The D-List

I am full of D-words.  Disgusted, depressed, dismayed, devastated, displeased, dejected, demolished, dispirited, defeated and downright despondent. I was planning on talking about some of the other wildlife challenges we've been having.  Our egg count is really low, and it's more than just lazy chickens… We've been finding eggs with holes.  At first we thought the chickens were stepping on them or possibly egg-eating, but they have TONS of calcium and the shells are fine.  Then we realized it was Blue Jays.  They figured out that they could sneak in the coop and mess with the eggs, solely to drive me crazy, I'm sure.  Then, a couple days after that discovery, I was mowing the grass with the perfect view of a crow carrying an egg off in its beak!!!  ACK! That is what I was going to talk about.  But I'm not.  We had ANOTHER coyote strike.  We've lost 7 chickens in 16 days.  And they got our baby, our Silky Sue.  So now I'm full of D-words.  I guess these are the days that really make a farmer.  I really don't even want to go on.  I'm tired of having my chickens be a smorgasbord for this opportunistic skudge (that is probably not a word, just how I feel about them right now.)  We can't afford to buy a live trap, and our state wildlife folks aren't willing to help, even though the 'yotes are considered a nuisance since they are taking livestock – and they are striking in the middle of the day!   Our only option is to hang out for hours on end, hoping they don't smell us, hoping they come back, then shoot them.  But seriously, who has that kind of time?  So the chickens are in lock up again, also displeased, wanting greens and bugs.  Any thoughts on what we can do to empower ourselves against these wildlife violators?

And then there was one…

Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration.  We have more than one chicken left.  But I find it ironic that on the day we go to pick up 5 new chickens, we have a coyote strike that takes out four chickens – in the middle of the afternoon!  So we have a net gain of one chicken.  And I'm not sure what it's like in your neck of the woods, but full-grown laying hens are expensive here!  So we spent $100 bucks for one more lousy chicken. The really traumatic part is that the coyotes got our rooster.  Cuppa-Soup was the best rooster ever!  (Obviously, he was originally meant for the soup pot, but the other roosters that I thought were in the running for the flock sire position turned out to be jerks, so Cuppa's gentile attitude saved him from the pot.)  Cuppa was a home grown chicken, brooded by our nasty little Cochin (who is a wonderful mommy) and was the result of a Road Island Red Banty and an Amerucana.  He had the best colors and was a very noble looking rooster.  He always watched carefully and proudly over his harem.  Cuppa would make the cutest noises to call all his ladies over when he found food, and would always make sure all the girls had eaten before he had his share.  He NEVER challenged us!  He really was the bestest and I don't think we can ever replace him.  I never thought I would be in mourning over a rooster, but here I am. Young Cuppa Desperate to carry on Cuppa's bloodline, we pulled a handful of eggs from that day (7 of them).  Also ironically, all of the chickens that had been broody just 'broke' during this week. That cochin seriously wouldn't get out of the boxes for months!  But now?  Can't get one to stay on the nest for love or money.  Should we get an incubator?  Try to buy a broody chicken and hope she stays setting for the next 21 days?  Wait – one of our egg customers has a couple hens that are usually pretty broody, let's try calling… Such a good watchman We are so lucky!  Our dear friend has a broody hen, so we ran the eggs over to get them cooking under the hen.  Hopefully in 21 days we will have 7 little Cuppa offspring running around!  Farming is not easy.  There's as much drama on the farm as there is on a daytime talk show! Cross your fingers for us and wish for high fertility!!! RIP Cuppa-Soup

So why "The Broken Badger?"

When we first bought our property in Bickleton, we went exploring.  We had fallen in love so instantly with the property when we first saw it, that we bought it before we explored it much (shoot, 3 years later there are still areas I've never seen....)  We travelled all the roads and walked some of the property lines.  Traversed the fields and crossed the draws.  Wait... what is that?  We found 3 large holes.  Two in the forested draws and one ontop of a mound in the field.  They were burrow like and about 8-10 inches across.  I have no idea how deep they were, as there was no way I was getting close enough to find out!!  Who knows what could be down there.  Well, after some research and talking to the locals, we have come to the conclusion that it must be badgers.  Badgers are mean.  I mean, they are just trying to get along, just like the rest of us, but they happen to do it in a rather fiesty way.  Which is exactly why we will try to give them a wide berth.  Luckily, they tend to have a very wide range and will go from burrow to burrow as they range.  Unless this guy spend winter in one of the burrows on our property, s/he will probably only be with us a few times a year.  Our biggest badger concern revolves around the dog.  As fate would have it, we have a dachshund.  They were originally bred to go after badgers.  Great.  Of course, our little baby is a mini-dachshund, so she is much smaller than the standard 20 plus pound dog that is the true badger dog.  But don't tell her that!  She thinks she is a 300 pound guard dog - and a hunter.  She will stick her nose into any little hole in the yard trying to get ahold of whatever rodent may have been in there.  It's her job, it's in her blood, it's what she does.  On to the name "Broken Badger."  Since badgers are always on our minds when we are at the property, it should come as no surprise that I would start naming things after them.  We have been periodically working on a cabin up there for the last couple years.  One of the times that Woody was diligently banging away on the cabin, I went a'wandering.  When I looked back at the cabin, it just struck me - its name is The Broken Badger.  (Yes - I often have these random "this is how it is" thoughts.)  I began to have images of our friends from town saying, "Hey, let's go see Shae and Woody up at the Broken Badger!"  Okay, that might be pushing it, but still, the cabin has a name! The Broken Badger