Pumpkins and Chicks

Pumpkin in flower

Everything on this farm is a mixed bag. The pumpkins are doing amazingly well, the chickens are doing terribly. I suppose this is just the way it goes when you are dealing with living things. Let's start with the good news, the pumpkins. I planted 24 seedlings (sprouted from seeds that are two generations from that one Wal-Mart purchased pumpkin three years ago). They appear to really like the rain. I have now got countless pumpkins out there. Of course, not all of them will survive, but a good number of them should.
Young pumpkin

The bad news on the farm is the chickens. They are all sick. You may recall that we bought some new chickens a few weeks ago that were in very bad shape when they arrived. They were missing a lot of feathers and a number of them had their beaks clipped. Well caveat emptor was never so amply demonstrated as here. They brought some disease with them, unfortunately, now the entire flock, both chickens and ducks alike are sick. They have a respiratory infection of some kind. Their chests rattle when they breath and they all have runny noses. We are treating them with antibiotics, but it is possible that we will lose the entire flock. Thus far the Guinea Hens seem unaffected. Some chickens are worse than others, but one of our healthiest laying hens is presently one of the sickest birds. I feel sick watching her suffer. Neither of the roosters can crow with all the phlegm in their throats. The one good thing here is that the turkeys (we are now down to 11 from 15) have been kept segregated and seem unaffected. We are giving them a chick-dose of the antibiotics in an effort to protect them as the germ could easily travel to them from our hands or whatnot. We have been careful to stop handling the birds and we are washing out hands a lot. The good news, is that despite the sickness, only the very sickest birds are inactive. We have two that are laying down for most of the day, otherwise the majority of the flock is continuing their regular daily activities despite the chest and nasal congestion. It could just be a garden variety cold that they will all get over. I sure hope so. I would hate to lose all of our girls.