Bear has been vindicated!!!

 

Sunday I decided to take a day off. I putzed around, watched some TV, and just plain relaxed. I could start on the chicken house Monday when April was supposed to come over. I couldn’t do much by myself anyway, as I needed an extra pair of hands. Well April didn’t come, so nothing got done. I also forgot to shut the door to the chicken house. Later in the evening I heard Bear barking, remembered about the chickens, and went outside to close their door. It was dark, and the outside light didn’t do much more than make it easier to get there without killing myself. In the morning I let the dogs out just before I fed. Nothing seemed amiss as I fed the horses. I feed the chickens after I feed the dogs. When I went to open their door I saw the carnage. I only had one chicken left. Bear was all bloated so of course he got yelled at the most. There was a small tear in the front of the house, and I could see where Bear had tried to get in, in several places. The one hole would have been hard for him to get through which was confusing, but I yelled at him anyway.

 

April finally came over, and we started working. I wasn’t going to loose the one hen I had left. We worked all day Tuesday, and Wednesday I had to go to town. On the way we made a discovery, there on our road not far from the house, I saw a gray fox. She was so beautiful I had to take a picture so I stopped, and then April exclaimed there are her two pups, no three. They were absolutely precious, and very well fed. One of them was so brave he came all the way up to the jeep. I didn’t want to scare him, but I told him he needed to go away. Cars were something to be feared. Now I have no doubt they are the ones who raided my chicken coop. Foxes climb trees very well, and there’s a tree just beside the chicken run. Part of the tree has limbs that go through the fence. During the day the chickens like to roost there, and that’s where I found three of the babies hiding the first time they raided the house. Bear was dong his job after all. The fact that he helped himself to the spoils is beside the point, he’s suffering for that yet still. Dogs are not supposed to eat chicken bones as they splinter so badly. I’ve been giving him stool softeners to help things move along. The first day there was a little blood in his stools, but since then his stools have been normal. He’s just been getting bloated now, and then. I give him a stool softener, and it clears up.

 

 

We finished the hen house yesterday (well it’s almost finished). I still have to buy some wood for trim, and some paint. Then it will be finished. Right now it’s safe. My one hen is very lonely though.

She’s not eating all that well, and she keeps hanging around me whenever I go into or around the coop. Well she was part of a flock, and now she’s all alone. The good news is her feathers are growing back. For some reason the last two batches of chickens picked on each other something terrible. They all had bald butts, and backs. April is going to try to get some fertilized eggs so we can hatch them, and start from scratch. The problem is, it’s so late in the year finding fertilized eggs is going to prove to be a problem. I may have to wait till next year for more chicks. We’ll keep trying.

 

As for the horses, it has been beautiful riding weather, but drizzly, and rainy for the most part. Poor Jeri (who has a very fine coat) has been shivering almost every morning when I go to feed. He has no fat on him to keep him warm either. I decided I really needed to get him in a barn stall where I might be able to fatten him up some more, but most importantly he’d have more protection from the elements. Now moving him into one of the barn stalls presents some interesting issues, like he’s a stallion, and I have mostly mares. Rudy came up with the best solution. I decided to move Jazzy out to the pasture (with her dam, and half sister). That would give me one free stall, and help to get her feet back in shape. She grows as much toe as her dam. Thankfully Star grows a much more even foot. Jeri would have to go to Marina’s stall, as it’s the largest. I could move Marina into Jazzy’s stall, move Penny to Sere’s stall, and put Sere in Jeri’s stall. That leaves an empty stall between Jeri, and Penny. Sere is too dominant a mare to put next to Espree, and putting her next to Stormy gives her a long run. Her toe has almost completely grown out, and she does better with more constant walking, that’s why putting her in pasture was so good for her. This arrangement is actually good for everyone but me. Sere, and Penny were always fighting. Penny’s much happier next to Ser-Haat (gelding). In the same way Sere, and Stormy get along just fine. The only problem is now every time I take a mare out to work in the arena Jeri is going to get all studly on me. It will be good training for the girls, but more work for me. Then when I take Ibn out, I really don’t want to think about that. Needless to say it is going to be interesting. It wasn’t a problem with Ibn in that stall (that was a long time ago), but Jeri is another matter. He went 15 years without any nookie at all. Once he found out what it was, well let’s say he wants it all the time.

 

Before we moved everyone I wanted to clean feet, brush them up, and put fly spray on everyone. With the rains we didn’t have much of a problem, and it was so cold, not really cold, but too cold for the flies. Today was our first dry warm day, and I knew the flies would come out in droves. Then too everyone I just knew would be sunbathing in the mud. Sure enough Marina was black (she’s a gray), and everyone else had some caked mud on them somewhere. Marina, and Lizzie are already shedding their summer coats, and growing winter fur. Medication helps, but they still grow more fur than normal. Their feet were packed, and I had to medicate some of them before thrush took hold. I was also able to get rid of some excess sole, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to have April trim everyone. I did have her trim a bit of Jazzy’s feet before we put her into pasture. Maybe the next time April comes she can work on feet.

 

Tomorrow I have to go to town for feed, but I really want to get a ride in too. Then as soon as the stalls dry up a bit, I have to get to them. The rains made a mess of everything. I have to figure out a way to both train, and clean stalls. Both undertakings take a lot out of me, but I really want to have both Stormy, and Star well under saddle. Stormy I have to start from scratch, which makes it difficult, as I really need April for that. I never know when she’s going to be here, and most of the time she’s working over at her mothers. I’ll figure it out just like I figure everything else out. You think about a problem long enough, and eventually you find a solution. Hey I made a fortress (Rudy’s words) for my no longer existent chickens out of scraps around the property. I can surely figure the rest out.