Pip had a bellyache last night. Since a goat has four stomachs, that can be a lot of ache. The largest stomach (technically there’s only one stomach with four compartments, but everyone calls them stomachs) is the rumen. The rumen is like an expandable pouch. It’s where all of the bulky, grassy, thorny, leafy, barky things that goats eats are stored. It’s amazing the quantity of feed that can fit in there. Sometimes Pip eats so much that his left side (where the rumen is) sticks out in a lopsided way. Counterintuitively, an asymmetrical, bulky belly is a sign of a healthy goat. Bacteria in the rumen break down the tough matter. The goats regurgitate clumps of it and grind it with their teeth. That’s called chewing their cud. The goats burp. A lot. Burping is another sign of a healthy goat. Eventually it all goes back through the stomachs and on through the twists and turns of the digestive tract and comes out either as pee or as “goat berries.”

Last night Pip was not burping. He stood with his back roached (think curved like a Halloween cat.) His stomachs weren’t gurgling. He wasn’t chewing his cud. He didn’t want to eat. He looked wretched and you could tell that he felt very sorry for himself. I called the vet, who recommended dosing with an item that all goat-keepers have in their first aid boxes: Pepto-Bismol.

I gave Pip an ounce. He peed and pooped within the hour. By midnight he was chewing his cud. This morning at 5 am I heard him burp. He got another dose at 9 am. And that’s why Pip has a pink beard.

It’s hard to get Pepto-Bismol pink off of a goat’s beard. It’s rather like in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. In the book the pink spot moves on through the house, all the while getting larger and larger. In the barn the pink gets on my boots, on Caper, and on the stall door.

So, I’m leaving his beard pink. Let’s just say that he’s getting ready for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

This is my first time treating goat bloat. I think that it came on because I moved the pasture fence and the boys had access to lots more greens. Perhaps there’s a toxic weed out there. At the same time, I gave him less hay in the morning, so he was eating all of those greens on an empty (for a goat) stomach(s). I provide goat minerals a couple of times a week; because of this experience I’ll finally build and put in a goat-proof mineral feeder so that he can have them free choice. Any experienced goat keepers want to chime in?

Having cooked professionally for years, I am a firm believer in having the right tool for the job. A tool designed for the task can make work less frustrating and often yields a finished result that is of a higher quality. (Have I told you how in love I am with my stand mixer?) Sometimes the right tool is expensive, but it should last and last. Twenty years ago I spent a lot of money on a chef knife, and continue to use it daily. That said, (and having defended my buying habits) I also believe that sometimes the right tool doesn’t have to be expensive. Sometimes it doesn’t cost anything at all.

I needed a scoop for the laying hen pellets. I had just used up the last of the laundry detergent.

I took the cardboard cutting scissors and went to work.

Not hard work, though. In two minutes I’d made my scoop.

Some perfect tools, like my knives, are beautiful. My grain scoop is not. But, using it makes me feel virtuous and clever. The chickens don’t care a whit about beautiful and told me that it works just fine.

You can make my scoop, or you can construct a plastic scoop that is far more attractive. I found a Korean blog that has a multitude of clever ways to repurpose plastic cartons, including this scoop. It’s much prettier than mine, but mine holds more pellets!

All summer I ignored the pumpkin patch. It is no surprise that it looks like this:

Some years my benevolent neglect yields a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins. Not this time.

That is a pitifully small harvest. But it’s enough to decorate the driveway.

Perhaps if I’d cared for the pumpkin patch better I would have had a more bountiful crop. But then, I might have pulled up this weed:

Instead of growing pumpkins, I’m farming bumblebees.

The pumpkin patch is back in the meadow, so it’s easy to ignore the tangle of vegetation. However, I have flowers and herbs right next to the house that I do water and keep tidy. It took me only minutes to harvest those pumpkins, so I thought I’d take the time to deadhead the zinnias. I didn’t. I think I’ll rename my property Bumblebee Farm.

Yesterday afternoon I saw a large white ball on the lawn. I asked Lily if she left her toy out. She said no, it’s not mine.

What could it be?

It’s about ten inches across. It feels soft, and yet solid and light, like a marshmallow.

Its insides look like a marshmallow, too.

Can anyone identify this mushroom?

Chickens love to eat. They’ll let you know that they are going to waste away if they aren’t fed right now and that an hour without a treat is a hardship. The truth is that they can go for days without food and recover just fine. What they can’t do without is water. Manure is 75% water. Egg whites are 90% water. Laying hens need to stay hydrated in order for their body processes to work. When it’s hot in the summer and the only water is in the sweltering coop, the hens won’t go inside to drink and they’ll suffer. It’s not only during times of high temperatures that you have to worry about keeping the waterers filled. Ignore the fount in the winter so that it freezes and assume they’ll be fine eating snow and your hens will be dead in two days.

I started out using plastic waterers, with the red screw-on bottoms. They’re fine for small flocks. But, they have their drawbacks. When almost empty the plastic dispenser is easy to tip over. The top is flat, so there’s always one bird that tries to roost on it. I don’t have running water in my barns in the winter, and so have to fill the waterer inside the house. Several times, carrying the plastic one out to the coop, the bottom popped off and splashed freezing cold water on me. I switched to the metal fount, which holds more water and is much easier to carry. Whichever type you use, you have to keep it from freezing solid. If you have electricity in the coop, use a heated base. For years my coop did not have power and so on the coldest of winter days I’d have to go out several times daily to swap frozen waterers for fresh. It is not enough to leave water early in the morning, and then replace the frozen dispenser with a fresh one at night. Chickens don’t drink after dark.

Even in the summer I keep the waterer raised up on the electric heater base (unplugged) to keep the water from getting bedding and manure in it. Notice that the electric cord is covered with a protective conduit. This is to keep Candy from chewing through the wire. But, a conduit is also a good idea in a barn that doesn’t have a rabbit, as mice gnaw wires and can potentially cause fires.

The above photo is a tad blurry because I took it early in the morning when the light wasn’t good. Notice that no one is drinking from this fount. That’s because they’re all outside drinking from this one:

Given their druthers, the girls prefer their water outside. I keep this fount filled until the temperature drops to freezing. Every few days it gets refilled. Even Candy likes drinking from it. Note that it’s up on bricks to keep it clean. An added bonus is that every once in awhile I move the base and the hens have a feast on worms that live underneath it.

The Big Barn houses the twelve large, young and active Gems. They, too, prefer to drink outside, but a small plastic waterer won’t do. This large one is awkward (and the gasket breaks) but it holds enough so that in the worst of the summer heat I only I have to refill it every four days or so. The Gems have a galvanized waterer inside of the coop, too, that I keep cleaned and filled.

Every time I fill a waterer, I take a scrub brush to it. Despite the fact that chickens love to drink from mucky mud puddles, I want the water that I give them to be clean! (The one in the photo is due to be cleaned and refilled.) Water dispensers, especially in the summer, are prone to hosting algae blooms. If that is a problem, a splash of apple cider vinegar in the fount keeps the water clear.  (Only put vinegar in plastic containers as it will cause the metal ones to rust.) However, I don’t routinely add apple cider vinegar in a large enough quantity to be a tonic because I prefer to reserve it when needed medicinally.