Pets | Farming

Raising chickens last season went fairly well, but our flock dwindled a bit due to natural attrition and predators. Apparently, chickens sometimes up and die unexpectedly. This is why I absolutely refuse to name our gals, fearing I’ll get too attached and have a hard time saying goodbye. Known as "sudden death syndrome," they’ll occasionally keel over dead due to unidentified causes. Most likely a heart attack or egg blockage in their reproductive tract. Chicks can also die of suffocation from piling up on each other, or from being attacked. Raccoons got a couple of ours before the coop was totally secured, and we had to make dinner out of a rooster that attacked Sidekick. We never intended to have roosters, but a couple of our chicks have been sexed wrong.

At some point, whether you’re a single bachelor/bachelorette or a family with children running around, you may find that you want something more in your life. Something that always waits for you to return and loves you the whole time you’re there. An addition which improves everything about your from your serotonin levels to your lifespan.

When we tell people that we live in rural San Diego, we often get blank stares. Everyone pictures surf and turf, not sheep and dirt.

Hey everyone. Kraken here. Nate’s in the shower and I thought I’d talk about some of the things we’ve been up to.

I remember when I was a kid, my grandma had a refrigerator magnet with that saying. "Be the person your dog thinks you are." I didn’t understand it at the time. I didn’t grow up with dogs and – frankly – I think my grandma’s pets all thought of me as competition.

We’ve been talking about the dogs quite a bit lately (squeaky wheel gets the oil and all) but quite a few people have asked about our tabby cat. Ulysses is still around, still kicking and frisky as ever!

We have a whole slew of adopted animals on our little farm, from dogs and cats to chickens, goats and sheep. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that we’ve gotten livestock and birds from adoption centers, but the fact is that any sort of animal can experience abuse and abandonment, and they all need love!

Well, this sucks. For those of you who are wondering, bordetella avium is not a fancy new name for my pot pie. It’s a gnarly disease that chickens get on occasion. So far, we’ve lost three good layers to it.

After our chicken wire frame craft last week with Arrow Fastener, a bunch of people asked me for more details on raising chickens. This is our first season raising chickens, and it’s actually gone quite smoothly. I have a little practice from helping my neighbors with theirs when I was a kid, but I am no expert by any means.