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Keeping Livestock Means Dealing With Death

4/27/2013

2 Comments

 
Something killed my male duck, and the mama rabbit ate the runt of her litter that was born yesterday. 

I really didn't think the runt was going to make it to adulthood because he was so much smaller than the rest, but it still makes me sick.  Keeping rabbits is really not very high on my desired list of activities, because they are really fairly bad parents.

I'm feeling guilty about my duck, because I built the little coop he as in, and I put him in there; he was being too hard on one of my female ducks and I wanted to give her a break.  I'm guessing it as a raccoon, because of the way it was killed (which as particularly brutal), and because the attacker would have had to climb the fence to the bird yard and it was strong enough to bust out one of
the boards to get to this duck.  Kind of a crappy morning around
here.
2 Comments
Kate
4/27/2013 11:31:59 pm

The deaths have been the hardest part for me about the transition from city slicker to farmer-type. The worst part, I think, is that I am getting better about it because it happens so often (free ranging chickens take a tremendous hit from the fox and hawk populations).

Reply
Tina
4/28/2013 02:48:51 am

Kate, I agree. Losing that sense of shock when something dies, and accepting it as a matter of course, is a strange thing. With the rabbit, though, I don't feel guilty though, because it wasn't anything I did wrong. The duck however, is 100% my fault. So, when something like that happens it haunts me. It is my responsibility to know the predators and keep my animals safe from them, and I failed.

Many think "it's just a duck" so who cares, but when something suffers the way this guy did, I find it supremely upsetting.

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