Slice of Ranch Food Chain

The other day we discovered a small dead, dark bug/beetle in the hay wheelbarrow after we finished feeding our horses. It startled us, as we always look at the hay carefully before we feed.

After a bit of research, we found that it was a darkling beetle (also called a mealworm beetle). Just one or two of these beetles is not a problem for the horses, but since the darkling beetles are decomposers of dead plant material hay infested with them has likely "gone bad" and should be thrown away. Since we only found one, we decided to keep our eyes open for more but to keep the hay for now.

The next time we went out to feed we pulled back the tarp from the hay and watched a mouse disappear over the edge of the farthest bale.

More research found that mice eat beetles, specifically mealworms as well as other insects, snails, and fungi. We prevent the mice from living in the hay by stacking our bales loosely, with space between them, and in a crisscross fashion so wind can blow through.

Mice droppings are toxic to horses, so we don't want them living in the hay, but the presence of the mice in the area will help keep the beetle population in check.

Then our resident barn cat and horned owls will keep the mice population in check...and we have just described part of our slice of ranch natural food chain.

Write in and let us know about your slice of ranch food chain!

Helpful Glow

During the cold weather, we use electrically heated buckets to keep the horses water from freezing. It doesn't make the water hot, only just warm enough to not freeze. To power these buckets we run electrical cords from the work barn. The electrical cords are yellow, so they show up and we use curved metal hooks to keep the cord on the ground so no one trips over them.
NOTE: We hope to run an underground conduit later on for the electrical cords to run through, but for now this works well.

Our electrical cords have an orange status light that tells us when they are plugged in. This is super helpful, especially since the cords are lying on the ground and can become unplugged. Each morning and evening when we give our horses fresh water, clean up their pens, and feed them, we also check to be sure their electrical is plugged in.

We're all for helpful little things that keep everything working and running properly! What little things do you find helpful? Please share in the comments.

"It Rained" and now its Muddy

 In these winter months when its muddy outside, we take some time to analyze the situation before just jumping in to change things. 

The other day, after a hard rain we found all the horse pens had several inches of water. Each horse had a small area to stand (about 10 feet square) that stayed pretty dry.

At first we wanted to go right in there and move dirt around, create canals to drain water from the pens and build up the low side so the water didn't sit there. 

However, instead of making any changes right away, we decided to mark the calendar with "It Rained" and then check the ground each of the following days to see how long it took for the water to drain on its own.

As it turned out, the pens dried out fairly quickly without any help from us. Sure we got muddy boots for a few days, but from what we have read the mud and water can actually help keep the horse hooves stronger...as long as they also get a chance to get dry as well.

While we waited for the pens to dry, we continued to check each horses hooves every day to be sure they weren't getting soft or spongy, which can indicate that they are staying too wet.

After several days we found a few places that still needed a little work, but it was a lot less than we had originally thought...and the changes we made were different than those we would have done in the wettest weather. If we had moved dirt too soon, we very well might have caused the water to run into the "dry" area that each horse already had...making it worse before it got better. 

So much better to wait and see first, then make small adjustments.

What are your wet weather suggestions that you use for your slice of ranch? We'd love to hear from you!