Dealing With Animal Life and Death on the Homestead

Life on our small farm is abundant.  Especially as spring approaches, the anticipation for new life builds!

Chicks are being born, goats are preparing to give birth, green sprouts appear on trees, and we all wait in excitement for the front pastures to make their transformation into glorious fields full of wildflowers. 

For me, as a fairly new farm gal, all of this new life also brings a bit of a worry about death.  Will everything go okay when our goat Nancy gives birth?  Will we be able to keep her kids protected from predators?  Are the new chicks staying warm...or are they too warm?  I still perk up at every noise I hear at night listening to make sure that nothing is getting into our chicken coop and hurting our chickens.

We had not been living here long when we experienced our first animal loss.  A pack of dogs got into our chicken coop and killed every hen that was in that coop. 

We were devastated.  We felt guilty for not being able to protect them better and we felt sad for the loss of life.  I hated farming at that point.  I was ready to move back to the city.

 

 

Over the next year we lost several other animals and each time we mourned. 

I kept thinking it would get easier for us but it never did. 

I was afraid to get any more farm animals.

I started to wonder if maybe we were not cut out for farm life.

 

But as I prayed about it and as I learned from other homesteaders and farmers I began to see a new reality emerge.

It should not get easier.

You see, by working on a farm and learning to homestead we learn the value of life as well as death.

We work each and every day with animals that give their all to provide milk, honey, and eggs to nourish our families.  We love on animals that eventually give their lives to bring us what we need to live.

Becoming a farmer does not mean that you should become hardened to death, it means that you become thankful for life.

I don't want to turn back into the girl that slapped some eggs on the table for breakfast never taking the time to think about the hens that worked so hard to lay them for me. 

And I don't want to turn back into the girl that grilled dinner and served it up never giving a thought to the animals whose ultimate job it was to feed me.

No. I will continue to feel sad when we lose animals. 

Because being a farmer is not just about what all I can take from the animals and the earth, it is also about what I can give.



We are super excited for the opportunity of participating in the Homestead Barn Hop #146!!