Orphaned Fawn



Look carefully to the left of the fence post and you will see the little fawn.

There is an orphaned fawn living in the front pasture along the driveway. I noticed it about two weeks ago as I drove down the driveway on my way to work. It jumped up from the undergrowth and ran circles around the pasture.

I noticed it was trying to live with the cattle last night as I watched ZZ Tom chase it around the pasture. The fawn is so small and the grass so tall that I lost sight of it until I saw bunches of quail breaking from cover in a line down through the pasture. Obviously the fawn was running through the field scaring up birds.

Emerald Ash Borer

My pastures are surrounded by woods.  Oak, a few maple, locust, wild cherry, wild plum and lots of green ash trees fill all the old fence rows.  We even have a few persimmon trees. For the last several years the wild cherry trees have been dying.  No one seems to be too concerned about this, but me. Wilted wild cherry leaves produce prussic acid and if the cows eat the leaves it can kill them!

This old ash tree has been dying by bits and piece for the last ten years, but this year it is riddled with little holes. I've not seen any insects, but I have to believe this is borer damage.

This year I'm noticing the ash trees in the fence lines are dying. And this year I finally see evidence of emerald ash borer in trees near the house!  There are 18 ash trees in my yard along with a dozen or more locusts and a few oaks that we planted.  As I watch the borer slowly kill a huge old ash near the chicken house, I know that it is only a matter of time before they cross the fence into the yard. Therefore, I'm taking action!

Here's a close up of the tree with the holes and the torn bark. I don't think there is any doubt that this is the work of insects.



This is hopefully my weapon to save the ash trees in the yard. It's from Bayer (like the aspirin) and claims to kill insects such as Japanese beetles and emeral ash borer and feed the trees all at the same time. The treatment lasts a year. It's not cheap, this gallon container cost $69 at Lowes's (less discount for using my Lowes card), and I estimate I will need a total of six gallons for my 18 trees.  It's a poison green creamy liquid that you mix with water and pour around the base of the tree.

Life and Death on the Farm

Sad to report this morning that the one little chick that hatched about a month ago was killed over night inside the chicken house.  I found his half eaten body inside the house this morning. He was alive and well with his mother when I locked up last night, but not there at the door this morning, anxious to be outside and hunting for bugs with mother hen ever watchful at his side.
My first thought was that one of the big roosters killed him. An investigation of the chicken house however, uncovered a small hole about two inches wide in the hardware cloth covering the ventilation window on the lower west side of the chicken house and the body was found just a few inches from the hole. The hole had been made from the outside because the wire was pushed in. Hardware cloth is pretty tough stuff. We use it instead of poultry wire ( or net as it is called sometimes) because raccoons can tear open poultry wire with their bare "hands". 
None of the other chickens were disturbed but the body was left near the hole, gutted.  My first thought was a weasel. They are small enough to get through the hole in the wire, but weasels just usually suck the blood from a hole in the neck and leave the body.  Raccoons usually gut the birds and often try to take the carcass with them, but the hole in the wire was way too small for any raccoons. So I will conclude it was some type of weasel like creature that can tear through hardware cloth! I don't want to close up the window as its critical to the ventilation for the house, but I need a barrier similar to hardware cloth with a very small grid.  I'll be headed for Lowe's this morning to find a screen door cover and hope that that does the trick.  I'm concerned for the rest of the birds as I have hardware cloth covered doors and windows elsewhere on the house and once a weasel finds a way in I'm afraid it will be back for more chicken dinners.  Will keep you posted.

The little guy was twice this size when he was killed last night. He'd grown really quickly and would have been a beautiful rooster .