Well, I went out and set the traps up today.  I checked on them twice with no success.  I just got back from my lockdown patrol (armed with pistol, flashlight and camera).  Still no trap action.  Just to be on the safe side, I counted all the chickens, still have 20 hens and 1 rooster.  They don’t like the flashlight, and cluck their displeasure at roll call.  So hopefully tonight the problem will solve itself.

I left the live trap set up just in case something ran through it.  On the bottom left corner of the picture you can see a metal post in the ground.  I have a wire rope connected to that post and both leg traps under the chicken coop.  I covered the hole with that metal pan and old blue and white can.  That way no cat or chicken could wander into the traps.  You can see I have lowered and latched the chicken door shut so nothing can get in tonight.  Since I have lost 32% of my laying hens in the last week, I need to get this under control soon or there won’t be any chickens left.

The Ram pasture fence is done!  I had told Annmarie it would be done and with the sheep eating the barn lot up I needed to be done, plus the weather was supposed to turn bad on Thursday so Wednesday was the perfect day to get finished.  Not so much.  I drove through rain on the way home Wednesday morning.  I got my two teenage nephews to help out on the fence.  As soon as we started fencing it started to rain and kept raining until the last hour.  It took us just over 3 hours to finish the other half of the fence.  Not having to sink any posts or reinforce end posts cuts a lot of time.  The weather was very miserable but still not bad enough to drive us inside.  I had to give an inclement weather bonus to the boys (Annmarie’s suggestion).

 I will quietly proclaim that the fence is now sheep proof (very quietly, maybe even a whisper).  We turned the sheep loose into this pasture, but they are currently in our front yard again snacking away.  We actually had to go get the older twin babies and carry them across the small creek because they would not cross and momma left them.  These are her first babies.  She’s not as attentive as we might hope.

This is the completed fence looking Northwest.  I had to reload the rock crib with rocks.  The cows used my corner crib as a scratching post last year.  I may need to run a hot wire on the outside of the fence for just that reason.  We even ran sheep wire (woven mesh wire) along that small stretch between rock cribs.  I actually need another rock crib halfway between those two.  I tried to drive a post into the rocky hillside and it is kinda in but won’t take any pushing on.  So, eventually I will have to add another rock crib.

This is looking Southeast.  Near the center of the picture you can kinda see my gate.

I lost what we thought was one more chicken on Tuesday night.  Annmarie showed me the carcass on Wednesday.  It was the same as last time, no head and eaten from stomach up.  Literally.  Only the gizzard was left, other than the bones and wings.  I moved the live trap into the chicken yard and put the dead chicken carcass in as bait.  When I was doing this I noticed a hole going under the chicken coop, it normally has a grapefruit size rock in front of it, but the rock was moved.  The cats were getting under the coop so I had moved the rock into place earlier.  I moved the rock back in place

You can’t really see it, but just to the middle left of the photo with the trap is where the hole is.  I didn’t think much of it at the time.  When I went out to lock the chickens up for the night at 2100 the rock was moved again and my dead chicken was missing!  Of course the trap had not been sprung.  So I put the rock back and put a tin can in front of the rock so I could check on it again in the morning. At bedtime, 2300, I couldn’t help myself.  I grabbed the pistol and flashlight and made a nighttime patrol.  I spotted three cats and all the sheep but no predator.  Well, in the morning the rock and tin can were pushed to the side and the hole was open again.   I believe whatever is killing my chickens is living under my coop!  Nothing like being close to your food source.  So after grumbling to Annmarie last night about my predators choice of accommodations we came up with a plan.  We had to opt out of all poisons as we have too many animals running around.  We have some leg traps out in the old machine shop.  If I set a couple and stick them in the hole and stake them into the ground and put the rock back then I should only get my predator.  Every one else will be safe.  So today I will do that.  At this point it is all out war.  Even if it is couple of our cats, I need to stop the killing or I won’t have any chickens left, because it was not just one chicken yesterday.  I counted the chickens last night when I locked them up.  I lost 3 more chickens Tuesday night.  I only have 20 laying hens left.  If I were to attempt to buy an adult laying hen it would cost me around $25-30/each.  But if you figure each hen lays around 280 eggs/year and I sell them for $2.50/doz then each hen lays around $58/year in eggs.  So I am losing big time, not to mention that they don’t start laying until they are 6 months old.  The chicken killer must DIE.

Here is a picture of the newest lambs (coffee flavors).  We moved them and momma into the old wood shed for a few days due to the cold, windy, rainy weather.  This keeps momma in one place and allows the babies to get stronger.  We will let them out next week to run with everyone else.  Our next ewe is due in a couple of months.  I am hoping she has twin girls also.  This is machiatto nursing.  You can almost see her wagging her tail!

And this is for Doom.  He is trying to go all artistic photography on me so I thought I would throw this in for him.

We sleep at night with the windows open.  That cool breeze is always refreshing.  The side effect is my wife, Annmarie can hear everything that is going on outside the house.  Which by transference means I am alerted (shaking or hollering) of the goings on outside.  This morning before 0500 I was woken up (hollering) to my wife announcing that we had more baby sheep.  Twins again!!  This is good news and I even managed to roll out of bed with very little prompting.  She said she could hear them and they woke her up.  You could hear them bawling occasionally from our bedroom window.  So we got dressed and trudged out to the barn lot.  I remembered to bring the camera with us and a towel (only one towel, I did mention there were twins?).  The babies were literally only minutes old. They were still covered in goo, shaky and momma had not birthed the afterbirth (placenta) yet.  So we decided to lock momma and babies up in the loading corral for a few days.  So I went and filled a five gallon bucket of water and got some grain for the momma sheep.  We took the babies to the corral and she followed .  We tried to hold her and let the babies latch on, but she kept shifting even when I had her pinned to the fence and eating grain.  So we just left them.  Annmarie will check on them in three hours when they get back from swim.  She can feed a supplemental bottle then if needed.  Now the cool thing is both of them are girls!!  Way cool.  Two more sheep for free to breed.  I like that.  I have a picture of the babies, but you will notice the flash had to be used as it was still dark outside.  They will be far cuter by this afternoon.  Momma will have them all cleaned up and it is supposed to be nice and warm today, low 80’s so they will dry out nicely.

Well here it is nighttime again.  We got home after dark so I had to take a flashlight out to the chicken coop so I could collect eggs.  I still don’t have power to the coop yet.  It is a low priority.  Besides, the outside extension cord has grown down into the yard and you cannot even see the yellow cord any more.  I gotta get that fence done before anything else.  When I went to get eggs (in the dark) the predator trap was sprung again.  I shined the light in and something black was in the cage.  Upon closer inspection it was another chicken.  They just are not very smart.  I tried to shake it out of the trap but it would not fall out, I finally had to reach in and pull it out.  I did do a recount on my poultry parade and I still have 23 hens and 1 rooster.  So no one has died since I implemented the lockdown after lights out policy.  I only collected 17 eggs.  I am missing those 6 laying hens.

I worked on fencing once Sarah and I came back from gate shopping with Grandma.  I have a very nice sunburn on my neck to prove it.  Cooper (nephew) and I got the ram pasture gate installed, 50% of the upper fence totally completed and put in the end posts and supports on the other side of the gate.  Just need to put the angle support wire in place and string the sheep wire on that 50% and we will be done!!  One more day, this upcoming Wednesday, and I can turn the sheep loose in the ram pasture.  Just made it, as they are running out of fodder in the barn lot.  No way I could go another week with them in there.  Oh boy, once that is done I get to start back on the orchard fence.  I will be glad when the fencing is done and I can go to the barn.  That is my real project for the year.  I want to get that up and running for the sheep this winter.

Plus, I need to start picking out my pieces of wood I am going to use for the trim inside our house from the barn wood.  I am going to trim out all our windows and the kicker board along the floor out of barn wood.

I went out this morning to let the chickens out of Alcatraz and I only counted 22 hens… now it is easy to miscount as they came pouring out the door like crazed beasts running for the cat food on the cellar wall.  I am sure they heard me call the cats just before letting them out.  They think “here kitty, kitty” means “here chicky, chicky” (yes, we really do use both as they work for the cats and chickens).  So I could just be off by one in the counting.  Will have to verify tonight when I lock them up.  They are far easier to count when they are sitting on their roosts.  I found the trap not sprung and the chicken wing taken out of the trap and the cat food missing.  So I will refill it and try again.  I am really hoping it is not a mink.  It will be very hard to catch if it is.  With it being super wet and both creeks running it very well could be.  I need that kill zone!  Unfortunately, I need that ram pasture fence done first!!  So I am running into town to pick up our daughter from swim team practice, going to pick out a new gate for the orchard pasture and then back at that fence.  Gotta work tomorrow so I can rest then.