Post by Lannie on May 8, 2010 10:56:54 GMT -5
But not the good kind. I was headed out to milk at 6:00 and was admiring the view as I walked from the barn. The sun was just up and it was cold and frosty, so there was just a bit of mistiness in the air. Bandit and Seven were licking each other over the fence, and I stopped to watch, thinking (for the umpteenth time) that I have GOT to remember to take my camera with me wherever I go.
Then Seven reared up and mounted Bandit's side, OVER the barbed wire fence. Why I didn't see THIS coming, I have no idea, but now I feel pretty stupid. Bandit moved slightly, Seven's front end came down on HER side of the fence, and there he sat, high-centered over the barbed wire. OK, Lannie, don't panic, just get over there and get him off the fence. I set my pails down and went through the gate into the corral, and by the time I got as far as the chicken coop, he'd reared up again and managed to back most of himself off the fence. He still had his right front leg over it, so I kept going. After a few more steps, he'd managed to get his leg off and was completely on his side of the fence again.
So I hotfooted it back out through the gate and into the cow barn, thinking the quicker I got Bandit away from him, and in the barn for milking, the better. But she didn't WANT to come in, the hussy. I had to go out and tap her on the butt a few times to get her moving, but she finally went. Once she was eating her hay, I went back out to check the fence (unharmed, but sporting quite a few fluffs of black fuzz on the barbs) and Seven (also unharmed except for a few drops of blood on that front leg that was caught). Then I went back in to milk, and when I was finished, I put Bandit in the cow pen. It's the only place I can put her where she won't have access to that cross-fence.
Now the strange thing is that it's only been 2 weeks since her last heat, and she's not due for another until May 13th, but obviously Seven's smelling something and he's VERY interested. I can't keep her in that pen for a week - there's not nearly enough grass in there and like I've mentioned before, I only have a few bales of hay left, which I'm carefully rationing out for milking time only.
We obviously need to put that hot wire up TODAY. But I'm not sure how to run it now. I was going to run it along at about the level of the middle wire of the fence, which is where Seven's nose usually is when he's trying to mooch or get attention from Bandit or Cricket. But if it's in the middle, and he gets himself high-centered on the top wire, I'm not sure it will zap him. If I run it along at the level of the top wire, and he rears over it and gets high-centered, he'll just get zapped over and over until he gets himself off the fence, right? I worry now that if he panics because of being zapped, he'll either take the fence down, hurt himself badly trying to get off it quickly, or both.
What would be the best way to run the wire? I had said before that we had plenty of insulators, but Rich reminded me that we need the funky backward insulators because of the way the t-posts are in the ground. If I want to run the hotwire on Seven's side, we need the back-of-the-post type insulators and we might have enough to do that whole fence, but maybe not. We might have to put one on every other post if we don't have enough, so that right there precludes running two strands of electric.
If you could only have one, where would you put it, height-wise?
~Lannie
Then Seven reared up and mounted Bandit's side, OVER the barbed wire fence. Why I didn't see THIS coming, I have no idea, but now I feel pretty stupid. Bandit moved slightly, Seven's front end came down on HER side of the fence, and there he sat, high-centered over the barbed wire. OK, Lannie, don't panic, just get over there and get him off the fence. I set my pails down and went through the gate into the corral, and by the time I got as far as the chicken coop, he'd reared up again and managed to back most of himself off the fence. He still had his right front leg over it, so I kept going. After a few more steps, he'd managed to get his leg off and was completely on his side of the fence again.
So I hotfooted it back out through the gate and into the cow barn, thinking the quicker I got Bandit away from him, and in the barn for milking, the better. But she didn't WANT to come in, the hussy. I had to go out and tap her on the butt a few times to get her moving, but she finally went. Once she was eating her hay, I went back out to check the fence (unharmed, but sporting quite a few fluffs of black fuzz on the barbs) and Seven (also unharmed except for a few drops of blood on that front leg that was caught). Then I went back in to milk, and when I was finished, I put Bandit in the cow pen. It's the only place I can put her where she won't have access to that cross-fence.
Now the strange thing is that it's only been 2 weeks since her last heat, and she's not due for another until May 13th, but obviously Seven's smelling something and he's VERY interested. I can't keep her in that pen for a week - there's not nearly enough grass in there and like I've mentioned before, I only have a few bales of hay left, which I'm carefully rationing out for milking time only.
We obviously need to put that hot wire up TODAY. But I'm not sure how to run it now. I was going to run it along at about the level of the middle wire of the fence, which is where Seven's nose usually is when he's trying to mooch or get attention from Bandit or Cricket. But if it's in the middle, and he gets himself high-centered on the top wire, I'm not sure it will zap him. If I run it along at the level of the top wire, and he rears over it and gets high-centered, he'll just get zapped over and over until he gets himself off the fence, right? I worry now that if he panics because of being zapped, he'll either take the fence down, hurt himself badly trying to get off it quickly, or both.
What would be the best way to run the wire? I had said before that we had plenty of insulators, but Rich reminded me that we need the funky backward insulators because of the way the t-posts are in the ground. If I want to run the hotwire on Seven's side, we need the back-of-the-post type insulators and we might have enough to do that whole fence, but maybe not. We might have to put one on every other post if we don't have enough, so that right there precludes running two strands of electric.
If you could only have one, where would you put it, height-wise?
~Lannie