Why did the chicken cross the road?

The rain has stopped, hopefully long enough for the animal pens to begin to dry out.

The good thing about after the rain is that it's easier to trim goat & horse hooves while they are soft. I really should take advantage of this opportunity. I already did "the girls" feet the other day when I was milking them. Now for everybody else, ugh.

Except the horse, I don't even think about attempting to touch his feet, I have a farrier for that. Although, he hasn't called me for our standing 2 month appointment. Maybe because I said I was going to try to sell my horse? But, that's another story for later.

I really must get to the straw today, at least in the chicken coop. And, it's time to clean out & refill the nesting boxes. The eggs stay cleaner that way, less egg scrubbing for me & the customers are happier.

We used to free-range our chickens & they were so happy. Unfortunately the predator problem became so bad that we went from 40 down to 12 chickens a couple years ago. We would let them run during the day & then lock them up at night. Sounds easy right? It was for awhile. But , then the coyotes got smart & would come by during the middle of the day when they were out & nobody was watching the flock. Not to mention the hawks, roaming neighborhood dogs, etc.

And then, we had a new problem. Some of the roosters decided they didn't want to be locked in the coop at night & began taking their harems of hens up into the trees to roost.

We tried to get them down & lock them up, but some would just move out of our reach up into the treetop. Those were the unlucky ones, because by morning they would usually have disappeared. At first I wasn't sure what was snatching them. Then one night I saw a HUGE owl perched & watching from my neighbor's place & I knew who the thief was. (These owls can get to be as much as 3 feet tall with a 5 foot wingspan.) Then just to be sure there was no confusion the owl(s) began leaving their calling cards. I would come out in the morning to find blood dripping down one of the telephone poles (corner posts for one of our goat pens), feathers on top of the pole & a chicken head on the ground. Not a sight for the faint of heart. It was even harder when it was one of our pet chickens.

Someday I hope to have a fence around our property to help cut back on the coyote problem. Then I would like a few more coops so the roosters will each have their own place to retire to every night & maybe that will help with the owls.

The chickens used to strut around & make us laugh. They are quite comical if you have ever taken the time to watch & observe them. The hens would walk across the driveway to get to the coop & lay their eggs, then back they'd go to taking their dust baths & sunning themselves. (that's why the chicken crossed the road- to lay an egg! LOL)

I would often sit outside in a lounge chair & read a book while the hens would peck the ground nearby, & some would even perch on me. I miss those days, the chickens were happier then.

I used to be able to say the eggs were from rang-free chickens when I sold them. We even tried buying the organic food for awhile but it was too expensive. Now I can only claim that the eggs are fresh, from cage free hens. The yolks aren't as orange anymore either, but they are still fresher than anything you can buy at the store.

Speaking of fresh....one day while I was gathering the eggs, I had reached under a hen to retrieve them. She stood up as though to let me get at them easier, & lo & behold she laid an egg right in my hand! Now that's fresh! ha ha

Another time, we found 2 tiny little eggs and upon cracking them open we discovered one had only yolk & the other had only white. Now, how did that happen?

And, had I documented it properly, I'm sure we would have had the second biggest chicken egg on record. It was huge! We never figured out which hen laid it, but I'm sure she was sore! That one was a triple yolker.

Anywhoo....Farm chores await. Even though it's Saturday & I'd love to sleep in. :0( Work, work, work. (I've decided God gave us the farm because He doesn't want me to be bored & lazy. Lol)

The farm is finally starting t turn a small profit for us, as God keeps sending customers our way. So, I guess I can't complain. Now, if we can just figure out this small business thing, hmm.

Toodles!