Vermont's Agriculture Secretary says he believes a Richmond farm did all it could to save poultry killed during the Halloween storm.

Maple Wind Farm in Richmond made the post Friday night on Facebook, saying they lost 2,000 broiler chickens and 100 turkeys during the storm. As of Sunday night, the post has over 4,000 comments and almost 2,000 shares.

According to the post, the birds were ready for harvest next week. Some of the comments accused the farm of neglecting to properly secure the animals before the storm. Others shared their condolences over the loss.

Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said he doesn’t want to pass judgment on the farmers. He says he believes they did they best they could as the flood waters rose so quickly.

"This is just a difficult situation and I know folks are sad and they’re upset about this, but the position of the farmer trying to manage this situation, I’m sure it was very difficult for them to get a handle on this and they did the best they could do at the time considering what happened," he said.

Our reporter Erin Brown made several attempts by phone, e-mail and going to the property, to speak with the owner of Maple Wind Farm on Sunday. No calls, or e-mails have been returned.