Chickens clucking to the tune of Taps

It is a sad day in deerfield. We knew there was some chicken disease afoot (that we got back when we purchased chickens in Douglasville ie Dottie, Honkey, and some of the others).

When we got back from our Christmas break the silver rooster from our egg hatch had died. We froze him and this past thursday took him to have an autopsy, and he had Marek's disease in his digestive tract which had caused him to be weakened, and then caught a strain of e. coli that caused respiratory problems (who knew that could happen). In talking to the vet about our chickens (before we stumbled into a conversation about his past-life experiences) he gave an estimate that perhaps 2/3 or so of our chickens might die.

There has been a lot of sneezing down at the chicken area, and we are worried we are about to have a rash of chicken deaths, and there isn't much we can do about it. We are currently giving them an antibiotic to treat the e coli, but the real problem for the young ones is the Marek's disease. Only time will tell for sure.

In happier news we brewed another batch of beer today, a chocolate oatmeal stout. It should be ready to bottle in two weeks. It tasted pretty yummy pre-fermentation.

Also happier is that we have started feeding the goats in the barn, and storing food for them there so our chores feel like they have gotten significantly easier. On the down side there are still some small leaks, but hopefully this week I'll get a chance to try out the sealer we bought.

I guess that is about it from Deerfield for now.

Jeff