Unwanted Visitor

Brody seems to be enjoying the snow. He even sleeps on the ground in it by the does fence, while all the does are huddled in their little houses. Well, except Bonnie, she sleeps in her feeder. 

Brody is still learning his manners. He is only 1 1/2 years old so he has a ways to go, so we are in training mode, constantly. Which is why I go out to visit him with no agenda. He gets a little tired and stressed trying to figure out what it is that I want from him. He is doing really well for now. We are still working on his feet so we can get a Farrier out to trim his hooves. We are getting pretty close.

We have discovered that there is an unwanted visitor in the chicken coop at night. We heat their coop, which is why we still are getting about 10-15 eggs a day. We have found that there is racoon tracks, big, racoon tracks in their yard and around the coop, not to mention the scat inside the coop. No wonder it smells different than the normal chicken poop smell. 

For Christmas, we got a Trail Cam to set up to see this big racoon going into the coop. Yep, we got him unlocking the door and letting himself in. I am so relieved that he isn't killing our chickens!! We have noticed that his Scat is mostly cat food, so we think it is fairly domesticated. It probably never learned to kill chickens. And now thinking back, we think it has been going into there longer than this winter. We suspect. Now, we are getting a different lock that we will do from the inside. Growing up we had a pet racoon, so I totally remember witnessing their dexterity. It has to be a good locking mechanism. 

This is Brody's first winter in snow. He was born in south Utah so they got snow but not like what we get here. He seems to be enjoying it and it doesn't seem to be bothering him. Though between Beau next door and Jacks, they have managed to trim Brody's forelock and his tail!! His tail used to be really long and pretty and now it looks like a baby tail, chopped!!

He did manage to partially rip the slide off the play structure. I will say that containing a pony is so much easier than containing a Billy Goat. Much Easier! We are up to double cattle panels on Jacks, and he already has the second on bowed out from smacking it with his head. I will be glad when all the does are bred and they aren't in heat and Jacks goes back to being a reasonable goat once again and out of Rut.