Michigan

[theron]

Did really good at the bird swap in St. Louis. It was wet, rainy, and windy for most of the time. We sold 4 ducks and 20 cockerels of different breeds. We came home with all four geese though. I even got to see tsparrow before we left.

 

[KrisRose]

Quote:
OMG Which one of your geese who killed the chicken? Not my sweet Penelope? Her sister Gisele will chase the chickens away from food but thats it.

Is her "sister" Giselle the infamous poop all over the truck seats Giselle?

lol Nope! The famous "poop all over my new truck seats" was her dad now named Homer. A coworker hatched out 5 eggs of his this spring. 2 from my American Buff Taffy (which I got from Vicki2x2) and 3 from Jazzabelle, a Toulouse I picked up at Fowlfest. I just liked the name and decide to recycle it with the one female I kept.
Homer has recovered from being named "Giselle" and has got his he-man mojo back lol. He was a stinker during breeding season but has calmed down quite a bit.
You always knew when an orgy was going on at Goose Lake. Lots of honking and running around with wings up in the air. Homer is one happy stud goose

.

 

[KrisRose]

Quote:
LOL yes Sweet Penelope!!
The talking is definitly the Toulouse in her. The bad behavior is because they are in their teen years

. I hope. My girl Giselle and Jazzabelle had the turkeys cornered this morning. I think Jazzie is a bad influence. They are stuck together like they are glued.

 

[NovaAman]

Keyt, If you can find the wood, build some wintering coops for 3 chickens, and put 1 roo in with 2 hens. It will keep them seperate from the others. I was talking to this guy somewhere, not here, and thats what he suggested to me to do if I ended up with to many rooster and didn't want to part. I guess it all comes down to whats in the budget when it comes to building. Otherwise take to auction or swap meet...

babigry, And yes, my 5 yr old named the silkies, and Minnesota Cuke is his favorite veggie tale movie, cuz its like indiana jones... Which surprises me that he hasn't named on after that!

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
Is her "sister" Giselle the infamous poop all over the truck seats Giselle?

lol Nope! The famous "poop all over my new truck seats" was her dad now named Homer. A coworker hatched out 5 eggs of his this spring. 2 from my American Buff Taffy (which I got from Vicki2x2) and 3 from Jazzabelle, a Toulouse I picked up at Fowlfest. I just liked the name and decide to recycle it with the one female I kept.
Homer has recovered from being named "Giselle" and has got his he-man mojo back lol. He was a stinker during breeding season but has calmed down quite a bit.
You always knew when an orgy was going on at Goose Lake. Lots of honking and running around with wings up in the air. Homer is one happy stud goose

.

Oh my gosh. Too funny! Homer was always a bit of a pistol here, too. I'm glad you got some babies out of him.

 

[dianaross77]

Opa, your granddaughter is in fact blessed to have you. The only grandpa I had was my step-dad's father when we lived in Guatemala. He was a lovely sweet man who treated me like one of his own. My grandparents did come and visit the states once before he died and he said some beautiful things to me (everything sounds better in Spanish). If your granddaughter is sentimental and likes to keep things, what about a silver charm bracelet for her next birthday? Then you won't have to worry about what to get her for years to come. You can fill the bracelet with charms of her favorite things and everytime she wears it, she'll think of you.

 

[KrisRose]

Quote:
lol Nope! The famous "poop all over my new truck seats" was her dad now named Homer. A coworker hatched out 5 eggs of his this spring. 2 from my American Buff Taffy (which I got from Vicki2x2) and 3 from Jazzabelle, a Toulouse I picked up at Fowlfest. I just liked the name and decide to recycle it with the one female I kept.
Homer has recovered from being named "Giselle" and has got his he-man mojo back lol. He was a stinker during breeding season but has calmed down quite a bit.
You always knew when an orgy was going on at Goose Lake. Lots of honking and running around with wings up in the air. Homer is one happy stud goose

.

Oh my gosh. Too funny! Homer was always a bit of a pistol here, too. I'm glad you got some babies out of him.

I loved that pair of blues you have and was surprized that my lav x buff cross produced blues. Even the Toulouse cross seems to have got that shade on them. Do you know the genetics behind it?

 

[Olive Hill]

Keyt - I say again: Eat them!

Seriously though, if nothing else think of it this way: this whole livestock as pets thing is a really novel, but recent and modern invention. For the great majority of history having an emotional attachment to livestock that prevented one from utilizing them for food was an extreme luxury. And that remains to be the case in much of the world to this day. Children starve to death every day because they don't have an extra rooster for the pot. You've mentioned before that you guys have fallen on a bit of a rough patch financially, think of the roosters as a blessing rather than a curse that you can't get rid of. Because we have social safety nets in place in our country you and Aric are not going to starve to death if you don't put those roosters in the freezer, but when you do it will feel great to have taken charge of one little corner of your own existence, done for yourself, so to speak, even if you don't have to. Plus... chicken and dumplings...

... LOL!

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
SOLD! When would you like to pick them up?

and was surprized that my lav x buff cross produced blues. Even the Toulouse cross seems to have got that shade on them. Do you know the genetics behind it?

I don't. I really only meant to have the buffs (and we separated the two types during breeding season) so I haven't paid much attention to the blue genetics. When/if I get a little extra time I'll see if I can dig something up though. I can see getting the blue sheen with the toulouse cross, because you're starting with a grey base anyway, but a buff/lav cross does seem odd to have produced blues. Unless your buff is actually a cross? The blues were originally Vicki's and I think she had them all running together. I'll have to look it up to be sure, but I think buff may be dominant to blue. So if one of her buffs crossed with a blue it may have hatched a goose that would be buff in appearance but that carried the blue gene. Since lav is simply double recessive blue if your "buff" threw dominant blue and Homer gave a recessive blue you would end up with a blue goose. If that's the case if you were to breed it back to Homer you should end up getting both blues and lavs from the breeding. All theoretical, of course, as I'm not positive on that dominant/recessive thing as it pertains to the buff and the blue, but I'll do some digging on that and let you know what I find.

 

[Chickmate]

Yesterday while weeding the flowerbeds I found these beautiful creatures. Are they monarch butterfly caterpillars? They're eating my butterfly weed plant which I think is in the milkweed family. I'm just glad I found them before the chickens did! I just love my butterflies and hummingbirds! And the hummingbird moths, but have only seen a few of them here. When I was a kid my Dad called all of us outside to the huge old elm tree in our back yard. He pointed to a spot about 6 ft. up the trunk and I saw the most beautiful HUGE lime green moth I've ever seen. He told us it was a Luna moth and to remember it because we may never see another one again. I never have.