Goose Love

Husband says we have to really watch the geese this spring as they have become rather agressive. I see them every day and never see that side of them.

The geese are alway calm and gentle around me. The gander is actually very affectionate and gets rather put out if I don't talk to him or pet him when I am in the barn. He will fly up on top of his shelter and honk at me until I pay him some attention ( this is the only time he ever flies up)




Yesterday was such a beautiful sunny day that I let the geese out of the barn to roam free along the paths and the snow. I spent some time kneeling down and petting the gander. He began nibbling on my sleeve and then quickly jumped onto my bent leg... rather like he does when wooing the goose! (nudge nudge wink wink). I pushed him off and was a little shocked!

I guess the moral of the story is that you never know who you will fall in love with.  Either that or I look like a large waterfowl.

Saturday in Pictures



Last day of the pigs.  They had their "appointment" today.





The geese don't mind the snow



The new flock of ducks.  The mallard is on the far left.

The geese decided that the fences are down and they are allowed in the garden. 

Quickly harvesting the leeks.  Also picked the kale, carrots and parsnips.

The Plymouth Barred Rocks in their new pen

 

Poultry

Our freezer is full.  The meat birds and one goose were brought to the mobile processing unit yesterday.  Husband and I had to get up at 5:00 am to get the hens into some cages to bring them to the processor.  With an hour's drive we were the first to arrive at 7:30am only to be met by a friend who was the second to arrive.  It was quite a surprise running into her there as she drove into town from McBride - who would have thought we would have made the appointments on the same day.

The unit was interesting and full of stainless steel - since we were the first people there we got a tour!  I was very happy to see on one of the signs "Make sure to treat the animals humanely" 

Upon arriving home Husband went out to feed the geese and the gander promptly nailed him.  He was bitten quite hard.  I think the gander was afraid he was next in line for processing.  Of course when I went out the gander was as gentle as usual with me (goose love).

I don't think that I mentioned that we sold all of the Americauna chicks that we hatched in the spring.  Our intention was to keep them, but after having the Plymouth Barred Rock and discovering how calm they are, we decided that the flighty Americaunas are not our preferred breed.  So, I placed an ad on Kijiji and sold them all for $10 a piece about 2 months ago and I am still getting inquiries from people wanting to buy them.

We have been in a quandry as to what to do with your old laying hens.  I mentioned it to one of my clients and they said that they would take them even though they are already three years old. Once they build their henhouse I will deliver the hens and Lucky.

The Barred Rock are great and the rooster (the other 3 went to the processor) has begun crowing.  It sounds so funny sort of like a muffled trumpet.  We have one teeny tiny hen in the batch and she is about a quarter the size of the others, but she is tough as nails and is always the first to the food and water.

Tomorrow I will be cleaning out hen house and outside pens and moving the Barred Rock into the side where the old layers are to get them settled.  The have not begun laying yet, but at least they will be in the side with the nest boxes.  The old layers will go on the other side until my client's are ready to accept them - it shouldn't be a problem without the nest boxes as they are only laying 2-3 eggs a day with the darker days.

At the end of July the fox ate Donald our drake Khaki Campbell.  The duck hens seemed so lost without him, so I began looking around for another drake.  On Kijiji someone had advertised a FREE Khaki drake, but to get him I would also have to take a Mallard hen.  They joined our flock at the end of September and seem to be doing very well.  At took a liitle bit to get them acquainted with our existing hens, but they get along rather well now.

Wordless Wednesday

  

Goslings

Since we picked up the goslings it has been raining.  Hey, at least the snow is gone now (other than the odd patch) and we have some green grass!

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful 22c and Son and I took the goslings outside on the lawn to get some fresh air and stretching...

...and the odd nibble of grass.  I'm surprised at how fast they can run... only a few weeks old and they can out run me (though most things probably could)  They like to follow and we have to watch our step lest we squash them.

At this stage the goslings are so adorable, but we have to remember eventually they will be Christmas dinner.... hard not to get attached though.

Poultry

We are amassing poultry this week.

The chicks we hatched are now a week and a half old. Of the 16 eggs (I miscounted them as 17) six actually hatched and another ten formed but didn't develop all the way. Daughter was brave and opened up the unhatched eggs.





On Wednesday I placed another 16 Americauna eggs and 10 Khaki Campbell duck eggs in the incubator. I'm going to turn the egg more often to see if that will increase the hatch rate.





The kids and I went out to the farm I visited last week to pick up our three goslings. They are so cute and just want to be held.

And where should all these babies end up? The garage of course!

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This is so cool!  The above portion of the post was written and uploaded from a new app on my iPhone (there really does appear to be an app for everything!)  Now I can actually blog while I'm out and about!

The video above is from the day we brought the goslings home.  As you can see they just want to sit in Daughter's lap.

Today I ordered 25 Barred Plymouth Rock and 25 Frey's Special Dual Purpose from Frey's Hatchery in Ontario.  I just found their website yesterday quite by mistake as I was looking a the Northern BC Poultry and Small Animal website.  I was pleasantly surprised when I called them this morning as their prices are very reasonable (rather good in fact!)

Posted on Homestead Barn Hop #13

Field Trip

This afternoon I travelled out to a farm close to my area of town to visit a lady whom I met via the Alberta Chickens Etc forum.  It was a great visit!  I got to see her various breeds of chicken, a variety of ducklings and chicks. goats, geese, llama, dogs, cats and exotic birds.  So much fun!

I learned a lot and got to ask questions of someone well acquianted with chicken breeds and hierarchy.  She suggested we nurse Cockzilla back to health (he was looking much better today by-the-way) let him completely grow his feathers back, then remove Lucky and reintroduce Cockzilla to the hens.  If all goes well then to cull Lucky out of the flock.  Her reasoning is that you don't want to get rid of a rooster with a good temperament and keep one that is a brute.  I feel much better now as both Husband and I really like Cockzilla and didn't want to have to kill him.

I also got my fill of goats (or almost).  Two of her goats are so friendly they just kept coming to me for head rubs and eventually just leaned their bodies against me.  The smell of their pens brought me back to my childhood spending time at the neighbour's goat pens.

Unfortunately her goose eggs did not hatch yet, so I had to come home empty handed.  I did see the large African Geese and was slightly startled as to how noisy they are.

The time went too fast.... three hours later I had to get home, though I could have stayed longer for more wonderful conversation with her and her husband.  It was so nice to actually speak to people who have such similar interests and opinions as I.  They also told me about a small group of hobby farmers that get together every so often and the next time they have a meeting they will invite me along.

More stuff...

Sometimes I feel lonely as I don't have any friends with the same sorts of interests as me.  I can talk to my family and of course my blogging friends about livestock and gardening, but I miss having any face-to-face meetings.  Throught the Alberta Chickens Etc site, I have been emailing with a lady who lives in our community and I'll be visiting her farm this Wednesday.  I'm so excited as she has chickens, ducks, geese and goats.  I love goats, but Husband is totally set against ever having one on our acreage.  I'm hoping to establish a friendship with her... so far so good via email!

She is in the process of hatching out some African Goose eggs and I will be purchasing three goslings from her should the hatch work out.  I may be coming home with some new friends on Wednesday afternoon!



We've had two chicks hatch this afternoon/evening!  They are so adorable.  Daughter actually managed to catch the first chick hatching on film and I hope to post it soon once she has a chance to download it.

The neighbourhood fox was around yesterday and I managed to sit about 1.5 meters away from him and take some photos.  Hopefully once our geese are grown they will be keeping him away from our property.

This is the last post of the April blog challenge - 30 posts in 30 days!  Yeah!  I have to say I'm actually surprised that I was able to accomplish it.   As you can see I have four posts today as I was so busy with work I didn't have time the last few days - but it doesn't matter- I did it!