livestock = dead stock
TRIGGER WARNING: dead animals
if you are into farming, or ranching or just a small hobby farm, you’ve probably heard the term: “when there’s livestock, there’s dead stock.” it is an unfortunate guaranteed when owning animals. this season has been particularly rough at our farm. we had been raising eight chicks since they were a few days old, then june came with the heat and seven of them passed from the heat. the lone survivor didn’t make it past the night.
we ordered 11 ducklings, when they first arrived, nine were deceased. the other two survived a day or two and then one passed. the other one we assumed was taken as we could never find it, then it popped up the next day. she has been named after the special person who took care of her. (which we are forever grateful for) the second shipment, they all arrived alive. then day two started dropping like flies. despite providing and doing everything we could for those ducklings, nothing saved them. the company pretty much blamed me saying their brooder was incorrect and the feed i was feeding was also incorrect. (we have used this feed for the rest of our ducklings including the two we personally hatched out ourselves.) i have only ever experienced multiple losses from this one company. needless to say, we will not be doing business with this hatchery anymore.
we do plan to hatch out our own mixed ducklings and eventually offer pure breeds. that is another story for another time.
moving on, we picked up three extra chicks so we could have an even twelve chicks for our fantastic mama hens. one chick accidentally got herself stuck in the hardwire cloth and injured herself. she passed being cuddled in my hands. there is a different type of heartbreak holding animals as they pass away. every animal is different and it never hurts any less. one thing that makes it worth it, is knowing they don’t pass alone and unloved.
we unfortunately ended up losing the three remaining chicks of the twelve, the two ducklings we hatched out and allena, plus a black swedish. we do think allena was the culprit, as she came from a shipment that all of the ducklings dropped unexpectedly. once we put allena with the other ducklings, and chicks, they passed the same way the shipment ducklings did. while a hard time, we are gonna persevere and move on. we are going to wait to do any chicks or ducklings until we get a new permanent home. this season has been hard. i decided against adding photos because it isn’t something many would like to see. it’s just pure sadness.
i’ve lost hens, chicks, ducks and ducklings and it’s never easy. praying the rest of this season goes easy on us. if you are interested in your own ducklings, send us an email!
