Craziness last two weeks!

Last two weeks have been crazy! Usually when things are quiet, suddenly there’s KABOOM! We started the craziness off with two piles of feathers in the front yard. These were two nice size piles, meaning a predator had gotten to one of the chickens. From the look of the feathers I knew it had been a rhode island chicken. I’m pretty sure it was our hen that had been born in our back yard last year. 🙁

Then Snow Nugget decided to go into the goat house, hop onto where we store straw, push her way through a crack in the tarp used as a roof, and end up on the goat house. This resulted in another tarp tearing!

The naughty goats didn’t stop there. One of them busted the front door of the pen, allowing the girls to escape and frolic with the boys! People weren’t kidding about unwanted breedings happening. I think we had caught it in time before any of the goats did anything and were able to put the boy goats up and fix the door on the girls’ pen.

Could anything else happen!? Yep. It sure did. We ended up with a sick chicken. I gave her electrolytes in her water, offered egg yolks, and chicken food. The next day she was the same. I ended up bringing her inside. She had a lot of runny poo stuck to her feathers. At fist I thought it was a prolapse vent but it wasn’t. Her vent wasn’t blocked. I cleaned her up. Offered her food, egg yolk, and electrolyte water. She did eat and drink a little bit but died the next day.

Does it stop there? No! Hazel stepped onto the coops’ run, resulting in the tearing of the chicken wire. Then she literally, squeezed her nose and then whole body through, creating a gigantic hole in the wire!

Then the dreading squawking at 5AM. I couldn’t see anything but kept an eye on the chickens for a while. I’m not surprised since we had a pile of feathers from a few days before. Another day, squawking at 4AM. I couldn’t see anything but this time the goats were attentively watching the back and side of their pen with ears perked forward.

I’m 99% sure it’s the red fox. I still haven’t gotten it yet. The last time I had seen the fox was July 3. This fox only runs along the back of the coops and goat pens, making it impossible for me to see and shoot it. The other foxes had came up the side of the pens or stood between the two coops we have.

I’m hoping this week will be calmer! Wish us luck! 😉