Everything for a reason

Last week, on our anniversary we came home a bit late.  It wasn't dark out yet but most of the beasts had gone to bed.  G was tending to the sheep and horses, and I suddenly noticed that two of our guineas were on top of the chicken palace.  Even calling and coaxing and throwing scratch for them had no effect. They wouldn't come down.  They were starting to get the urge to roost, and that's not a good thing. One they have that in their head there's nothing to can do to snap them out of it.

Long story short, one guinea flew far across the yard to the silver maple, and the young one flew to the horse paddock.  I managed to chase him into the backyard within the electronetting, and he fell into line with the ducks as I herded them to their house.  I jumped on him and returned him safely to the palace.  It was a blustery rainy night, and I feared that Trouble would be blown right out of the tree, or killed by an owl.  

I mention this because it was very odd for the guineas to not be roosting with the others.  

Luckily our wayward boy was safe the next day!

It's Sunday today.  I had plans to ride today, but was tending to the other beasts before I could fully give my attention to Winston.  I was up at the palace and noticed that the electric fence was snapping (that means it's grounding out on something)

This is what I noticed:

Doesn't look like much, right?

 I was afraid it was one of our hens, but I found this instead:

Poor little skunk!

He was tangled up in the netting.  Should have never gotten that far.  But in the end, the electricity killed him.  I just hope it was quick.

So maybe this episode is the reason the guineas were on the roof, and wouldn't come down.

People often ask me about what threats face our animals, and how we can possibly keep them safe. Nothing in itself is 100%, so that's why we double and triple up protection where we can.  In the case of electronetting, it's considered a deterrent to most ground predators, but even the manufacturer cautions that it's not 100%.  In the case of  the skunk, he shouldn't have even gotten that far, but for two of our mistakes. Number one, the grass was too long, we hadn't scythed it down.  This charger was so strong that it didn't matter that much, but it was the other mistake that can render the netting pretty ineffective.  Because of the lofty grass, the bottom strand wasn't tight to the ground like it is in this photo:

Here's a spot that could let pretty big predators in.  This rod is difficult to get closer to the palace due to very rocky soil.  We need to do something about this.

So this explains why I saw a turkey vulture over our property this morning, and I smelled skunk the other night.

This afternoon we brought the skunk up to the hay field. 

 The vulture will find him soon I hope.

I always feel bad if we are directly responsible for a death here, but it makes me feel a little better if the cycle can go on as it should.