Week Ending January 30

It's been a little nutso around here and I'm finally sitting down at the computer so I can post something...

This week has been all about GUS!

Gus in his shelter

He decided to hop onto the riding mower.

He is a widower gander now that his partner Greta was taken by a predator nearly a month ago. I'm a little sad, but the change in Gus has been amazing. 

Before, when he had Greta, he was a JERK toward me. He would totally go after me and bite me and hit me with his wings. Greta wasn't much better, she only looked at me with disdain. He must have sensed her attitude and followed her lead. 

I'm trying to remember when we got them, I want to say the Spring of 2019. Which would be just about right since Lenny (my sweet Lenny) and his pal Sheldon were both victims of our ignorance and stupidity and were both taken by a predator in the night. 

ANYWAY...

When Tom went to Wilco and brought home a new pair of goslings I was pretty excited that we would have geese. Little did I know that they bonded with Tom and I was not welcome. It makes sense since he was home with them all the time while they were young and I was still working full time. So naturally, I was the outsider. I don't think there was a time that Gus would even tolerate my presence. He's funny that way. BUT now that he is a single, and I'm home all of the time...I'm not so bad. He really has accepted me as his momma...again, he's funny that way. 

So, this week I have been observing his Gus-Gus ways and he just wanders around with the chickens and the ducks and avoids the pigs as much as possible just poking around and check out stuff that appears new to him.

February Happenings

Wow, it's crazy that a month has gone by since my last post! So, what's going on at Pigs 'n Poultry? Well, let's get into this!

Our Greta girl decided to pop out an egg that had no shell. Not so unusual for a first egg so it wasn't totally a surprise. It was a surprise that she is now at laying age. She's been with us since May and boy that took a long time for her to start laying! I was curious so I did a little research - geese only lay during the spring months and they usually only lay somewhere from 10-30 eggs per season. I had read somewhere that geese CAN lay as early as their first fall, but it's not common. She did do something that looked an awful lot like nesting and it was in the yard in between two garden boxes. Weirdo! This week we got a big surprise - and I mean BIG...

This mutant weighed in at 248 grams!

This egg almost looks fake-o, but it's real. The grass and blood stuck on it when it was brought in...man I felt so bad for Missy Greta. To go from a pretend egg that just had a leathery "shell" to this behemoth! She can't go back now! Fortunately, her routine is every other day since this big one.

The waterfowl egg collection

We used the goose eggs to make a frittata and it was delicious! I think that if we were to use the goose eggs for breakfast we could probably get two servings from one of those eggs! I'm accustomed to the duck or chicken egg size. We will enjoy these while we have them though - they won't be coming all the time. I'm excited about these eggs and look forward to more eggs from Greta. It will be interesting to see how long her laying season turns out to be in the end. Once she is done laying she'll go into her first real molt.

The other thing that happened in the last couple of weeks - my co-worker/friend and his wife dropped off 10 more young hens. It took a couple of weeks, but we got the new hens...

So that afternoon our flock increased to 31. When Clint asked how many we had now, Tom first said we had 26 chickens I quickly piped in and said 31 because of the little girls. We tend to not think of them since they haven't started laying yet, so I'm sure that's why we kind of forget about them. They don't offer anything but a lot of cuteness!

The Buttercups tend to want to be together, but they have been accepted by the older girls. Back when they were a couple of months old Tom decided to convert a dog house that we got down the street from our house.

November 2, 2019 - The Buttercups are finally out of the Brooder!

The best sight ever! Chickens out on grass.

The dog house got a door, a heat lamp and a perch too! So for three and half months they have grown accustomed to their home. I doubt that they will want to move in with the big girls.

So the chick shaw is filled a few more chickens and they are getting along better with each day that goes by. The first day we had to catch each of the new girls and physically place them in the chick shaw. This is actually a funny sight in the morning when the girls are first released for the day...23-26 hens coming out of the chick shaw. You wouldn't think that so many chickens would fit, but they do! Can you say Clown Car?

We have been keeping an eye on Fiona and her belly! She is looking good, but not huge. According to some research that I did recently, she may not even REALLY look pregnant until she is about 3 months after she has been bred. So when we do our willy-nilly calculations based on iffy memories we think that she was in heat last in mid-November. So that would put her around 3 months now. Gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days - approximately. If she continues to have her hangy belly swaying back and forth when she is running toward us at feeding time we might see piglets during my vacation time or sooner, maybe.

We know that she is not fat because they have been on a diet since last summer and Rex is looking pretty darn good. It's taken some time, but he is finally not looking like a....well...a pig.

This month has been quite rainy and I'm ready for some dry weather - especially on the weekends. I have so many things that I want to do!

Also, looking forward to the day when I can be home doing the farm life and making my own schedule with the time that I have in the day...

This is my happy place!

August 18, 2018 Evening Chores

Did some chicken and pig chores after dinner and got some more video...this time I got the Freedom Rangers. They finally decided to use the bucket waterer after their evening snack.

I thought I would start using our old Canon Point and Shoot camera that is from I don't know how long ago. The pictures/videos are still good, so I might as well. I can't say that it will make a difference with my videography skills.

ANYWAY...

We put together the bucket waterer for the original chickens that we started with and they just could get used to it. So it sat in the garage until this past week. The rangers immediately started to mess around with it and got even more excited when they got water out of it! We had to let the traditional waterer go dry so they would go back to the bucket. Success!

Another thing that was a first (for me at least) was seeing the Hooligans allowing Little Miss Phylis to eat the meal worms with them. It was amazing - Lenny is so food-centric that he doesn't like having other ducks around. Perhaps he is happy that Mr. Shelly has a girlfriend and that he is no longer jumping on him and riding him like he's in the rodeo. 

It's been a pretty relaxing day and I'm happy to have stayed home most of the day to rest and relax. I still didn't nap, but at least I didn't over exert myself earlier today.

Here's to another great day on the farm!