13 March 2017

A rough night for the Goats and Steve.

Steve posted to face book.
(Some of his friends are also homestead people)

Something upset the goats last night which woke me up at like 1145. I wen't out to see what was going on, couldn't really tell. The were out of their area, out side the fencing, and milling around. They went back in with no trouble but I didn't do a full head count. I went back to bed. And got up again to see what was wrong. One of the goats was upset. I went in to see what the problem was and 2 of her kids were missing. I looked around, checked the fence (in the dark in the woods wondering if there was a Bear or something about to eat me) I couldn't find them or see any signs of what had happened. I spent like an hour and a half wandering around looking. Nothing.
This morning we're out there for milking and as I'm headed back to feed the pigs they start to come out from under the deck. I'm really happy about that.
Too much stress.
I'm going to get some game cameras.


Rob Adams commented.
Coyotes? Glad the kids returned!

Steve replied.

No idea. We've got it all out here. Bobcats, panthers, Bears, wild dogs, poisonous snakes, hogzilla. I was really wondering, what would carry off two goat kids. Sure one would be realistic, but two? I though maybe there was an owl or something but how? I've never heard of or seen one animal scoop up two smaller ones and run off.
We're going to cage up the kids at night for a while. Goats live on routine so after a week or two they'll just go to bed.
I'll probably end up buying some hog panels and make a pen we can close them up in at night, more room than a big dog crate.


I don't usually have a lot to post about. It just doesn't occur to me very often.
Last night was noteworthy and I'm very glad I'm not posting about dead or missing critters today. After a rough night for me seeing the kids come out from under the back deck was fantastic. I couldn't have been happier. 

We moved the goat fencing around, shortening it and moving the rest around the pig pen. I think that our energizer is struggling with the full amount of fencing the way it was set up. There is a noticeable charge now further away from the energizer. I think we'll need to get a more powerful energizer if we want to reconnect all the fencing again.