Farm Animal Mob Mentality

On average it costs roughly fifteen dollars a month to feed my farm animals and it's considerably cheaper to feed goats and pigs than to feed my dogs.

Today I picked up a large bag of hog chow and a large bag of rabbit pellets. Now that I have ten rabbits to feed! When I say large it's usually about forty kilograms. When I unload the bags into the feed room the crowd gets restless.

They start grunting and baying and snorting eventually leading to a cresendo of squealing, squelching and screaming. They start physically pushing each other which excites Willow into a frenzy, jumping on Charlotte, and then running around like a mad crazy goat.

After I'd organized the feed into the plastic bins and put the garbage away the mob was reaching the point of insanity. Going in to calm them down with a flake of hay is a great idea, except I was wearing a favorite pair of red flip flops. I've had these shoes forever and consider them "work sandals", so I'm not worried if they get muddy. In fact I was watching the dogs watch the bunnies and I stepped into a mud hole so deep I lost my shoe today and had to go fishing for in elbow deep in straight up thick, gooey mud. I could barely rinse the clay off the shoe.

I snag a flake of hay as I walk by an open bale and confidently push open the gate to the clucking of a chicken, the screaming of the pigs and the mad dash running of the goats.

Charlotte runs into Nugget who tries to get out of the way and smashes into Willow. Uninjured the chicken heads for high ground. Ginger roughly noses Charlotte in the flank who grunts in response. They are in hot pursuit as I walk quickly and throw the flake of hay. Only Willow is briefly distracted by the hay and the rest want some grain.

I am standing in a field, wearing flip flops staring into the eyes of a mob wondering how I'll get back to the safety of the barn with my toes intact. I take a step sideways, but they're on top of me as soon as I move. Charlotte's hoof comes down on my right foot and Willow plants her feet in my gut. I start to fall backwards and swear the chicken is right behind me to make me fall competely to the ground.

I give Charlotte a shove off my foot and lean away from Willow's dangerous feet. Dashing around a frenzied chicken I make it back into the safety of the barn. I've lost my shoe for the second time that day, but consider it a loss I'm willing to take.

I grab a container full of pellets and throw it over the fence to calm the mob, because I'm not going back in there right now. I must remember to grab my shoe in the morning.