Bruce's Journal

Baymule said:

If I have offended anyone in any way during my time here on BYH........ it was not on purpose. I promise that if you will let me know, I will mend my ways and make sure to insult you on purpose next time!

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greybeard said:

This 'trigger happy cowboy' ain't skeered....

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Rumble!!!

6 & 7 are really old for a hen. I purchased 4 sex links once, about 3 yrs ago. They were about 6 months at purchase and I have 2 left. Both others just dropped over. Mine did lay nice large eggs and I don't use lights in winter. Expect to lose the last two in the next year.

Speaking of chickens....I was late closing the coop tonight and as I walked in with flashlight glaring, a long black shiny slid along a wall. Quietly left & returned quickly and took action. Been thinking the laying was off but...if the laying is off now, it won't be the fault of this one.

Sserpentss make sskitissh.

http://www.wsfa.com/story/38376061/video-alabama-man-battles-headless-rattlesnake

rattlesnake head nearly kills man

Looks like if you are going to mess with one end or the other of a snake who's head has been cut off, the tail end is the one you want. Until I read the first one I would have not thought it possible for the head to cause damage but it does make sense if the fang and poison sacs are intact.

People, be safe out there!!

Went out at 8:15 to close up. All 6 littles were still outside, all the older girls were in the coop up on the roosts. Silly teenagers want to stay out late! I got them into the barn and noted that the west end of the north roosting section was already occupied by 2 hens so the littles wouldn't be going up there (I don't think). At that point I picked up Vienna (her choice) and was trying to corral the others into the coop. Most were in, 3 on the end of the brooder space and I was standing near the south roosts which are the newest (last year) and mostly unused by the older girls. The friendlier Campine came up the ramp so I put Vienna on the roost. Eventually they were all there but I had to "aid" (against her wishes) the Barnevelder onto the upper part of the ramp so she could be with the others.

All the littles put themselves on that same roost tonight so tomorrow I can take the brooder out of the coop. Integration going well this time since the kids are using a roost that the older gals don't seem to favor. It has its own ramp so they don't have to go past the older birds to get to it though it does connect to the more forward of the rear roosts so it can be accessed from the top as well as via the ramp.

All sorts of excitement to report here today
Started the day with watering the garden. Followed by vacuuming the pool to waste. I think it is full of pollen. I had turned the pump off last night hoping some would settle to be vacuumed out. I just hate sending that much water out of the pool. By the time I was done the level was below the bottom of the skimmer. Had the hose in it for 5 hours, still need to add another inch or two of water.

Then time for lunch and forum reading. Then I added a board to each side of the alpaca stand so they hopefully can't accidentally step off or intentionally kick me. Also put 3 cleats to the ramp, I don't think they felt they had traction on the grooved plastic mat last year. Of course they didn't have any desire to be on the stand AT ALL. Going to shear at least one tomorrow. Not really looking forward to that. While I was working on that Yue was in the nest box. She came out singing the egg song. Sorry Yue, you are an Ancona, you can't lay a green egg. Oh well, she tried. She is 6 years old after all. That makes her pretty old as layers go and she has been laying 1 or 2 a week this year.

Then I jacked up the GT on the lift, took off the "lawn" blades and cleaned the deck out. Put on the "field" blades. Mowed the perimeter of the fields. I saw a doe (the deer kind, not the rabbit or goat kind) about 100 yards from the north end of the NW field. She was in the tall stuff I wasn't near and watched me as I was going along the edge. Soon as I passed her position she took off north into the woods. Might have a baby in the tall grass somewhere. We've seen a doe and fawn at the edge of the woods.

After dinner, time for closing the barn. DW says she sees a teeny bunny near the small barn. Yep, I saw it as it ran into the bushes. Went outside expecting all the birds to be in bed and saw

Actually what I saw was all the juvenile delinquents on the outside of the gate, they ran through while I turned the camera on. This is the gate all the older girls come to and run their tin cups over the bars when I don't let them out to play around the house.

Left to right:
Welsummer, Golden Campine, Barred Rock, Campine, Barnevelder, Rock


This is Vienna, the friendly Rock


After I closed up the barn I heard something run through the bushes behind the little barn (the birds pictured were in the ~15' space between the barns) and saw

It isn't quite as teeny as DW said, I would guess it to be about half size. A couple of years ago the little ones we saw would fit in a tea cup.

Bruce..you got some pretty fast fingers and a sharp mind still........or, you can be 2 places at once....

DW, DD1 and I cut toenails on the alpacas yesterday. First we had to trap them in the barn. They had come back inside so I gave them some all stock pellets and DD1 snuck around the back of the barn and closed the far door on their "chute" in "alpaca alley". She barely got there in time, Teddy was suspicious and nervous, he was about to bolt out the door. Then we had to convince them they wanted their halters on. They got them but I don't think they were convinced THEY wanted them on.

Given their nails have not been done since Oct '16 (by the people who gave them to us) they were in pretty decent shape. We manage to do it with one person holding their neck and the other (me) leaning against them and cutting nails. They don't have a lot of hard surface (like almost none) to wear them down so while I still feel badly they weren't done earlier I'm glad they weren't suffering from my lack of action.

Then we sheared Laddie. Why him first? He was on the lead since his nails were done second. The stand needs more "features" added. He's a pain, I even had all 4 feet tied so he could not kick. But he managed to sink a number of times which isn't good since his head was tied tight at standing height. And he LEANED a LOT. I'm going to put removable side boards (so 'that' side can get sheared) and a 2x4 can take the lean instead of us. They weigh probably 30-40 pounds less than me, maybe 10 less than DW and probably 40-50 MORE than DD1. Also add a couple of boards up front, a single rope just isn't cutting it.

The shears worked as they did last year - about 3/4 of the blanket then they weren't cutting well. Given we screwed around with it for 3 hours last year I just quit using them and went to the hand shears and scissors. Got him done but I cut the top of his head a little when he jerked, no blood but skin open maybe a 1/4" circle Got some triple antibiotic on that, took off the halter and let him loose. DD1 stated she does NOT volunteer to help shear Laddie next year.

I took the cutter out afterward and there was some fiber underneath. Last year I took the cutter out and cleaned a bunch of times trying to shear but things didn't improve. I was probably using too much oil but didn't want to futz with it this year. Might try the same camelid comb and cutter pair on Teddy, if they don't work I'll put on the other set which should work for at least some time. They could be dull, there is a TON of dirt way down deep.

This morning the boys were willing to get their pellets at the outside gate so I checked Laddie's head. Looked OK except there was a fly on it I wanted to put more ointment on it but of course he wouldn't let me touch him. So I tried to get a 10' rope around his neck. Um, nope, somehow he managed to get it wrapped twice around his neck and took off. After a few miles of walking around the pasture, filling in the partially dismantled old midline fence with sheep and goat field fence (conveniently left nearby from the fence work 1.5 years ago because it is HEAVY) and DW coming out we managed to get him to go up between the barns (front gate closed) and at least trapped. Long story slightly shorter I finally got him trapped next to the winter water thing just inside the barn and tied him to the non functional frost free spigot. At that point putting the ointment on was real easy. Wish they were smart enough to know I'm not going to kill them. I put his halter back on since I'm sure I'll need to put more ointment on. Not sure how I'll get a lead hooked to it though.

It will probably be at least a week, probably more, before we can trap Teddy to shear him. Clearly I need some way of confining them closer to the barn where they can be forced into the barn but that would require getting fence up to the barn wall and given all the rock (ie was originally foundation) I'm not sure how I can get a post in close enough to connect to. Might have to bolt into the framing. Then there is the question of "how do you get the buggers to go into the smaller area"? They sure know not to go in the barn. I need Mike's herding dogs!