How bird flu has devastated one American farm

MariKate keeps thinking about what their pastor said in church, just a week before their birds started dying. 

“There’s two kinds of people in life,” she said. “You can either say ‘why me?’ or ‘what’s next?’” 

They dug the graves on the edge of the farm, in a field dotted with dried corncobs.  

The four of them went out together: Marty, MariKate and two farmworkers. It took them all day to dig the holes, then cart over all the chicken carcasses in a skid steer.  

They buried all the bodies, along with thousands of dollars of feed and eggs, as the USDA had instructed them to do.

MariKate wept inside her N-95 mask.  

That day, a car had pulled up to the farm, and one of their regular customers got out, hoping to pick up fresh eggs. Still dressed in her hazmat suit, MariKate explained what had happened. He immediately handed her all the cash in his wallet. 

Then the messages started pouring in. 

“Praying for you guys in this time of struggle.” 

“All your dental friends are rooting for this to be all fixed up as quickly as possible!!” 

Donations to their GoFundMe campaign have swelled since word got out — as have orders for their online farmers market, the main source of their remaining revenue. They’ve been moved by the outpouring of support from their customers and community. But Kakadoodle Farm is still in financial peril. They’re considering applying for a private loan to keep the farm afloat. 

“We’re at the bottom of our barrel,” Marty said. “If this doesn’t work, we’re out our entire life savings.” 

What they keep telling themselves: They’ve weathered other disasters on the farm — and somehow found a way to survive.

There was the barn that burned down because of a faulty extension cord. The bacterial infection that tore through their flock, cratering egg production. There were endless mishaps and mistakes they made as they expanded their operation, battling mites and frozen water lines and the aftermath of tornados, scouring YouTube and turning to more seasoned farmers for answers.   

“It’s happened again and again and again,” Marty said. “This is crazy, what we’re doing. Like — we don’t know this world at all.” 

And the next time, he and MariKate will be better prepared. They want to renovate their coops to keep wild birds out of the feed, while still giving the chickens space to roam. They’ll make sure to keep their farm shoes on the farm, to help reduce the spread of disease.   

Because bird flu isn’t leaving America any time soon. Just three weeks ago, Marty and MariKate got a call from another local farmer who suspected he had a bird flu outbreak. He agonized over whether to call the USDA. His father begged him not to, warning that the agency would come and slaughter all of their birds.

“All I can tell you is what we did,” MariKate told him before she hung up.

The farmer made the call.