Barn break-in

Last night, just at dark, I noticed Haynes and a steer standing at the south end of the barn, near where the south door is located.  Odd. I checked.  I found the south door partly open and Haynes reaching inside to try to eat hay from the bales inside.   It isn't like he is hungry as I had put another large hay bale in the feeder and there is plenty of hay for him to eat.

I chased Haynes and the steer away from the door and closed it.  Haynes and the steer had figured out how to unhook the hook and then also removed a small chain through a catch.  I looked around the corral for the other steer and couldn't find him.  I opened the west barn door and looked in the barn and found the second steer inside the barn.  He had threaded his way through the south door and into the barn.  Before anyone else could get into the barn one stack of hay bales tipped over blocking further access from the south door into the barn.

I herded the second steer out of the barn.  Initially he wanted go out of the barn through the south door as he knew that was how he got into the barn, but the tipped stack of bales blocked his way.  I got him turned around and then out the west door.

I removed some of the tipped bales so I could reach the south door and then set a door catch inside the barn.  I didn't trust that Haynes and the steers wouldn't unlock the door from the outside.  When I rechecked the south door outside the other steer had already unhooked the hook.  He hadn't undone the small chain yet.

This morning I checked.  The barn doors were all closed.  Inside the barn I fixed the tipped stack of bales.  I swept up the loose hay Haynes and the steer had pulled from a few bales.   I also had to remove two areas of manure the second steer had left inside the barn.   One the two areas of manure was where I had a lawn chair and several towels.  Manure was on these items also.  Of course.

I also found another type of hook and placed it in the catch where the chain is located.  This hook should stop the cattle from unhooking it and opening the door.  This way I don't have to set the catch inside the barn door.

After I had fixed the tipped stack of bales and cleaned things up.  You can see how the steer could turn and get inside the barn.  I'm not sure if Haynes is too big to turn and get inside.

I use this to haul a small bale. This also had manure on it.  Of course the steers had to check out how I cleaned it.

The lawn chair is mesh.  So I had to use water and a brush to clean the manure off the chair.  Of course everyone had to check out the chair after I cleaned it.

You can see two of the towels with manure on them. The blue towel is a towel I found in the middle of the highway when I rode my bicycle this afternoon.   This is the second or third towel I found on the roads this year.