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r/smallfarms

Image 1 — devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses
Image 2 — devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses
Image 3 — devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses
Image 4 — devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses
Image 5 — devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses
▲ 13 r/smallfarms

devastating fire broke out in one of our chicken houses

hey everybody, my name is Sonja.

let me start by apologizing for the length of this post, i honestly needed somewhere to vent and someone, anyone, to listen.

my husband has listened to me vent until im out of breath and im sure he’s had his fill.

my husband and I are egg hands/chicken tenders here at a commercial chicken farm in South Mississippi.

This is our life, we live on site with our two children. Around lunchtime yesterday we had a fire breakout in our number two house.

It was completely engulfed, a total loss.

We lost 7400 chickens to a horrible devastating death. My children lost all their toys and half of their clothing (my workroom was their playroom) we lost out the freezer and refrigerator as well as numerous belongings. I’m in complete shock. I don’t know what to do. I’m so so grateful that we were managed to get out in time and that there was no injuries or loss of human life. The generator shed that is full of diesel was minutes away from blowing up. I need to share this because I’m hoping that someone or anyone will see this and realize how quickly life can throw curve balls with devastating results.

I never thought I’d have to explain to my kids this type of situation ,or what happened to our pet chickens or why they don’t have toys anymore or try to explain and console my four-year-old all night and morning that her squishmallow she’s slept with every night since she was one is now is gone.

it’s crazy the significance the smallest things hold. i’m not sure where to even start on trying to recoup our losses. We don’t make much. This is a very, very, very modest, Very honest job and we live week to week.

I’m sure the owners will get to recoup their losses with insurance, but because this wasn’t technically a place of residence, there are absolutely zero resources to help us place the material items that we will lost. Now I’m left with the fear that a single breeze can come and cause a still burning ember to fly and hit our remaining chicken house and us lose our camper and the rest of our belongings or even our life.

if that would’ve happened in the middle of the night, I probably wouldn’t be here to make this post. The fire was silent. We didn’t hear anything until it was already completely engulfed. We had just just left to go walk our number one chicken house, hadn’t been out of #2 house for more than an hour when we realized. it took 12 hours to put the fire out. please say a prayer for my family while we try and put our remaining pieces back together, say a prayer for our farm owners and their family, and pray that the poor chickens we lost didn’t suffer too badly. thank you for listing to my word salad.

u/Great-Coconut5847 — 21 hours ago
▲ 13 r/smallfarms

I asked this in the homesteading group but thought this group might be more helpful—

How did you find and pay for your land if you are lower income ?

We are trying to find 5-10 acres to build a home and start our farm back up and money is a huge obstacle for us, hoping to hear some advice and creative solutions.

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u/icecreamsocially — 8 days ago
▲ 39 r/smallfarms

Looking for unbiased thoughts about my family’s farm.  My dad and uncle inherited from their parents 15 years ago.  I am the sole heir to it.  Currently it is around 170 tillable acres(all rented out), 15 acres of unused pasture, and about 100 acres of old growth woods Assets of the farm at this point are a 140hp turbo diesel, 85hp non turbo diesel, 65hp non turbo diesel with loader tractors,  1 ten thousand bushels bin with dryer and stirators.  All of the other field equipment was sold off 10 years ago and the building where most of it was kept has been torn down.  I currently live a few hours away and am thinking about whether or not farm it myself when I inherit it.  I say when I inherit it because growing up, I was never taught much about and repeatedly denied much opportunity to help with field work; the only field work I did was cultivating weeds out in the summer.  In the last few years I have mentioned helping out (mainly mowing the pasture and a couple old hay fields and have also been shut down by my dad.  By the time I was a teenager my grandfather was saying the farm as it was wouldn’t provide enough for a living and I think everyone thought they were pushing me out for my own good.  I myself am a mechanical engineer now and  don’t need to farm for money.  I do have several friends in area that do farm and they are willing help me learn the ropes.  As my username implies, I would be a fourth generation and there is something emotionally appealing about that along with not being the one that cashed out, which would be the second option.  I know there will need to be replacement equipment and a storage building.  I in my mid forties am now at the point of planning my family’s life.  It seems four of my options are combinations of keeping are farm it myself or rent it out and whether or not to move back(engineering jobs are not exactly plentiful in the area) or option 5 of cashing out.   I do accept that would basically be a hobby farm and a side hustle.  Thank you  everyone in advance for your insights and I will try to answer questions.

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u/Maybe4thgenfarmer — 13 days ago
▲ 1 r/smallfarms

Hi there. I'm looking for some advice. I have an opportunity to collaborate with a property owner to grow some meat birds. How do I determine fair compensation to offer to the property owner? I would be growing a relatively small number of birds for personal consumption. My location is in Canada.

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u/dueling_crickets — 8 days ago