Staying Alert

Our Department of Farmland Security Terror Alert has been raised here with the addition of 15 new chickens. The Fox could not resist coming in closer yesterday to look over the new arrivals. My Husband was outside and heard one of the new hens complaining bitterly, so he looked for the source of her irritation and saw the fox licking his lips nearby. By the time the DH got into the house for a weapon, the fox had disappeared.

So I have my marching orders for today, I am to keep a sharp eye out for the intruder. I have already walked the perimeter twice this morning with my new scoped Savage .17 H.M.R. that I have not even shot yet.

I will have to do some research before I am able to say for sure what kind of chickens these all are but they are a colorful bunch. One that I think is a red sexlink is already a favorite of mine, she follows me around everywhere I go. As soon as I have time I will post pictures of them and maybe someone can help me out on what they are.

Busy Again

Busy, busy, busy, I have so much to do that I am actually looking forward to winter. My Husband will be very upset by this comment. I don't have time to blog but I will use it as an organization tool.

I finally got most of my Spring surge of rope halter orders finished. I currently only have two outstanding orders that total 6 halters. Then this morning I got an order for 17 more halters.

I am in the process of building a large website for a Barrel Racer and Trainer. I have all of the information and pictures that I need to finish it, I just need to pull it all together.

I also have been asked to do a local website for our community that I would really like to do a nice job on, it will be complicated with a lot of information, I am donating the entire site and my time. At this point, I am trying to figure out how I want to do it. I will post a link to it here when it is finished.

We have sold a horse and possibly another one, this requires some major attention this week because someone will be here to pick one of them up on August 4th, she will have to have all of her paperwork and Vet exam done this week.

I really need to update our website but it always gets pushed to the bottom of my "to do" list. I don't even have the new foals on there yet.

Dishes and laundry are an unending problem for me. As is Cooter who has to be moved from location to location throughout the day. Plus goats and chickens to be fed and cared for.

I spent most of the morning this morning looking for one of my Mille Fleur D'Uccle hens, she has totally disappeared orphaning her three chicks, this is the same hen that was picked up by the hawk a week or so ago. I really hate that I am loosing my broody hens but especially my Millies. I haven't been able to find any feathers anywhere, so it must have been a hawk that got her.

I am thinking about renaming our place to The Fox and Hawk Food Farm or Predator's Ranch.

Falcon?

I think that I discovered this morning what got away with my little red hen. I had just come in from feeding the chickens early this morning and sat down in front of the computer, when I heard a commotion outside the door in the drive through part of the barn. All of the chickens were squawking and scattering. I ran out the door but only saw all of the chickens running toward the goat/chicken house, except for the two Mille Fleur D'Uccles with their chicks.

I looked around and found that one of the D'Uccle hens was missing. Her three chicks were chirping loudly and looking for her. I wasn't sure what had happened but summoned my dear Husband from his slumber to assist. He went one way and I went another. I noticed that several crows were pitching a fit and were attacking something out in the pasture. It was too small for a hawk, unless it was a young one. It flew away and my little D'Uccle hen was staggering around in the pasture on her way back to the yard, disoriented. I picked her up and brought her back to her chicks. She was not injured that I could tell.

It could have been a falcon, we had one here once before that stayed around all day then moved on. It landed on my Husband's head, which kind of took him by surprise. It acted pretty tame, so we assumed it was someone's pet or had escaped from captivity. But we could never catch it, although we could get close to it. We didn't have chickens at the time.

Whatever this was this morning, it is a small bird of prey and flew right in the back door of the barn, grabbed the hen and flew out the front door. I told my DH that I wouldn't take a thousand dollars apiece for my Livestock Guardian Crows. I think he though might since we have so many.

Perfect Angel

Angel, my Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dog or LGD for those who have never read my blog before, is doing just great. She hardly ever carries stuff away or chews on things that she isn't suppose to anymore, I think the whipping that she got with the garden hose that she chewed in two really helped. I did catch her with a coffee can the other day, she had taken it into the goat lot, I explained to her that it doesn't look good to have tin cans in a goat lot because it causes people to stereotype goats as tin can eaters. She understood and hasn't done it since.

The main reason that I am so proud of her this morning is because she barked and barked until I finally went out, I looked around and didn't see anything but she insisted that there was something out there. Finally a fox ran out from behind one of the buildings where he was hiding. I didn't have time to get a gun. I don't know when I will start remembering to take a gun with me when I go out. Angel got a big "Good Girl", a pat of the head and a hug around the neck.

The only problem that I am having with Angel at this time is that she wants me to play with her and I am just not able. She is always bouncing around me trying to entice me to play. I told her that I was going to have to hire someone to rough house with her but the problem is that she doesn't much care for outsiders. She is only friendly with my husband, me and our little Granddaughters. She is friendly with our Grandson but only enough for him to pet her, not enough to really play. She doesn't really want to play with my DH either, she sees him as the big, bad alpha male.

Bobcat Tracks?

Update on Maude the fat hen: She is still with us and seems to be doing well. She has now survived both an Opossum and Bobcat attack.

Here are the pictures of the tracks that I found in the mud the next morning, I had walked all around in the pen the night before, trying to catch the chickens, so both the chickens and myself ruined most of the tracks and there were some tracks that had chicken prints on top of them. It was very sloppy and muddy that night, but it did freeze later on after I emptied the pen.

Several clawless toe tracks


Heal at the top and toes at the bottom, only 4 toes are actually visible here.

Other reasons that we feel this was a Bobcat is because of the speed at which it got into the dog kennel and out of it. I was in the house, my dog started barking, I heard the chain link rattle, then the chickens started screaming and I was out there very quickly without even taking the time to put on a coat. We really don't feel that a coon or coyote could have scaled that fence that quickly.

Also the size of the puncture wounds and the damage that was done to the hen in that span of time and the reaction of our horses, who were very spooked, they see coyotes, foxes and possums all the time.

Nighttime Visitor

You know what they say about Indiana weather? If you stick around long enough it will change. I went to my favorite weather forecast website this evening and there was every kind of warning and advisory that you could imagine, except for a heat advisory. They had a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Wind Advisory, Hail, Winter Weather Advisory and a Wind Chill Warning.

I dutifully shut down my computer and waited for the storm to hit, I didn't have a long wait. The thunder and lightning started, I went out without even a jacket on, it was so warm, a couple of minutes later it started pouring rain and hail. I mean it was coming down violently.

My husband had left me home alone, so I turned on my handy, dandy Police scanner and they were getting 911 calls for damage all over the county. Trees were down, two houses were flattened, power lines down and roads closed, trees down on houses and cars. But as they went door to door in hard hit areas they didn't find any injuries.

I called to check on my kids, then settled back with a good book (an instruction manual). All was quiet for awhile, the wind was still blowing but not as bad. Then my LGD, Angel the Great Pyrenees, started barking like she meant it. I figured that she was barking at the wind but then I heard the sound of something hitting the chain link fence on the dog kennel that holds Maude and Ethel.

I put my book aside just in time to hear Maude and Ethel start screaming bloody murder. I grabbed my handy, dandy Black and Decker Spotlight and ran out the door in just my night gown, only to discover that the temperature had dropped about 30º and it was snowing.

I was yelling as I ran out the door to scare whatever it was away. When I got there I found a lot of chicken feathers in the doghouse and Maude and Ethel behind the doghouse. My new rooster and one of my banty hens were cowering in the opposite corner together.

Maude walked out of hiding when she seen me and most of her feathers on one side were gone and she had large puncture wounds on her back side. I looked around with my spotlight and didn't see anything. Then my handy, dandy Black and Decker Spotlight went out. So, don't rush out and buy one on my recommendation because they do not hold a charge worth anything and they don't give you a warning before they die.

It was a dark and stormy night and there was something out there....

I finally made it back to the house in the pitch darkness, but I was still wondering what had been in that pen and what could have made those big holes in her flesh.

I put on more appropriate clothing for the sub-zero weather that had just blown in. I went out and started the Blazer, turned it around to face the kennel, so that I would have lighting. That was when I noticed that there were no horses around the big bale feeders, anyone that knows horses knows that they are always around big bales.

Not only were they not around the feeders but they were down farther away in the pasture, in a big group, snorting and blowing, with there ears forward at attention, so again I wondered just who our visitor had been. I gathered up the hens and rooster, one at a time and took them through the ankle deep mud into the goat/chicken shed for Angel to watch over for the rest of the night. It was the first time that I had attempted to pick up Maude, she is one heavy bird.

I will look for tracks tomorrow morning. We have coyotes here all of the time, we have even walked up on them while they lay in the middle to the herd on a foggy night. I find it hard to believe that the horses would react the way they did tonight, if it had been a coyote.

The Fox

I have to stop talking about goats now or my eldest will be calling me "Goat Woman" instead of "Chicken Lady". He called me Granny for awhile when I was sitting outside all day with my rifle across my lap waiting for a fox.

The story goes like this; I was talking to my Son on the phone one day this past summer, when one of my little banty hens came right to my door yelling her head off.

The banties never come around the house/barn, so I told my eldest that something was wrong and I had to go. I hung up the phone and went out to see what was going on.

Right behind the goat/chicken shed was a fox and he had something down and was biting it repeatedly. I started running, as much as I am able to run with my back like it is, towards him and screaming at him. He totally ignored me and continued focusing on trying to kill his prey. I was almost able to reach out and touch him before he turned loose and trotted a short distance away, sat down and looked at me. I can't stand that kind of disrespect. But I didn't have time to deal with him just yet, I had to see to my injured bird.

My injured bird turned out to be my old rooster, Foggy. He and I had had a parting of the ways not long before this incident happened and that is partly the reason it happened

Foggy and I had always been buddies. I would sit in the doorway of the goat/chicken shed and he would stand in the doorway beside me, overlooking our Kingdom. My husband's sister had given him to us and they told us that he was mean, but he had never shown any ill will towards us, we could pick him up and hold him and my Grandchildren could pet him.

Then one day, I didn't know that he was behind me and I turned around and stepped on him, he took it personal and flogged my bare legs. Foggy was well endowed with 3 inch spurs. My legs looked horrible, I was bruised, cut and had large welts.

Not being one to hold a grudge, I forgave him because after all, I had provoked the attack. I guess he wasn't as forgiving as I was and he must have taken great exception to being stepped on because a few days later he flogged me again.

He never flogged anyone but me and on the third flogging, I went to the house and told my dear husband that as soon as it gets dark and cools off, his spurs are coming off and I don't care if he bleeds to death.

Now bear in mind, that this wasn't a rash decision, I had tried to break him of this nasty habit on several occasions when he didn't actually get the job of shredding my legs done, but only had made an attempt. I would use him as a football, until I was exhausted because every time I would kick him, he would come back for more. I also broke a good broom on him. So I did try to give him several more chances.

That night, we twisted the outer horn of the spur off, then took horse nippers and cut the spur clean down against his leg. He bled very little. You are suppose to bake a potato and then stick the spur in it for a few minutes and twist the spur off but that's only if you like the rooster.

Foggy was a very good rooster, as roosters go, he would give his life for his hens but enough was enough, and I took his only weapon away from him. Now I was looking down at him after the fox had reluctantly left him there. Who knows how many times that fox had come around and Foggy had successfully fought him off, but not this time. Are you crying yet?

I knelt down and put my hand on his lifeless body, he was still breathing, so I gently picked him up and carried him to the house/barn. I laid him carefully in a wire cage and went into the house to get him some water. When I came back he was on his feet and gladly accepted my kindness. I left the cage door open and went for my gun.

I grabbed the phone and hit redial, I thought that I would get my eldest Son but got my youngest instead, little matter, they could both remind me how to load my rifle. It isn't something I do everyday. However, after having my memory refreshed, I went hunting. The varmint was no where to be found but I knew he would be back. So I waited...

I sat outside in a chair with my rifle across my lap the next day but he did not return. The following day, I looked out the window in time to see him saunter by and go into the high weeds across from the goat/chicken shed. From this vantage point he could bide his time in safety while waiting for his chicken dinner. So I walked out and trudged through the weeds.

I didn't see him anymore that day or the next but on the fourth day he returned. I lucked out and happened to look out the window just in time to see him behind the goat/chicken shed again.

I slipped out the door, quietly released my safety and took aim. He must has heard me because he did a quick trot up the path away from me. I stood my ground hoping for a good shot but he was getting too far away, finally he turned with his left side towards me, still moving at a trot and I wasted no time taking the shot because I knew he would disappear in the weeds again.

As soon as I had squeezed it off, he jumped in the air and fell to the ground, he flopped around for awhile, so I was certain that I got him. I waited for a short time then started towards him, I was almost there when he jumped up and ran off, I shot again but missed this time. To my knowledge, he never came back, he may have crawled off somewhere and died.

Foggy recovered and things between us remained the same, I would like to say that he forgave me and we became friends once more, but that was not to be. So after a couple of more floggings, and a lot of whining, my husband loaded him up and took him to the local sale barn. The rooster that I have now is his son, he hasn't tried anything with me yet. He is much smaller than his father, but he has the same tenacity.