Eggs (week ending 9/3): 10We got through the fair without much incident, other than the fact that the goats have brought home the cough that they seem to get every year. We're not sure if it's from being around other goats, the sheep, or the streams of people who come through the barns to pet whatever animals will let them lay hands on them. Antibiotics may be in the future for them.
Eggs (week ending 9/10): 15
Eggs (week ending 9/17): 15
Eggs (year to date): 1524
On the chicken side, not much progress in the egg department. My single surviving Banty hen has started laying again - I've gotten 4 eggs a day for the last couple of days, including finding another secret laying location in the tack room. I'm still not happy with these numbers considering I've got at least 17 hens. But the Wyandottes are coming out of molt (it looks like), and the pullets from the Class of 2005 aren't laying yet. I thought the two Buff Orps were laying - they may be the ones visiting the tack room. That may be the case. I don't think the White Leghorn hen is anywhere close to laying - she's still small and immature looking. I don't think I like this breed if it takes them that long to mature.
While the other goats were at the fair, the two little wethers who stayed behind, Cabrito and Sirius Black, bonded with the chickens. I found that they had slipped under my goat proof gate and were staying with them in the coop one day. Since Cabrito keept getting out of the barnyard, I left the gate open so he and Sirius could go and browse at they pleased. I came home from the fair to feed them on another day and didn't see them. So I called the chickens, who were all resting in the shade beneath an overhang of the barn. The chickens came running... and so did the two little wethers. They were under the barn with them, resting and chewing their cud, I guess.
Now that the herd has been reunited, I think their little goat identity crisis is over. They remember they are goats now, and are back with the herd - not the flock.
Because of the fair and other things, I haven't had the chance to do much on the chicken tractor. The parade float has now been dismantled, so there's wood aplenty for me to use. All I need is time. It'll be a couple of weeks yet before I can get serious about it, I think.
One other odd incident. The other day when filling the chicken feeder with layer feed, I heard a rodent-like squeaking. I looked around and found a mouse stuck through the chicken wire, rear end inside the coop. The rear-end looked like it had been picked at by the chickens, who no doubt thought the mouse might be a tasty dietary supplement. But obviously they couldn't get the mouse out of the fence, because the mouse couldn't get itself out. I tried to free it, but I realized I couldn't do it without tearing the mouse in half. Since it was morning, I was unable to do much more because I had to get to work, so I figured I'd get to it when I got home.
Alas, I wasn't able to get to the mouse because of events when I got home from work. So the next morning I checked on the mouse. It was dead - but it was now stuck the other way - with it's head and torso inside the coop and the bottom on the outside of the chicken fence. This has to mean that the mouse freed itself, and then turned right around to try and get more spilled food and got stuck all over again.
And I suspect that the food it was eating was a contributing factor to the fact that it kept getting stuck.
So mice ain't smart, folks. No matter what you see on the Tom and Jerry reruns.
