Of Ganders and Roosters

The geese appear to be getting increasingly anti-social -- to put it mildly -- I should say they are getting more territorial. The other morning, Mom/Mother Goose witnessed Jane going into her herding stance while one goose began running AT her in attack-mode. The goose quickly changed directions as it realized Jane was not about to be goose-herded but was about to do the goose-herding.

Last night, walking up to the house in the dark, one goose decided to charge me and bite my leg. (Thankfully covered by jeans.) We're wary of this transition from our sweet little gooselets to grouchy young adults.

This second note is a belated one: One of our second batch of Americaunas ended up being a rooster. While I tried to rehome him before he began crowing, the only home I found for him during that stage was with a co-worker who owns over 100 chickens and eats them. I decided our little Roo wouldn't do well there and waited until the right person responded to my Craigslist post. Luckily, a nice man from Folsom, LA replied and came to collect him. He lives on 8 acres and has all sorts of other animals. Little Roo is now free to crow his little heart out without causing us and our neighbors to wake up at 5am.

Chicken Revolution at Work...

Very American chickens. 

                            It's funnier when they are both trying to sit in the plastic tub at the same time...

Shell-Free Eggs

I found one of my Rhode Island Reds in her nesting box at 5pm this evening, but a moment later she got up and I saw that all she'd laid was yolk and egg whites. No shell, no "rubber" egg. Just the insides. This is the first time any of our chickens have laid a less-than-perfect egg. We currently have them on laying feed, they are free-range during the day, and have access to an entire road paved with oyster shells. So they shouldn't be deficient of Vitamin D or Calcium. 

I also found it unusual that she would be laying so late in the day. But our chickens aren't really on any laying schedule -- generally all 8 of them are finished by around 2pm.


Pictures of our eggs coming soon... the ones with shells, that is. And maybe a shell-free egg if she lays another like that. 

Email to a Potential Room Mate Who Has Cats

Hi Alleson,

Thanks for writing. I am going to echo Chris' sentiments about the cats probably being an issue, as we have two young, hyper dogs (1 border collie, 1 pitbull) as well as two geese (who are pretty bossy and have lately been charging the dogs ... this has had little effect on my dog, who still gives them a good chase across the land), and 8 laying hens. My border collie has lived with a cat in the past, and they became close friends but she would herd him pretty persistently. My mom's pit has never known cats, except for the stray who used to live in the barn, and if he saw the cat he would race around in circles barking at the rafters. 

We like to let our hens out to free range during the daytime, and so far, despite living in a heavily wooded area, we have not had any chicken fatalities. I am not so concerned about the geese -- part of the reason we got the geese was that we heard that geese protect chickens, or at least keep other critters at bay. I'll admit, I thought it was pretty hysterical when I caught our geese honking and chasing our pitbull. He ran away with his tail between his legs. 

We love cats -- so it's not an issue for us. I would be more concerned with the cat/dog relationship and the cat/chicken relationship. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Best,

M

Turtle Mania and Our New Chicken Coop

Wherein, the bored collie Jane brings me her fourth or fifth turtle. Don't think this is a box turtle, but I really don't know enough about turtles to know exactly what kind it was.

Additionally, here are some nice pictures of our rhode island reds:

The African geese:

Carmen and Shane, two of our Americaunas:

And our new chicken coop, with Jenny, our Plymouth Barred Rock, as the tour guide:

Go lay some eggs, Jenny!

Our carpenter extraordinaire told us to use plastic milk crates as nesting boxes, and additionally, that you don't need very many, as all the hens will want to lay in the same nesting box anyway. He told us two nesting boxes would be more than enough for 8 hens, and so far, it has been. 

Big Honkers

Of course, one of the rhode island red hens decided she needed to be in the shot as well. 

Meditations On Egg Colors

Jenny, our Plymouth Barred Rock, laid her first egg yesterday. It's cream-colored with brown specks. Although, I was under the impression that the eggs would be brown, since our Rhode Island Reds have been laying, I don't consider the Barred Rock egg to be brown. The Rhodie eggs are more of a deep honey brown, whereas the Barred Rock egg is distinctly cream by comparison.

I also felt somewhat misled by the common refrain about Americauna eggs being blue or green. So far, Carmen has been laying about two weeks now, and her eggs are a very pale blue/green with white undertones. They are really more of a white gray with blue/green overtones.

Post-quiche consumption:

Here are pictures of Bored Collie Farm:

 

(Including, our dearest Bored Collie, herself, Miss Jane.)

New Geese Photos

Last two are of Dukey around 2 months.