As self-serving as it is, one of the things I love the most about our pair of China Buff geese is that they still like to be with me. When the weather cooperates, which has not been frequently, I can loose them from their yard. Dutifully, they follow me to the flooded part of the lawn to get their "bath". (We are hopeful to have the money to have a proper pond dug for them in later summer or early in the fall.) Not as friendly as the goats or chickens, our geese will stay in close proximity to me. They like me to be within 10-15 feet of where they are. When I get further than that, they begin honking and tag along to wherever I am heading. If I want them to follow me, I just begin walking away. I can get close enough to touch them, but they prefer if I merely keep them company and keep my hands to myself. They tolerate my picking them up, but they certainly do not like it.
At bath time, our geese dunk their heads to wet them. They slosh water down over their backs, wetting their feathers. Then, it is time to preen each feather into place. Once preening is complete to their satisfaction, they open their wings and flap madly to dry themselves.
It is a little sad that our geese do not know they can fly. They have never really tried to and we have never clipped their wings. Once last summer, Caitlin took off running towards me, caught some lift and managed what amounted to a very long leap across the back yard. She managed to get about 5 feet into the air. She looked as startled as I did. We watched to see would they continue, but flight was abandoned for policing the other yard occupants.
Can you tell them apart? Justin's bill has a bright, orange nub on the top of his. Caitlin's bill is smaller and colored black. Justin is slightly heavier than Caitlin, too. Caitlin's more vocal of the two. If there is any doubt who is who, Justin will be the one with his neck straight out, hissing, and charging towards Sean or any unsuspecting stranger nearing his nesting site.
It is always, "Just one more thing..." around here in the mornings, or the afternoons, or evenings. Always. I marvel how we get out the door for errands and necessary appointments every morning (except, the mornings when I don't make it, of course.) This morning was no different.
Operation: Vacation Preparation is in full swing. That means that within the next 3 days (working around our regular employment) we have a ton of stuff to finish so that when we leave for the week, I can buy myself a few hours to actually relax on this vacation to the beach and not be in constant panic imagining the mayhem going on back at the homestead. It is going to be a marathon couple of days. Among what needs to be accomplished is:
1. buy and set 8 new cedar posts for the horse pasture
2. buy and set final 4 new cedar posts for the goat pasture (Sean set 6 new posts already this week, but Pepper is still pulling the fencing down and walking out whenever the mood strikes her to do so.
3. weed large raised bed, refill with soil/compost and plant as many tomato plants as will fit there. (Sean was just given more than 100 additional tomato plants and unless they get put into the ground immediately, they will be wasted.)
4. figure out WHERE to put rest of tomatoes and peppers 5. finish chicken tractor #2 (which will house goslings and ducklings for the now.) done
6. buy new pool for goslings and ducklings to swim in (note to self: make sure it will fit in the chicken tractor enclosure.)
7. move Ellie into new temporary kid enclosure for the week.
8. move said enclosure to opposite field with waist tall hay growing. 9. buy extra feed/hay (just in case.) done 10. move chickens to former (cleaned and sanitized) gosling/duck pen inside house. done
11. train house/critter sitter on the routine
12. clean house
13. pack
14. make milk into new batch of cheese and preserve
15. freeze or jam the 13.5 pounds of strawberries Kristen, Meaghan and I picked today
16. move Fenn to new run in front of house (since he has learned to climb over the 6 foot dog pen area in the back yard!)
Add to this list our regular weekly meeting attendance, time set aside for our volunteer ministry work and our family worship night, the regular feeding, watering, and mucking chores, the sad and necessary burial of 2 hens which died from natural causes (one yesterday and one today), dropping Meg & Kristen to visit their Dad for dinner 2 nights this week (after picking them up from a sleepover with their older sister this morning) and you have the makings of a triumphant accomplishment or impending disaster! I guess you'll have to stay tuned to see what happens.
By the time Sean left for work and I drove the hour to my eldest daughter's home, we had already cleaned and medicated a fish tank, finished the gosling/duckling enclosure, milked Ellie, filtered the milk, and sanitized the equipment, fed and watered all the critters, and moved the chicks to their new home. After work, Sean brought the girls to their Dad for dinner and returned to work in the back garden. With the use of a weed whacker, a hammer (to remove a rusted fence from last year) and our hand-pulling the weeds, Sean and I readied the bed for its tomatoes.
Our day was not all work. We took a few minutes to swim with the goslings and ducklings in a pool. We want them to be well-trained and obedient so that they will be able to go with us to a local lake to enjoy swimming with our family. The goslings are so tame. They swim for a bit, using their necks to pour water down their backs and preening. When they get tired of that, they love to climb on my hand to rest.
I love swim time, as much as the babies. These few minutes of play time made the unending battle with all the bugs (black flies, mosquitoes, & horse flies) we waged while forcing the garden into civility, worth it.... almost. (I am sporting more than 40 very itchy bug bites covering my body.)
It is late and time for bed, finally. I am worried about how my babies are going to handle their first night outside. A silly notion to most people, probably- they are water fowl- but these particular birds have become very dear to my heart. I know that I am not going to be able to sleep peacefully tonight despite Sean's reassurances.
The black chicks survived last night with no problems. They are still much smaller than their counterparts, but they are thriving and doing well. I have moved everyone into an empty parrot cage. The floor is lined with newspaper, which makes changing it easy. And, there is plenty of room for the chicks to settle under the warmth or move to the cooler side to be comfortable and for their food and water containers. Plus, as the chicks grow, they will use the wooden roost at night. To help control the temperature, I have pinned a white towel to 3 sides of the cage and hung a heat lamp from the ceiling- far away from where they can reach and injure themselves- and placed a thermometer at chick level. The whole arrangement is very satisfactory.
When I had finish settling the chicks to their new home, I ran some warm water in both bays of my kitchen sink for the ducklings and goslings to bathe in. Each morning, we wake to find their water container (which holds over a gallon of water) empty and the nice fresh shavings soaked with water. Ducks are messy little beasts! Kristen and Meaghan stood guard over the bathers while I scooped out the wet pine shavings and added fresh dry shavings. This would be the goslings first foray into bathing, but they seemed to enjoy it and know what to do about preening. Guards are necessary because neither breed of fowl seems to be afraid of jumping out of the sink and onto my counter, falling to the floor or into the very interested mouth of Fenn... lots of dangers to watch for!
The ducklings have grown and no longer both fit into one hand. They are just over 2 weeks old and are filling out nicely. The goslings are only about 1 week old and are just a little bigger than the ducklings. They are still very friendly, though they do not follow me in the same way the ducklings did. The ducklings are growing more bold of being on their own and become less frantic if I walk away from them, which is how it should be. In no time at all, they will be ready to live outside all the time.
I have marked my calendar and plan on putting the next batch of 36 eggs into the incubator. I will hatch out a mixture of americaunas, cochins, rhode island reds, and black sex links. I am planning on having them hatch for July 6th, while our niece, Abby is visiting us. (I think she will really enjoy playing with the new peepers.) This is perfect timing, too, in that our inside housing will be empty by then and ready for new occupants- after a good cleaning, of course! 18 of the new chicks are already spoken for, but I still have (potentially) 18 available for purchasing. If you are interested in adding to your flock, feel free to email me and we can connect. You can read about buying chicks and our pricing on that tab at the top of my page.
The rain is coming and going, but the sun is shining through. I hope that tomorrow clears so I can mow this lawn!
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