Freed

I finally let Annie and Caroline out of the Love Shack because Annie’s wounds were getting healed and I didn’t have to worry about catching her for more shots.  They are both quite happy to be free and going back out to pasture.

Annie

Caroline

Hopefully, I don’t have to worry about more coyote attacks once the fence is finished.

New Ladies

Last year saw the loss of a lot of my chickens due to predators and age.  When my nephew and his wife decided to order chickens, I asked if they’d order an extra ten for me.  They agreed.  Then the day before the little chicks were scheduled to arrive, the door fell off my brooder pen.  Seriously.

from a previous batch of chicks

Then I went out to the outdoor pen and saw what bad shape it was in and didn’t know how I’d ever keep them safe and inside the pen.  My little peacock was quite big before I could keep him confined.

peacock baby from a couple years ago

I was also already struggling with trying to get weight on Aurora and it was in the middle of the copper crisis with all the goats, and I was overwhelmed, so I asked if I could leave them with him.  Again, he was awesome.  As the summer has gone on though, I’ve missed chickens and having eggs here.

This weekend they sent ten hens home with me.  They are pretty girls.

Even though chickens have to establish a pecking order and can be quite mean, I wasn’t too worried about them getting along since there’s a lot more of the new ones than my old ones.

2 new barred rocks, nugget and my old red hen

But my phoenix hen is being naughty.  She’s the smallest bird out there.  They could step on her and smash her.

phoenix hen

Nugget just has more girls to take care of.

Nugget

The biggest problem is the peacocks.  They are not very smart birds, and they just want to peck at the new ones.  The new girls havnen’t figured out not to let the peacocks walk up to them and peck their face.  Hopefully, everyone gets adjusted soon.  I’ll keep a close eye on them to make sure nobody is seriously injured.

new hen and a peacock

It was just the next day when someone gave me my first egg.

It’s a cute little pullet egg!

Fencing

Just when I had to go back to work, my nephew had the fencing supplies delivered (although we are still waiting on the netting), and we’re putting a fence through the middle of my Back Forty.

I hate the idea of dividing my beautiful open pasture, but it’s a last ditch effort to keep the goats safe from coyotes. Nothing else has helped.

I’m going to keep them away from the back hills and west border because that’s where the coyotes live.  They keep coming more and more onto my farm because of houses being built and the woods getting the underbrush cleared away.

Hopefully, this will allow the goats a better view and they can’t be sneaked up on.  The netting we’re getting is supposed to keep coyotes out, especially with a strand of barbed-wire along the bottom to stop them from digging.

Although, it will cut the hay field into two pieces.

It should still give them plenty of area to eat, and they’ll have the ditch with its shade trees.

Although they will lose this part of the pasture and the back hill, which are two areas they really enjoy.  I guess, they’ll still get the whole pasture though when the days are long (May – August).

I hope it works.  While we’re at the fence building, we’re hoping to widen the lane coming out of the barnyard to give the goats the no-man’s land where we don’t really use it to make hay (fence will be somewhere around my black line).  It will be good to have them keep the wild rose bushes eaten out of there.

Hopefully, we don’t run out of time to get this done before harvest.  I hate that I can’t be around to help him.  Luckily, my dad has helped him with setting posts.