I'm not usually 1 to complain but after a few years of stress - which I hope is coming to end, we have had to have had one of the most awful of seasons up until now where poultry keeping & breeding is concerned in chronological order we've had all this happen to us:
* Loads of runs to repair around mid autumn - got repairing for a few weeks & whacked my hand so unable to continue for a week. Followed by weeks of poor weather.
*Got 3 turkeys the 1 hen died after about 3 months.
*The snow which seemed endless, followed by lambing (which I like) so the runs still weren't finished.....
*Fox visit in the 1st lot of snow killed 8 hens, later that week still in the snow the hens were being kept in & a mink / pole cat got in & killed the lot, the few we have now are living in the barn, our 1 drake at the time also got killed on the river.
*Had some good weather, still lambing but my other turkey hen gets found dead & half eaten by the river just after I got my 1st egg too!
*The dog eats my only remaining Barb D'Anver cockeral I wanted to breed from - Bad
!
*I finally track down 2 turkey hens after about 2 months
*The geese both mess around laying & go broody early so no eggs for the incubator as of yet & I think all the eggs are addled under them, 1 gosling however hatched under a hen
- not the 15-20 birds we want for xmas though
*Dad broke the 1 shed door I fixed a week afterwards! Grr!
*Just after all the sheep are moved from the field where we keep the runs, I'm about to start fixing them & put duck eggs in the incubator, I fall down the stairs & tear a few ligaments in my right ankle so am on crutches for god knows how long! Not fun!
I suppose on the upside we have 1 hen with a gosling hatched & a hen with 6 chicks