Unity Farm Journal - Third Week of May 2016

Wedding plans have occupied much of this week at Unity Farm, ensuring that my daughter’s marriage weekend has perfect logistics.    A wedding on a farm is more challenging than you think - how do you prevent flying guinea fowl from leaving “gifts” on the guests?   Should the pigs be moved to minimimze squealing during the ceremony?   How do you prevent chickens from eating the flowers?   We’ll be serving Unity Farm foods and beverages, accompanied by vegan/vegetarian catering.   The family begins arriving tonight.This week, another goose,  Hermes, was born.    Our weather has been very unusual and we’ve had a series of nights with temperatures in the 30’s.    Hermes was wet and chilled while hatching and became hypothermic.   We warmed and dried him in the incubator then placed him in the brooder.     He was so weak that he could not stand/walk and had splayed legs We’ve treated splayed legs in guinea fowl before so we knew how to make a brace, keeping the femurs aligned so that the hip joints would not develop laxity.  It’s critical to intervene on the first day of life, otherwise the bird will never walk.  With the brace in place, fresh food/water, and physical therapy every few hours, Hermes gathered strength and today he is walking.   We’ll return him to the goose house today or tomorrow.    We named him Hermes because we knew he’d heal and become a swif...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs