rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

Wow. The dogs are super important to the chickens. We took the dogs on a walk in town on the rail trail with the inlaws. We were gone for about an hour. I came back with two tired dogs and discovered chicken feathers everywhere. Something got at least one of my egg eating chickens in our short absence. That would be why the dogs bark at night. The woods are always watching and the dogs have to watch it right back. I should be glad it wasn't a doeling, I guess.

 

[Baymule]

You are right about that, the woods are always watching!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Sure am glad it wasn't something worse, ......any dog that protects is priceless.....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Gosh, Miss @rachels.haven! Any idea what it might have been? Do you have installed game cameras that will capture pictures of the predator(s)? I hope you can get rid of it/them. I hope your dogs are OK.

 

[rachels.haven]

The dogs are doing good. They were just out with us taking some time off to be pet dogs when something came around. I'm a bit afraid of what I'll see with a game can. We're infested with things people should be shooting but aren't and I'm trying to deny that.

A game can is a good idea though. I'll strongly consider it.

 

[farmerjan]

Just one missing, feathers around..... no holes in the fence that you can find? Probably a hawk unless there is something like a bobcat around.

 

[rachels.haven]

Possibly. We do also have bobcats. Oddly I've yet to see a fox. It could also still be a coyote. I don't trust them not to go over the fence. The important thing is that the dogs are back at work.

 

[farmerjan]

If you have coyotes close you seldom will have many foxes. They don't co-habitate the same general area well. Coyotes will often kill more than one if they are running around going nuts. They are like raccoons, they will kill for fun. Foxes will grab and go if they can carry it. But coons and coyotes will kill for the fun of it, then carry off one.

 

[rachels.haven]

A hay lady in town I was in touch with earlier contacted me on Sunday. She brought in some second cutting from NY that she was sure my goats would love. (She sells what she grows until she runs out normally) It's about $10/bale, which is normal rate in this horse town (my littleton hay guy is $8/55lbs bales). I knew I didn't have enough to get through winter, so I said yes to 1,800 lbs of it BUT she said it had to be delivered that day because of winter weather and she'd waive delivery fee if it could be that way, so i said yes to that too. That would have included putting it in the hay loft for me with an elevator if my large gate was 10ft instead of 8ft 6" (thanks fence guy, told you so, I'll address that later). So I had almost a ton of hay delivered to my garage for me to put away as usual. Those $10 bales were about 70lbs each, dry as a bone, and grass FULL of alfalfa. I am very, very happy. The goats are also very happy. I think after this massive bale I'm going to let them eat through the other hay and use the alfalfa hay going into kidding. That hay is really a blessing. It is also being stored on the ground floor of the barn because I am not (s)he-woman.

My bucks are wormy again. Time to muck out and worm (then repeat 10 days later, and again if needed). It's annoying. I got fecal samples collected today to do before I dose.

New lamanchas came and it looks like they have had bad hoof rot at one point. It does not seem to be active and no limping, but their hooves are terrible. I have Koppertox on hand and am ready to use it. My goats occasionally get a touch of it if I neglect their hooves, but nothing like these. Dry bedding will help. Nothing smelly, just deformed, pocketed hooves, some separation. I'm a little irked. I can handle this, but that looks so painful. These are NICE goats. It shouldn't have happened to them, and if I'd known, I'm not sure I would have paid what I did for them. Regardless, they're in a good place now, and I like things clean and dry and I stay on top of feet so they should improve. My lamancha herd is done for now.

Welcome Lucky 4-leaf Count Chocula and Kaos Farm Uranium. Come and heal and get fat and grow bigger. The other lamancha buck I got from the same place is quite fat now and his feet are improving slowly. I'm hoping these guys do the same.

Part of me wishes I could add teats like this into my nigerian herd. They're only an hour and a half away. Pricy, especially considering that my interactions with Avalon the Bucky are still not always great.
http://tinyhillfarm.com/?page_id=64

I gave Ava back her doelings. No more nursing has taken place. Her udder is still messed up from their rough treatment of it, so I'm glad they're seeking lunch elsewhere. Every time she starts to fill it cracks. I'm trying to dry her off (still) without traumatizing the area too bad. She should not get tight. I'm hoping daily attention, antibiotic ointment, and cleaning will fix it. She really loves kicking me in the face. Sometimes it works better to just lift her rear half up, prop her up on my leg, and clean and butter her udder and let her kick. I'm still bigger. Not helping her learn good behavior though. If she doesn't improve her behavior by her next kidding in April I will probably sell her and she can go kick someone else. I'm hoping for does out of her by Patrick. I love sweet Patrick.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Have you ever used bag balm ? Used to use it when I lived in NH on my goats , worked great in the winter....
Hope you catch a break from the snow .