Rats!  I really mean it!  Rats!

Last year, we were invaded by furry little beasts who had discovered a delectable banquet of animal feed to feast upon.  Store-bought traps?  No effect.  Super-cool, Youtube-inspired trapping devices?  Nope.  Poison?  Somewhat.  Aha…barn cats!!  Now we are making serious progress.  This has helped in the big barn.  But then there is the chicken barn.

An old worn-out garage houses our up-and-coming hens-to-be and our meat bird brooding pens.  Perhaps being pecked and trampled by 36 young hens has convinced the rats to leave them alone.  Instead, the pests have set their sights on the babies.  And so we are at war.

My husband and Hayden, our new friend and helper, have tried to stay a step ahead by building tightly wired pens with cement floors but…they missed a hole.  Only a few hours after introducing our newest and largest flock to their home, I went in to check on the tiny birds and gasped in horror.  Our flock had been reduced by over a third.

Muttering, “Oh no!  Oh, no!” as calmly as I could, I gently transferred the survivors into a newly finished–and fully protected–pen, and wrote a note to my sleeping husband.

“I Really Hate Rats!” he declared the next day as he grabbed cement and a trowel.  I found his reaction to be rather calm…

Not to worry, meat bird customers…the remaining chicks are alive and well; replacement chicks have been ordered; and the hole has been filled with cement–along with every other crack and crevice David could find.

I have two reasons for sharing this sad story.

First, when my web designer and I were setting up this site, she encouraged me to share the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.  Since transparency is one of our foundational life principles, I readily agreed.  When you own a business, especially a farm, some days are delightful and others are downright nasty.  What will you do with such days?  Will you throw up your hands and walk away or declare war and grab the cement?

The second reason for sharing is to let you know that we had to make some changes to our September butchering plans.  We added a few extra days to allow the remaining flock to settle down and grow.  And, we added a fourth Pick-Up Day to accommodate the replacement chicks.  We will now have meat chickens available on Tuesday, September 5 and Tuesday, September 19.  You will find these changes on our ordering pages.

We have only a few chickens available for August 4 pick up.  If you haven’t ordered, now is the time.

And as for you rats, we have planned a secret weapon for you…Manny, the exterminator, is on his way.