Most of our little egg layers are getting the hang of things these days and what we have to show for it is about 6-8 eggs a day! I'd guess that by spring we'll get 10-12 a day, but for now 8 is fantastic! It's plenty to be providing us with as many as we could need, plus I've sold them to a few friends here and there, which helps pay for the chicken feed. Rudy Roo is getting a little temperamental and has "attacked" me a few times and O once- which is no good. He even tried it with my mom one day when she was here helping feed and collect eggs while we were out of town. The adults can handle him just fine, because he is still young and doesn't fly up very high to hit at you, with me he hits about knee level. But, it scared O quite a bit the day he got her and now she hasn't really wanted to go in there when they are out free ranging. If Rudy keeps it up, he might not last too long around here. Then there's Dallas and Dixie, who are on their last chance to stick around here, too. It's a good thing they are sweet and we love them, other wise they'd already be gone. We got an automatic chicken coop door recently, so the door has a little motor that opens and closes it at the times we have it set to do so. The motor is hooked up to a battery, which is also hooked up to a solar panel to keep the battery charged. Well, after the first day of us using the chicken door, Dallas and Dixie thought the wires that they could barely reach near the roof of the coop looked just too good to resist...so they chewed through them. That night the door didn't shut and when we got down there to check on it, we found out why. The next day Shannon made the needed repairs and hooked up the door once again, with the wires well out of reach of the goats. Then we started having trouble with the battery staying charged enough to power the door, which ended up being a manufacturer defect. To make up for the defect, the company sent us a sensor that will allow the door to open once it's light outside and close when it's dark, instead of having to be set (since you need to re-set the times for opening and closing when the daylight hours change). Well, we hooked that sensor up on top of the coop where it would get lots of light once the sun comes up, and waited for it to work the next day. In the morning the door opened, but come that night it didn't close. I thought for sure there was still a problem with the battery. Nope. The wires to the sensor were chewed through. The wires that were stapled to the eave of the chicken coop roof were pulled out of the staples and chewed off in two 3-4 inch sections. Now, I guess it's partly our fault for having the wires within reach of the goats. You think we would have learned our lesson the first time. But, who knew that goats would balance on their back legs and be able to grab wire that is tightly stapled along the wood eave, then pull it enough to remove the staples and then proceed to try to eat the wire? Well- FYI, they can and will. Don't leave ANYTHING within the (at all possible) reach of a goat. They just can't be trusted. For now they are all still here and part of our little farm, hopefully they can all behave themselves and it will stay that way!
No comments:
Post a Comment