My Flock Journey 2.0

[KLIL]

Hazel laid a perfect egg today

 

[KLIL]

Just helping dad garden

 

[rjohns39]

Evening Krystal

 

[KLIL]

Evening Krystal

Good evening
I had a perfect egg today!
How are you?

 

[rjohns39]

doing great. Just starting my morning...

 

[KLIL]

doing great. Just starting my morning...

Im just about to roll over and go to sleep. I think my roo has Fowl pox. I haven't fully researched it yet but. Have you ever had this issue?

 

[rjohns39]

One of my birds a couple years ago got it... Kind of like chicken pox for kids, they go through it and come out with a stronger immune system in the end. Here's a good article with lots of pictures.

ETA: Sleep tight

 

[feathermaid]

(Ok, I'm way behind so I'm just gonna start replying before I catch up... because the system won't let me quote any more messages )

I also changed my username.

I'm still getting used to that... it's a cute one.
I was thinking about changing mine too! My current user name is based from a silly Grover skit on Sesame Street. We used to watch that show ALL THE TIME when my daughter was little, and Super Grover 2.0 was our (my husband and I-- not little Emily's) favorite character. In this one episode, a chicken was trying to get over the Great Wall of China and Grover couldn't understand why it just couldn't fly because she had those "FLAPPY FLAPPERS!" I don't know why we thought it was so hysterical but to this day it's our standard phrase for describing anything that moves or "flaps".
So anyway, I thought I should change my name to something a little more... I don't know...?

Opal (my girl that’s identical to Hazel) walked half a mile with me today!

We used to have a cat that walked the whole neighborhood with us when we took the dog out. But a chicken... that's great!

btw the pork belly looks yummy I need to find my local processor so I can have some. It's time for my bore to go.

A couple turkeys or a goose are a great addition to a flock, once grown they will protect the flock. Geese and turkeys will both attack a fox, yet run from a rabbit, I don't get it, but they will. This spring I had a 1.6Kg Red Tail Hawk zeroing in on my pasture, four of my young Toms (~6.8Kg each) took flight to intercept. They had a 2M wingspan and it was just amazing to see. The hawk btw out flew them and headed somewhere else.

My friend says more than 1 goose with the flock is bad as they get to socializing and not paying attention. Turkeys are always a challenge. They find all kinds of new and inventive ways to commit suicide. Heritage turkeys take at least 24 weeks to give you a 5.4Kg bird that must be cooked low and slow. BB varieties take 14 weeks and will give you an 8.2Kg bird. And you can cook them any way you like. These are your basic store bought birds.

Donkeys and Live Stock Guardian Dogs are also a great addition to a free range flock. They have no tolerance for snatch and grab predators of the canine variety and they eat the other predators that pose a problem. I know I need a couple LGDs, I'm just not ready for a new dog and don't know how to wrap my head around one that never comes in the house.

I should already have geese but no. I was on the waiting list for 18 months to get a dozen hatching eggs and they never materialized. I'll start next month trying to get onto other breeders waiting lists. I'd love to get a dozen eggs from three different breeders. So that I have three different blood lines to work with.

I totally want a goose! We're planning to move to the country someday and we want to get some ducks (and a bunch of other animals). But will a goose want to socialize with the ducks? Or would it still be a good protector?

 

[feathermaid]

Krystal, many things will work. I'd suggest a goose and a dog. And I'll also suggest that Kayla needs a hug.

Yes, a goose AND a dog!

And if anyone ever needs a hug...

 

[feathermaid]

I entered a contest.
If you get a moment pop over and vote.

Oh, thank you for posting that!!
I went and entered a caption too... they're all so funny!
Everyone should go over there and enter...
Official BYC Caption Contest