- Jul 14, 2012
- 8
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Well I've seen this site through numerous searches, but never found the time to contribute.
Guess I can start with a video of letting my latest batch of Rhode Island Reds out of their pens for the first time.
Always a good day when the birds go out. No one wants to leave at first, but once they get out, chase some flies, and find live food, all worry is forgotten. Fun to watch the bird dynamics if you're into that sort of thing! Love the standoff between the chick and the Toulouse gosling after the gosling chased another RR chick. Both walk away at the same time. Aylesbury ducks, Toulouse geese, and Lavender Araucana chickens are together with the RR chicks. An Apricot call duck drake, named Jeff is in there as well but we don't generally count Jeff as a duck as he only loves the chickens. Grooms them, sleeps with them, stands there calling when he finds food, you know, normal duck behavior... heh
Another thing to mention is one of the RRs by day 10 or so was suffering from splayed legs. By day 12 he/she was unable to even move to give itself food. Had to give a good think over what to do. Before picking the likely outcome, I picked it up, put it by the food and water dishes, and it ate like crazy. My general rule is if it wants to eat, it wants to live. Spent the following 3 weeks shoving tons of vitamins into everyone's food supply ( just in case it wasn't isolated to this guy's genetics and maybe something missing in the chick crumbs ), taped its splayed legs together, and once it was visibly on the mend, gave it a bit of physio ( the things we do! ) with regular leg exercises. Now you can't even see which one is gimpy ( hint: chick that is jumped over at the end ). So I'm kind of extra happy about gimpy coming out today. He/she was very close to having a shorter life!
Anyway, hope you all enjoy. I always think days like today make all the care worth it.
Guess I can start with a video of letting my latest batch of Rhode Island Reds out of their pens for the first time.
Always a good day when the birds go out. No one wants to leave at first, but once they get out, chase some flies, and find live food, all worry is forgotten. Fun to watch the bird dynamics if you're into that sort of thing! Love the standoff between the chick and the Toulouse gosling after the gosling chased another RR chick. Both walk away at the same time. Aylesbury ducks, Toulouse geese, and Lavender Araucana chickens are together with the RR chicks. An Apricot call duck drake, named Jeff is in there as well but we don't generally count Jeff as a duck as he only loves the chickens. Grooms them, sleeps with them, stands there calling when he finds food, you know, normal duck behavior... heh
Another thing to mention is one of the RRs by day 10 or so was suffering from splayed legs. By day 12 he/she was unable to even move to give itself food. Had to give a good think over what to do. Before picking the likely outcome, I picked it up, put it by the food and water dishes, and it ate like crazy. My general rule is if it wants to eat, it wants to live. Spent the following 3 weeks shoving tons of vitamins into everyone's food supply ( just in case it wasn't isolated to this guy's genetics and maybe something missing in the chick crumbs ), taped its splayed legs together, and once it was visibly on the mend, gave it a bit of physio ( the things we do! ) with regular leg exercises. Now you can't even see which one is gimpy ( hint: chick that is jumped over at the end ). So I'm kind of extra happy about gimpy coming out today. He/she was very close to having a shorter life!
Anyway, hope you all enjoy. I always think days like today make all the care worth it.
