Last Sunday I went on this beautiful snowshoeing expedition. I wish I could have gone longer but had to meet up with a friend. It's was absolutely gorgeous! And I felt AWESOME. It's been a long time since I've been outside. Here's happy Angie:
This week was a good week at work. Bad news of the week though - all of our chicks have a virus called Marek's. It can be vaccinated for, but unfortunately poor decisions that were made before I got here and they weren't vaccinated. The 2011 birds were vaccinated, but it's only 95% affective. So, a couple of birds of the 2011 batch were probably sick and recovered but they still shed the virus. We cleaned the coop but did not sanitize it. Then we put our chickies in. The virus can take up to 12 weeks to show in the birds. We've been loosing birds since November. I haven't said much about it on here, because we had no idea what it was. I didn't want to cause panic. I can see it now - "BIRD FLU! SALMONELLA!" It's neither. It's not contagious to humans, just super contagious among chicken populations. It causes paralysis. I had a meeting with the CEO last week, who said to cull (or kill) all of the infected flock. It's sad, but it makes sense. There is nothing you can do for this disease, and we could loose 80% of our flock. And whoever is left would have to be quarantined from any other bird we bring in. It's simpler this way. It's going to be sad, because I've watched these birds grow from day 2 of life. This is the sad part of farming...
But when there is death there is life. We'll have 2 pigs having piglets this month, one for the first time. I'm a little worried because it is her first time - momma pigs tend to roll on their babies and kill them on accident. So we'll have to keep a very close eye on her.
This was my morning today, moving cows out to pasture. I love this refreshing aspect of my job.
The good with the bad! Lovely photo! Can't wait to come see you!!
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