Our (Almost) Barn Fire

Sometimes when terrible things could have so easily happened, but didn't, all you can do is count your blessings.  Like last night, when putting the animals to bed I smelled burnt toast in the chicken coop.  No, I wasn't having a seizure (thank you TV commercial from my childhood).

I ruled out the heat lamp which can smell like burning when you first turn it on as it burns off the dust on the bulb.  I then checked the heated water buckets.  Sure (and scary) enough, the element in the goats' green 2 gallon heated bucket purchased this fall from Princess Auto was burning a hole through the plastic.

It is terrifying to think about what could have happened if I had not caught this in time.  I checked but there are no recalls on this brand of bucket and they are still being sold at the store.  In addition to returning this bucket for a refund, I will be diligent about checking each water bucket over during both morning and evening water changes from here on out.  I have also placed a metal sheet under each bucket so that it is not sitting directly on the wood coop floor.  Harder to burn metal than wood?

After the barn fire in nearby Dunrobin earlier this week, this was a frightening finding.  BBQ goat is NOT on the menu!