Farm News 10-30-05

Farm News
Sunday morning, after chores, 54°

Drat! Another Duck Disappears
The brown hen duck that was rooming with Bump disappeared. I didn't see her for a week and had to assume that something had picked her off. Coyotes generally leave a pile of feathers behind when they kill poultry, but raccoons will often steal a bird without leaving a trace, so I figured a coon had probably got her. I came in and wrote an obituary for her and decided to go coon hunting. The next morning when I went out to do chores she was waiting for her breakfast. “'Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated',” said the duck.


I'm not going to throw away a good duck obituary just because the duck didn't die. Writing a weekly newsletter about happenings in the barnyard is difficult enough without uncooperative ducks. She's probably the best looking duck of the bunch, the other two being almost as ugly as Muscovies (the ducks that have red warts on their faces), but she still isn't any prize-winner. You could put lipstick on that duck, but you couldn't make her pretty.


Tessie and Trusty keep most of the predators at bay but the predators do safely prowl just outside Trusty's patrol boundary. Trusty's patrol boundary corresponds to my cardiovascular patrol course,. All summer I have been taking a shortcut and ignoring the north end of the patrol course. After a month or so Trusty also began ignoring the north end, so I need to refresh his memory.


I'm going to have to spend more time on the cardiovascular patrol course. Statins, the drugs that reduce cholesterol, give me a pain in the complete pelvic girdle, especially when I exercise. So, if I take statins, I end up sitting on my butt because it and the whole general area aches like hell. The only other way to reduce cholesterol is to do without cheeseburgers while exercising like an olympic contestant. If I don't go to town I don't have to worry about cheeseburgers. As for exercise, Trusty has been getting fat so this should be a good time to take some of it off him.


When we walk the route together Trusty usually covers about four times the distance I do. He bounds back and forth over the first three or four laps. The next five laps he tends to stay a little closer to me, and after the ninth or tenth lap I generally have to encourage him a bit to keep up.


Did you know that a human in good shape can generally run down a horse? True. Last week I mentioned that Audubon could walk 65 miles a day. Not very many horses can do that. In Medieval times, footmen would follow their horse-borne nobles all day, trotting along to keep up. At the end of the day the horse rested and the footmen ran errands inside.


Dogs, like horses, are best in short chases, not marathons. Do dogs run with their nobles in the Boston, or any other, marathon? I know some readers are Wellesley women and know the answer to that question. The only animal that I can think of that runs long distances is the Gnu, which runs up and down Africa. Take a look at Wildebeest. Gnu's, by the way, do not eat ducks.


Dr. M on Bird Flu
An Avian Influenza Primer for regular folks:

Avian influenza (or High Pathogenic Avian Influenza as vets know it) is a variant of the type of flu that most species (man, dogs, horses, pigs) are susceptible to. Flu viruses are what's known as orthomyxoviruses. They are the only type of virus in the orthomyxovirus family. The orthomyxovirus has a special type of genome that can recombine, hence the H and N designation. H5N1 flu (avian flu) has the unfortunate characteristic of being transmissible to humans.

The average person is not at risk right now for avian influenza. The regular flu that comes into our lives in the winter is going to make us miserable enough. But common precautions are advised like washing your hands frequently and covering your mouth when you cough (all those things that your mom told you). And for heavens sake, if your are sick stay home and don't give it to everyone else in the office, you aren't that valuable.

How might a pandemic get started is a common question. Well, public health officials are worried about poultry husbandry practices and bird smuggling. Asia is such a high risk place for avian flu because of the high population density in the cities, and the high density bird population in those same cities. For example Hong Kong has about 7 million people and 1.5 million birds 1042 sq kilometers for 6700 people per square kilometer and 1500 birds per square kilometer. Birds and people live together and are in close contact. Combine this with world wide trafficking in birds and travel, and there is some cause for worry and alarm.

Fortunately, the husbandry practices of American bird farmers are very strict (one good thing about mega-corporate chicken farming) and backyard poultry farmers are well versed in good husbandry. These husbandry practices have saved us before, and will help stave off any pandemic most likely. We've got vaccine coming, and antivirals that work like a charm here. Plus, what kills people in influenza is dehydration mostly, not the virus itself. By and large we have the infrastructure to deal with keeping people hydrated.

Hope this helps

Dr. M


Pony for Sale
Calvin has a nice pregnant pony mare for sale. Ginger is tiny, sweet of disposition, gentle for children to ride, and only four years old. She'll never win a beauty contest, but she is tough and smart enough to survive. She is bred to a palomino pony stud.

That's what Calvin says, and he's a horse trader, so you know what his statements are worth. It might be that the sire of the predicted pony foal was a stud that sort of looked like the famous pony sire of West McLouth that he thought was named 'Pal'. I've never known Calvin to totally lie, but he would consider that sort of stretch perfectly honest. As I said, he's a horse trader.

Back to Ginger, she really is sweet. I hung around on her for a bit and she was perfectly docile, a trait that is not necessarily always there in small ponies. I think I would be willing to share a stall with her through a cold night. What does that mean? Ginger is pregnant, and if a child or two wanted to be there for the birth of her foal, they would be completely safe sleeping in her stall with her while they all waited.

Ponies are rugged and not nearly as stupid as horses. Ponies aren't as smart as donkeys, but neither are most humans. A pony needs a drink of water once a day, although twice is much nicer. A cup of oats twice a day is close to spoiling them. A big round bale of prairie hay, about $50 delivered, will provide roughage for the winter. They can do fine without shelter but I would give her a little shed where she could get out of the rain.

If you are interested in having the option of telling your children to go out and sleep with the pony then you need to talk to Calvin. Send an email to Farm News with any message for Calvin and I'll find him and deliver it. This is the real, not the semi-fictional, Calvin we're talking about, by the way, and he wants $500 for Ginger, which is about $50 too high, probably. He can also help you find a stall for Ginger, even one suitable for sharing with children on cold nights.




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Farm News 10-23-05

Sunday morning, after chores, 37°


NPR Pledge Week in the Barn

A radio in the barn plays day and night, tuned KCUR in Kansas City. KCUR has a lot of talk shows and runs BBC from midnight to 5:00 am. Hopefully, predators hear the voices and stay away. It doesn't work but the goats might gain a little culture.

The telephone in the barn is an old rotary dial phone. Pushbutton phones are far too easy for cats to operate and the ancient phone goes well with the cobwebs. The dial mechanism is dirty and sticky so that you not only pull the dial around to the stop, you have to pull it back again. People born after 1950 might not understand this.

This past week has been the Autumn Pledge Week for public radio stations. You have all heard the pleas for money that public radio stations put out during pledge week. If you haven't, you need to upgrade your radio listening. All Things Considered, the evening news show from NPR, is far and away the best news program on either TV or radio. Public radio stations are the ones down at the left end of the dial with the religious broadcasters; the difference is easy to spot, public radio asks for money just twice a year.

Guy Noir, the young tom turkey, is at an age about equivalent to a 14 year old boy. The hormones are almost up to full charge and he is just beginning to notice that something is different. Also, he can eat enormous amounts of anything at any time. Like many at his age, he desires nobility of character and bearing. He isn't yet old enough to display, but he is old enough to become captured by various noble causes.

Thus it was that I entered the barn to find Guy with the telephone off the hook trying to dial the phone to make a pledge. Pushbuttons wouldn't have helped him that much, he can't count, but he might have been able to accidentally dial Hong Kong. Even if the call went through, I doubt if anyone would be able to understand him, I certainly can't.

Guy's attempt to fulfill his responsibilities as a good citizen was admirable so I didn't point out that he has no money to pledge. Not that it would have deflated him in any way, tom turkeys are indeflatable.

Bump Has a Roomie

Bump has established a nice home under the chicken house. It is close to everything he needs, well sheltered, and the dog can't go under there. Now the brown hen duck has joined Bump. The duck, unnamed and of unknown heritage, has occasional fits of laying eggs. She is having one such egg-laying fit currently and is laying her eggs under the chicken house with Bump for company. Maybe she will go broody soon and hatch a clutch of duckling in time for the first blizzard.

Book Review
John James Audubon: The Making of an American
by Richard Rhodes

This one disappointed me. It is definitely authoritative, the man did his research well. It's just a bit too scholarly for my taste. A few things were left out that I missed, such as Audubon's discovery of a super-tornado track that was up to two miles wide and over 20 miles long. Rhodes barely covered Audubon's expedition up the Missouri to Fort Union, the journey that provided most of the material for The Quadrupeds of North America.

Rhodes did recognize and acknowledge one fact, that Audubon was one of the great frontiersmen of America. For instance, Audubon was well known for his ability to walk sixty five miles per day cross country and carrying a pack. He was a superb shot, also, a skill which kept him alive many times.

This biography did a better job than most of properly identifying the birds which Audubon collected and drew. It also carefully examined the development of his techniques and artistic style. Before reading this biography I hadn't known about his methods for mounting the birds he drew.

Today, perhaps, there are few people who are interested in Audubon's artistic development than in his adventures in the Mississippi cane brakes. For those people this will be an interesting book. If you are looking for the excitement Audubon expressed on finding a Pygmy Shrew, North America's smallest predator, in a trap set for a wolf, then this is not the book for you.

Where Are the Downy Woodpeckers?

Are the Downy Woodpeckers missing from your feeder? I went to a party on Saturday night and, it being a party attended by people of a certain age, activity at the bird feeder was a major item of conversation. No one is seeing Downy Woodpeckers, and most other birds seem to be sparse. Any Ornithologists reading? Could this be because of West Nile virus?


E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.

Farm News 10-23-05

Sunday morning, after chores, 37°


NPR Pledge Week in the Barn
A radio in the barn plays day and night, tuned KCUR in Kansas City. KCUR has a lot of talk shows and runs BBC from midnight to 5:00 am. Hopefully, predators hear the voices and stay away. It doesn't work but the goats might gain a little culture.

The telephone in the barn is an old rotary dial phone. Pushbutton phones are far too easy for cats to operate and the ancient phone goes well with the cobwebs. The dial mechanism is dirty and sticky so that you not only pull the dial around to the stop, you have to pull it back again. People born after 1950 might not understand this.

This past week has been the Autumn Pledge Week for public radio stations. You have all heard the pleas for money that public radio stations put out during pledge week. If you haven't, you need to upgrade your radio listening. All Things Considered, the evening news show from NPR, is far and away the best news program on either TV or radio. Public radio stations are the ones down at the left end of the dial with the religious broadcasters; the difference is easy to spot, public radio asks for money just twice a year.

Guy Noir, the young tom turkey, is at an age about equivalent to a 14 year old boy. The hormones are almost up to full charge and he is just beginning to notice that something is different. Also, he can eat enormous amounts of anything at any time. Like many at his age, he desires nobility of character and bearing. He isn't yet old enough to display, but he is old enough to become captured by various noble causes.

Thus it was that I entered the barn to find Guy with the telephone off the hook trying to dial the phone to make a pledge. Pushbuttons wouldn't have helped him that much, he can't count, but he might have been able to accidentally dial Hong Kong. Even if the call went through, I doubt if anyone would be able to understand him, I certainly can't.

Guy's attempt to fulfill his responsibilities as a good citizen was admirable so I didn't point out that he has no money to pledge. Not that it would have deflated him in any way, tom turkeys are indeflatable.

Bump Has a Roomie
Bump has established a nice home under the chicken house. It is close to everything he needs, well sheltered, and the dog can't go under there. Now the brown hen duck has joined Bump. The duck, unnamed and of unknown heritage, has occasional fits of laying eggs. She is having one such egg-laying fit currently and is laying her eggs under the chicken house with Bump for company. Maybe she will go broody soon and hatch a clutch of duckling in time for the first blizzard.

Book Review
John James Audubon: The Making of an Americanby Richard Rhodes

This one disappointed me. It is definitely authoritative, the man did his research well. It's just a bit too scholarly for my taste. A few things were left out that I missed, such as Audubon's discovery of a super-tornado track that was up to two miles wide and over 20 miles long. Rhodes barely covered Audubon's expedition up the Missouri to Fort Union, the journey that provided most of the material for The Quadrupeds of North America.

Rhodes did recognize and acknowledge one fact, that Audubon was one of the great frontiersmen of America. For instance, Audubon was well known for his ability to walk sixty five miles per day cross country and carrying a pack. He was a superb shot, also, a skill which kept him alive many times.

This biography did a better job than most of properly identifying the birds which Audubon collected and drew. It also carefully examined the development of his techniques and artistic style. Before reading this biography I hadn't known about his methods for mounting the birds he drew.

Today, perhaps, there are few people who are interested in Audubon's artistic development than in his adventures in the Mississippi cane brakes. For those people this will be an interesting book. If you are looking for the excitement Audubon expressed on finding a Pygmy Shrew, North America's smallest predator, in a trap set for a wolf, then this is not the book for you.

Where Are the Downy Woodpeckers?

Are the Downy Woodpeckers missing from your feeder? I went to a party on Saturday night and, it being a party attended by people of a certain age, activity at the bird feeder was a major item of conversation. No one is seeing Downy Woodpeckers, and most other birds seem to be sparse. Any Ornithologists reading? Could this be because of West Nile virus?


E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.

Farm News 10-16-05

Sunday morning, after chores, 57°


Dr. M Demonstrates Tenacity

Dr. M, Veterinarian and Cardiac Surgeon, has demonstrated her tenacity in diagnosing animal illness by asking me more questions.

OK, if you have lovely new pelleted feed, and they have lots of access to hay and water, then both the night and day feces are normal? How about urine? Any blood at the end of urinating?

Gruesome question: Did anybody necropsy the rabbits? Are they impacted with anything? Cecal impaction can cause acute death in rabbits.

Any bloody discharge from anywhere?

The other thing to think of would be toxins. Any new paints/varnishes etc in the barn?

Dr. M.

To the best of my knowledge, which isn't much, the answers to all of the above are 'No'. All the rabbits looked healthy and were in good flesh. First, the older buck from Calvin's herd died. Then a lactating doe died. Then some individual 4-7 week old bunnies over a period of several weeks. Once four bunnies died on the same day. Also, two does who had been bred several times still weren't pregnant. I decided that it would be best to destroy the remaining rabbits, clean everything out, and start with a new herd.

Calvin killed and buried the remaining rabbits except for one, a very tame, nice tan bunny. I turned it loose inside the rabbitry, figuring I'd later let it into the pasture where it would be relatively safe from predators. It took the rabbit less than a day to find ways to go wherever it wished, and where it wished was wherever the turkeys were to be found. Now a tan rabbit can be seen grazing with the turkeys in the yard.

I didn't check the rabbit's sex before I turned it loose, so I think I'll call it Bump for now. Bump is possessed of an unusually broad butt and widely spaced hind legs, making the rear view of Bump at speed a great sight. He looks like a little self-propelled war chariot. His droopy ears fly back to his hips as he runs, adding to the chariot appearance.

At first, Trusty was quite upset over Bump's escape from the rabbitry. Trusty had met Bump in the rabbitry and they got along fine. That was in the rabbitry. Outside the rabbitry Trusty expects Bump to join in the cat game. In Trusty's cat game he runs at the cats. It the cat runs, Trusty chases and catches it, and then slobbers all over it. If the cat sits still, Trusty stops just short of the cat and the two touch noses. Bump will not sit still and let Trusty run up to him, he breaks and runs, and Bump can run like a streak.

Trusty can run fast, much faster than the cats, for instance, but Bump can start his dash for the nearest safe spot when Trusty is ten feet away; when Bump reaches safety he will often be fifteen feet ahead of Trusty. Bump is a very quick little chariot.

There is no way to guess Bump's future. Life in the yard is full of excitement, some of which is actually dangerous for small animals. It is interesting that Bump grazes with the turkeys, also quick runners though not in Bump's class. Predators aren't a serious problem except for hawks and owls, and the hawks can be avoided if Bump learns to respond to the turkeys' alert calls. Trusty responds to all the different birds' alert calls, so perhaps a rabbit can, also.


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Farm New 10-09-05

Sunday morning, after chores, 44°


Humdinger Storm
Late Saturday night or early Sunday what must have been close to a five inch thick chunk of water fell on us. I woke up when the thunder and lighting started but fell asleep again before the downpour. The rain gage measures to 5” and extends about five eighths inch above that; it was almost full. Reports from various neighbors ranged from 1.5” south of here to 10.5” just north of here. Oskaloosa received 8.5”.

The pond filled and overflowed on the east side, through a wide, flat, grassy trough around the east end of the dam. It continued to rise until it overflowed the top of the dam, eroding away the south, downhill, side of the dam. Three spots are badly cut back, almost halfway through the dam. In the meantime the normal overflow around the east end of the dam was cutting a gully back from the creek bed, which widened and deepened into a huge gash in the hillside. The area below the dam was an almost impenetrable stand of willow and sycamore saplings, now it is an impenetrable jumble of uprooted trees, mud, rocks, and mosquitoes.

It's pleasant to be able to look at a mess like that and know that the best thing to do for now is to ignore it. A few rains will help wash the exposed trees so that they can be cut up and removed. After it dries a bit more we can use the tractor to pull out the partially buried trees, and then we can call in the dozer. This time I'm going to try and do a better job of protecting against severe storms. It looks like we're going to have more of them for a while.

One plant I haven't used is Arundax, or Giant Cane, or Giant Reed Grass, or Fishing Pole Plant, or just plain Cane. A nice strong patch is growing west of the chicken house and it should be divided and spread around the place. Most of the rivers south and east from here used to be bordered by cane brakes, stands of cane stretching back from the water for up to two miles. About the only way to get through them was to walk backwards, shoving your back through the tangle of canes. That attracted a lot of attention, which helped scare away the snakes, but could attract grizzly bears, who considered cane brakes to be their lawns. A small cane brake below the dam might be nice and probably wouldn't attract any bears.


Science and Intelligence Attacks Ignorance and Superstition

Dr. M., the noted Veterinarian and Cardiac Surgeon, has sent a note correcting me on a few items and exposing my ignorance and laziness. She is a nice, proper, intelligent young woman who is licensed to wear shoulder length plastic gloves. Amazing, isn't it? Anyway, she writes this:

OK, I'm confused, L. monocytongenes is endemic to badly silaged/old corn. When I looked it up in my band spanking new 10th Edition Merck veterinary manual, Listeriosis in all monogastrics can be traced to this. Does it appear to have been vectored by mice at your farm? Mice carry all sorts of fabulous diseases, but, Listeria isn't one of them. What are you feeding the bunnies?

First, I didn't have a reliable diagnosis. I had healthy, plump bunnies dropping dead overnight, up to four a night. Three does died, too. There were no unusual external signs. Droppings looked normal. Two does failed twice to become pregnant. I went to Keeping Rabbits, by Brian Leverett, published in Britain in 1967, and, after looking at the chapter on diseases, decided it was Listeria, which he describes as a micro-organism. Keeping Rabbits is my favorite rabbit book not because its accuracy but rather because it is so definitely written by a Brit. Well, after three hours of Brit. Lit. some people go on to read Canterbury Tales and others Keeping Rabbits.

Second, I didn't think about the feed being a potential source of trouble. The rabbit feed is Nutrena from the Perry Mill kept in the bag inside a plastic barrel. They were eating close to 100 lb each month, so it didn't sit around very long. I assumed that it was being transmitted rabbit to rabbit without considering other possibilities. Now that I stop to think, it could even have been some mosquito transmitted thing.

Whether the mice carried the disease or not, I don't want them in the rabbit feeders. I didn't think of mouse-proofing when I built the rabbitry, so I need to do some retrofitting. There is a stack of sheets of printer's aluminum in the barn, just the thing to tack up here and there to interrupt the rodent traffic.

I looked up the Merck Veterinary Manual online and found the 8th Edition is available online at http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp. If you are having trouble sleeping, put this one on the bedside table.


Cold Weather Sends 'Fro Home

Thursday night the temperature was predicted to drop to below 40°. I had reason to go to the chicken house after dark Thursday and there, snuggled up between two fat old hens, was 'Fro, our man of the streets. For those readers who don't know him, 'Fro is an aging Polish Crested rooster, dark in color, with a large bald spot on the back of his head. He is about as ugly a specimen of Polish Crested chicken as any available. I look at 'Fro and think, “How can anything that ugly be a Polish Crested?”.

All summer 'Fro has been roosting in the barn. When the weather is warm he likes to cut loose and spend nights in the barn with the young bantams. He has a thing for a couple of the bantam Golden Sebright hens. They are far too sophisticated (or wild) to have anything to do with a creature like 'Fro (his only work skills are shoplifting and stealing cars). Aging Polish Crested roosters are real tragic characters, burdened with the weight of the world's characterizations.

As soon as the weather turns cold 'Fro returns to the fat old hens. They're warm at night and much easier to get along with than the bantams. The water is heated and layer feed is always available. 'Fro likes to winter in comfort.


First Frost

Friday night we had our first frost, a light one with temperatures dropping below 40°. Frost can occur when the temperature drops below 42°, and that is not a typo, yes, it's forty two. It has to do with something called 'night sky temperature', and the sky has to be clear for it to frost. It was the first long underwear morning of the season. Trusty's enthusiasm for life becomes even greater when the weather cools. He seems to operate with a two position switch: asleep and excited.

It's time to dig the Canna bulbs. This spring I planted a bunch of them on some newly cleared area on the west side of woods. Light but still did well and bloomed nicely. The blood red flowers against the dark woods background was very nice. The hummingbirds appreciated them greatly, as always.

Paula dug the last of the sweet potatoes. The first bunch she dug didn't produce well, but these did better; still, it wasn't a great year for sweet potatoes. All the vegetables are out of the garden and the only things left are flowers and hot peppers. There are lots of nice butterflies feeding, too. The hot peppers will become poultry feed supplement. I'll dry them, crumble them up, and add some to the poultry feed every so often. This is ignorance and superstition trying again, but lots of people swear by putting hot peppers in the poultry feed.


E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.