Good luck with your barn project!
I totally know what you mean about the young males being unable to "get things right" at first: I saw some pretty interesting attempts early on.
Yeah!! Congratulations on Bazinga's egg! It's always so exciting to find big goose eggs. That's my highlight in the morning, to see if the girls laid momma any eggs.
Ashely laid an egg this morning, this is egg #5 I think? It weighed 142 grams. What do your eggs weigh?
I cannot wait to get eggs from my American Buffs. They are such huge birds! LOL
I'm still waiting on 10 girls to lay! LOL
Aww, poor baby girl! My White Tufted Roman goose got picked on by one of the ganders...that was about three weeks ago. Since then I moved her in w/ the Buffs and she is finally getting a bunch of soft fuzz on her neck again.
Just curious...what are you feeding your waterfowl? I'm always interested to know what other breeders are feeding.
Currently the geese are getting Flock Raiser mixed with Cayenne pepper, Brewers Yeast, Garlic Powder, Red Pepper Flakes, mixed with warm water and sprinkled lightly with oyster shell.
That is normally their supper. For breakfast they get FR mixed with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and sometimes Cod Liver Oil and a dash of powdered milk.
I've just started sprouting/growing fodder for them, and I am wanting to try out the fermented feed. I think it's a wonderful idea! Currently, the waterfowl and poultry all get a warm mash made out of their food...I've already noticed a big difference in how much they are eating, and how much better they're looking. It's amazing!
Since I started adding Garlic Powder (FYI Garlic is a natural de-wormer, as well as Pumpkin Seeds) to their feed once a day...their breath and poo smells like garlic! LOL In the morning when I let them out of their pens, I'm greeted with the smell of garlic...mmmm.
Usually I have a bunch of whole grains on hand that I feed to everyone like whole oats, wheat, barely, BOSS, and other things..but haven't been to the feed mill in awhile so the only grain I have in Whole oats....but I'm soaking some for fodder and then I want to try and ferment some as well.
Lucy or Lucy Goosey - American Buff Goose. You can see my Tufted Roman goose in the background...her neck is starting to look somewhat better.
~ Aspen
1Mrs Magoo - Bazinga's name is great. Also, good to know that you can use blu-kote on geese. Hope you get fertile eggs soon!
Mrs. Fluffy Puffy - I hadnt heard of people giving cayenne pepper to geese before. Does it do anything in particular? (like you mentioned garlic is a dewormer)
Do they react to it being spicy? I wonder if they can tell. And cinnamon & nutmeg too?!
I've read that poultry that are feed garlic have eggs that taste like garlic too! I bet that makes for a yummy breakfast.
Your American Buff goose is really pretty. There's a tufted roman goose thread floating around too - you should liven it up with pictures of your goose!
Garlic boosts immune systems, increases respiratory health and it is also thought that mites, lice, ticks and other parasites are not as attracted to the blood of animals who eat alot of garlic. Garlic is also a natural wormer and reduces the smell of chicken manure in flocks fed garlic regularly. I don't find that the garlic taints the taste of our eggs in the least bit.
Oh my..your place is beautiful! You are very lucky. It's my dream to live somewhere, where it's actually green at least most of the year. We have dirt, dirt, oh and more dirt here. I've noticed a few sprigs of new grass coming up but not much.Actually, this is the second time Derby has torn all the feathers off Bazinga's neck. The first time was overnight in their stall, so I put the in separate stalls at night and she grew all her feathers back. Then, one night about two weeks ago, I put her to bed in her stall, but in the morning she was in with her mate and the back of her neck was bald and bleeding. Apparently, the slide door to her stall was not tall enough and she jumped out (saw her get out later that day while I had her penned to treat her neck) and then managed to jump in with her mate: Ah, love is blind and sometimes stupid. So, now all the stall doors are a bit taller....just...in....case.
As to feed, I do get off a bit easy because of where I live. Every fall I over-seed my pastures with annual rye grass, clovers, chicory, alfalfa, and various grains. I also made a small lettuce garden in one of the pastures, which lasted a whole day after they were allowed in.
So, I have good quality grazing available for them year round. This isn't a great picture....it was taken looking from my gate on December 29th. You can see the green off to the sides of our driveway.
My Toulouse gander standing beside our front pond where he is sequestered with his lady till after breeding season. This was also taken in December and shows the grass they have available right now fairly well.
Anyway, they spend a large portion of their day grazing so don't eat as much pelleted food as they probably could. I provide a mix of layer pellets, game bird conditioner pellets, mixed grains, and BOSS along with oyster shell free choice on feeders placed around the ponds. I have 3 of the double 1.75 qt black feed bins, a 3 quart black, and a 8 quart black feeder I fill. Typically, their is feed left at the end of each day after not only 16 geese feeding, but also 19 ducks and well over 16 chickens...plus the occasional escaped turkey hen.
Other than when my winter garden is producing, which it should be starting in another 3-4 weeks, I watch a local discount grocery store, appropriately called the Salvage Store, for cheap salad greens. They get over runs and scratch and dent items from large grocery chains and restaurants. They get huge bags (about the size of a small kitchen garbage bag) of greens like kale, spinach, and romaine lettuce. If it doesn't sell after a couple of days, they start marking it down. I can get the bags that have little to no waste for .50 to .75 each. Last month I was buying 25 lb boxes of tomatoes for $5.00 each for us and the chickens. What we didn't use I was tossing out for the chickens and was really surprised to see the geese come swooping in to steal the tomatoes: They seemed to really enjoy them, which makes me REALLY glad they can't get into my garden since I plant over 100 tomato plants a year!
BTW.....Lucy and her friend above. Glad her neck is doing better!
The feeding station at our original duck/goose coop.
My New Hampshires raiding the big feeder at the second duck/goose house.
1Mrs Magoo - Bazinga's name is great. Also, good to know that you can use blu-kote on geese. Hope you get fertile eggs soon!
Mrs. Fluffy Puffy - I hadnt heard of people giving cayenne pepper to geese before. Does it do anything in particular? (like you mentioned garlic is a dewormer)
Do they react to it being spicy? I wonder if they can tell. And cinnamon & nutmeg too?!
I've read that poultry that are feed garlic have eggs that taste like garlic too! I bet that makes for a yummy breakfast.
Your American Buff goose is really pretty. There's a tufted roman goose thread floating around too - you should liven it up with pictures of your goose!
One of my sister's is named Carolina.Bhonkers:
Thanks...as you can tell we like to use TV and film character names. In this case, a Big Bang Theory reference. My daughter named most of my geese after Red vs Blue characters (an animation based on the characters found in the Halo video game).
So, this year I have:
My lone Toulouse pair: Ozzie and Harriet
My Pomeranian Pairs:
John and Jean (named after my parents)
Wonky and Caboose
Shazam and Lois
Tucker and Sheila
Church and Carolina
Derby and Bazinga
and
Donut and Tex
Now that my middle son has moved home lord only knows what names this year's lot will get. He has already adopted a Barred Rock chick and named it Colonel Featherface McCluckenstein, and a turkey he calls the Hobgobbler: His poor cat is Snarf Thundercat. Weird kid....I have NO idea where his odd sense of humor came from.
