, have history of severe abuse and neglect.

One of the things that infuriates me is that they told me about the deaths of the Seramas. They covered them with blankets and I think they suffocated them. They didn't tell me about any of the other deaths. My brooders were full when I left. When I check on them, my brooders were empty except for 8 chicks. I say 40+ but in all honesty, there were probably more than 40 because I was doing hatching for spring POL's.

My 7 week old Runner duckling, Tootsie, died in my husband's hands about 15 minutes after I got home. I had just hatched out MFD's from Kim from Camelot Farms, they're gone. I had just hatched out OEGB's and Frizzles from PP, they're gone. I hatched out some Polish from swheat, they're gone and it goes on and on.

They had a 3 page list to follow on who to feed and what to feed them. They also had a list of numbers to contact me if they needed to. Each pen has their feed inside their pen. It seems as though all my outside animals are okay...my Pekins, my Sebastopols, my layers and my breeders.

I've learned that I just can't go anywhere. Even when we've worked hard to train someone.

Laurie

 

[KKatknap]

You could not have done more.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Oh I wanted to add a few things here.

1) We paid them before we left so they would have money while we were gone. You have to remember that this family only makes $600. a month. The money they made with this "job" was almost as much as what they make a month.

2) We had paid their electric bill just 3 days before we left because their power had been turned off. Even though it's warmer in TN than it is in alot of the country, we couldn't allow them to be in their home without power. We were going to let them work it off here in the upcoming months.

3) We are NOT wealthy. No where near it. We actually live on my husbands military retirement and retirement from his civilian job. He served our country for more than 20 years. We felt that we were in a position to help this family because they were just so very poor.

4) On top of the pay they got, they also were to keep all the eggs that they collected. That means they were to keep ALL eggs. From my layers, breeders, ducks, and my geese were laying when I left. I know on one day she told me that she had collected more than 3 dozen eggs.

Laurie

 

[Elite Silkies]

TennesseeTruly, I think your a wonderful person

Rescue's are not easy and require a lot of work and a lot of love. I rescued horses until my business went under and I could no longer afford to do it anymore.

I don't think you have any explaining to do what so ever to anyone. I think what has happened to you is just horrible and I know it's heartbreaking. And on top of all of this you are having to battle H1N1??? I feel so bad for you.

After that many months of training, I would have felt the same way that you did. I would have thought it was okay to let them take over. This is not your fault and shame on anyone that thinks it is. It takes a kind and caring person to take an entire family under their wing. God will bless you greatly.

I wish I had some of the breeds that you lost, I would surely send you some eggs.

Cammy

 

[shelleyd2008]

How awful!! Some people just don't care. I disagree though, about having 'true farm people' watch your animals. That doesn't work either. A friend of mine went on vacation and had her neighbor watch her animals. Her neighbor is Amish, and all they do is farm work! She came home to many dead birds, and the others were out of food and water. They 'attacked' her when she brought them water, they were so thirsty!!

You just can't trust anyone to take care of your pets the way you would, but training them for a month, you'd think they would have done a bit better of a job

I'm so sorry you lost so many.

 

[bibliophile birds]

the storm that TennesseeTruly is talking about is a total freak event in our area. the last time we had snow like that was in 1997. it's not something you anticipate here. hell, we got about 3 inches a few weeks ago and celebrated! we went sledding in the mush. we've got a plateau on one side and mountains on the other, so we get flooded when other areas get snow.

it's not much, TNTruly, but i've got a beautiful spare 3 month old EE cockeral that i can't stand to process (i'm secretly considering keeping him even though i hadn't planned on breeding EEs), but if you want him he is yours. i'm down in Maryville, but if you need anything, just drop me a message.

hope things start looking up for you. 2010 is almost here and you can just start with a clean slate. good luck.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I'm not going to get on you about any of this, you sound like a nice person, and I think you thought that they were the kind of people who just needed some help to get on thier feet. But one thing I say about people: Sometimes there is a reason people live the way they do, sometimes comfortable that way, sometimes things wrong with them that help and a job just won't fix, some people really have had "bad luck" and just need help. But one thing I have personally found to be true...and I guess its human nature or something, sometimes the people we do the most for resent it somehow, and they end up biting the hand that feeds them. I would advise you to scale back your involvement with these people and thier problems.

Some people have said that you can only depend on framers or chicken people or whatever to watch your flock, I don't think so. It's a leap of faith to trust someone else with your children or your animals and a good caretaker will have the qualities of responsibility, accountability and common sense. This kind of person could be anyone, I have sucessfully taught inner city children the skill needed to hatch & brood chickies, learning disabled kids, and others. I think that those people just didn't feel like solving the problem. Thank god they didn't kill your parrots.

 

[Dar]

my plane leaves for Cuba in 211 hours... now I want everyones phone numbers so my house sitters have some one to call incase of a chicken emergency...

 

[Dora'smom]

I am so sorry for your losses. I can't even imagine coming home to anything like that. You took every precaution possible, extensive training and directions and yet they still failed you. I think a recent poster is right. Sometimes people get comfortable where they are, and sometimes they get a little resentful of help extended to them (that they have happily accepted). Such a shame. Again, I am so sorry for your losses, and hope that you recover quickly from H1N1. Some people do. I did.