Thursday, February 3, 2011

Another Hapless moment....

As extra protection from chicken stealing dogs, the chicken run gate is inside the sheep run.  Good idea - to keep the chickens several fence layers away from hungry dog jaws.

When I get trapped in the chicken run by a protective ram, though - not such a good idea.

The chicken run roof by the gate is lower than I am, so I crouched there, exhorting the ram to move away from the gate, yelling for my daughter (left cell phone in the house) to come and rattle the magic feed can, and trying to figure out how to distract him in the likely event she couldn't hear me.  Meanwhile, my rooster was considering my bottom as target practice.  Trapped between two protective males.

My daughter didn't, in fact, hear me, which is understandable considering the chicken run is behind the barn and a good 100 feet away from the house.  Finally, I just grabbed the chicken waterer and put it in front of me.  The ram doesn't like the sound of water in the hand of a human, so I locked the chicken gate behind me - literally behind me - with one hand, backed toward the sheep run gate and as he came charging out, slammed the gate in his face.

All that was left was to figure out how to get the chicken water back into the chickens.  I ended up dropping it through a hole in the chicken run roof.  Which meant I had to reach over fence where the sheep were running around like it was a race course and drop it (heavy and full) and hope no hens ran under it at the last minute.

Never a dull moment in the mud, I guess.

6 comments:

Chai Chai said...

You are going to need to get a shepherds crook (long stick with a curved end) to give you some protection from Elvis.

NancyDe said...

I think you are right - although how I would ship one over here is a bit puzzling. I will have to look into it.

From Beyond My Kitchen Window said...

There sure is a lot of excitement at your house. The rams seem like their a tad bullish.

Chai Chai said...

Premier 1 has them, although they are currently out of stock.

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=11201&criteria=crook

Chai Chai said...

Nancy - Stop by my blog, I have more work waiting for you there.....

NancyDe said...

Ooh, Chai Chai, thanks! It took me twenty minutes to load this page to post, so I am going to work on it tomorrow when the internet works better...

Never a dull moment, FBMKW, although most of the time Elvis is really running over for scratches on his chest, he does turn on a dime, especially if it looks like I am going to touch a lamb or ewe.

Work gets pretty eventful, too, so I really look forward to going to bed at night just for some peace and quiet.