Carnage.

What makes this way of life hard, is the tragedy. The loss of time and investment. The strike at your heart every time something tears into your infrastructure and functioning and touches the ones you love and depend on. This morning was…. Unlike anything else thus far.

The weather was fine, the sun was shining…. Dr. Farmer Moomin, woke up first. He discovered goats, were free roaming the yard. This happens sometimes…. But it was what he saw next that turned his blood to ice. In 2 spots on the goat fence one of which was up against the woods, something had completely bent the fence down. 

In shock, he began gathering up the goats…. That was when he found the first chicken corpse laying in the grass. The little coop that means so much to me because he built it was turned right over. As if something had lifted it up then dropped it on it’s side. Our birds wandered clearly traumatized. In horror, he kept walking seeing another feathered corpse and several piles of feathers….. All the way to the large coop….. Where most of our chickens live.

The chicken run had been busted right through…. But what was more shocking, was that the wall right where by where the roost was located inside, had been shredded and ripped right off the side of the shed. Still more little feathered corpses, and a couple more traumatized wandering birds….. But most of our birds, were simply gone…. Without a trace….

My amazing spouse, began burying our dead. 

I got up next. Dr. Farmer Moomin, stopped me, and told me to prepare myself before I go outside. Then he said I needed to come see what happened over the night… We lost a lot last night. Living things suffered and perished as nature’s cruel rules played out in what I consider my sand box. 

We finally got the goats corralled, later, we were even able to get the chickens left into the less damaged coop and repairs are under way. But I don’t know if my broken heart can repair as simply as boarding up damage to an outer back chicken coop wall… Living beings that I cared about no longer exist. Something large and horrible took them from me. In this region of the country that can be only one thing. Since we don’t live in The Bridgewater Triangle and there are no Big Foot here, it had to have been a bear. A large black bear.

I always talk about wanting to go further out into nowhere to do exactly what we do now… I suppose of late things have been going ok, and little excitement has made things a bit dull. This was not the excitement I was looking for though. The bear, came within feet of the house. Walked right past the house the long way and went and took out both chicken coops…

I am floored. I have never seen anything like this. What was even more shocking, is that the cops had nothing to say when I called them to find out what the procedure was for a situation like this. So I called the Wildlife office, they were even less helpful. 

So let’s talk about bears. In my 20s, I read an article claiming there were only 300 in the state of MA. They eradicated bear hunting due to the insufficient number in the state. Well 20ish years later, no one has been hunting bears. Last I read there were thousands now in this state. In recent history they have been seen walking around happy as clams in places as close to the city as Lexington…. The more of them there are, the less the forest can sustain the population. The more they will leave and situations in which they come into conflict with human beings will occur. More and more people are reporting bears destroying chicken coops, bears getting into bee hives….. And I am not really that far out either, on the cusp of Central MA and Metro West in a town that qualifies as both. 

I worry about the day, that a child is playing outside near a chicken coop and a bear does something terrible. 

I realize this nation has problems and this state too like all states has it’s stuff. Stuff, that eats up a huge amount of time and resources. Most people live in the city. So most representatives are highly concerned about city life…. They never stop to care weather those out just a little are at risk of bear attack on the way to their chicken coop. Most of our politicians grew up in cities. They don’t understand forestry or that when too many of an animal variety exist in a given area, the resources for that animal out in nature are insufficient. Then, animals become sick, and they come in conflict with people as they come out of the forest and right into conflict with human beings, who depend on their livestock. This creates hazards not just for people but also for bears. To continue to do nothing about the issue of the now over abundant population of bears in this state, is just mismanagement from the top, who have lost sight of many of us who don’t live a convenient city life style in part because the costs of living in cities in this state are extreme. This state has trouble retaining it’s young people due to it’s unaffordability. Many might find some relief moving out of the city to a small town where Metro West and Worcester area meet…. But how can they raise a family out here with yards full of bears? It creates too much dangers. So the getting is better in some other state where they remember that they have a population that exists outside the city.

Bears have no natural predators. So, now that the law says  no hunting… The population grows and grows and grows. 

I am not a fan of people killing things to take a head to mount on the wall. If you kill it you are damned well going to eat it and use as much of that animal as possible. But, there is a time and a place for everything. We know where unchecked bear hunting leads. It leads to a population of 300. That is absolutely unacceptable. But limited hunting, perhaps if the state wanted to raffle off special permission to take a certain number of bears every year, or sell permission to the highest 10 bidders in an auction…. Could lead to a healthier bear population for the bears. Less human bear interaction which is again good for bears but also for people, and more money for the state to put into things that matter, such as perhaps a program to perhaps help fund head start for those in our community who need it the most. My point, is this would be a win win win. It would also be a win for chickens just minding their own business, living their best lives pooping out their eggs daily, doing their part to feed our Massachusett’s society. 

Tragically, I will have to rebuild my chicken operation in the spring. I will do things differently. I will put up electric fence around my coops and bee hive. 

But I stand by there being a problem when bears are fearless or desperate enough to go so close to houses. There is something even wronger when Fish And Wildlife really couldn’t care less, and still wronger when the big wigs of this state don’t give a damn about the wildlife of the state or the people providing the food at the farmer’s markets. Eat local they say support our farmers…. Ok Wu guys…. YOU FIRST! Please address the Massachusett’s bear problem. Because it is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt by a bear. But don’t take my word for it. Ask Grafton New Hampshire. They could tell you all about it. I would encourage Massachusetts politicians to check out the book a favorite of mine called A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear. They may find it interesting on multiple levels not just in relation to the Massachusetts bear problem.

As for us, we will salvage what we can. We will repair what we can, and protect what we have left. We will mourn our dead. And we will rebuild in the spring… Tragedy happens. It’s part of life. But that doesn’t make it any easier. People talk about the dream that is this way of life…. But they truly don’t know the half of it. This too is a part of what we do out here. We mourn and cry. We trade in big city problems for rural problems. Often, we are forgotten by the society that surrounds us as we are just a little bit off the beaten track… We fend for ourselves and we bury our dead… And we cry and we celebrate the good times. Like that first egg when you bring your first chickens to the homestead. The first milk from the goats. The first success in the outdoor garden, bringing home fresh apples right after you have picked them….. Finding your first baby goat in the spring…. Discovering wild berries back in the woods for a batch of muffins….. I try to think of these things even as I try to blot out the suffering and terror my chickens must have experienced even as they were granted a violent death.

The horrors we have seen today, we will never unsee.  Even so, human need doesn’t stop and therefore neither can we. Our job remains the same. Even in the face of grief, food must be produced and processed, household necessities must be crafted…. We must pick up and keep moving because convenience is 45 minutes away. This is the life we have chosen. There are truly days it is so hard. On the hard days, it is Dr. Farmer Moomin, I worry over most. He is such a gentle soul, and so kind… I worry the tragedies of farming will change him… Or write on the slate of who he is. It is already too late for me, car accidents and other tragedies have already left me destroyed… But here we are together, facing the unthinkable. A terrible and very natural tragedy, one that happened in the darkness right out behind our home. 

Still, we keep going because we have to.
If we don’t what was the point? Why did these beautiful feathered creatures die?
They didn’t die so we could pack it in and give up. That would cheapen their memory.
They deserve better than that.
So, we thank them for what they have taught us.
We tell them how sorry we are that it ended this way and if we could go back… 
To ensure their welfare, we would. But we did truly believe they were safe after watching them
Thrive here with us over the last 12 years, unbothered…
Today was…. Yeah…….. I hope I never see another today.
Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm