I have just one Buff. She came in with a few older EE's I took in a few months ago. Love her personality so I kept her even if she doesn't "go with" my roos.
The Old Folks Home
- Thread starter Wisher1000
- Start date
I have just 5 white they are abt. a month old so I don't know what I have yet as far a pullets or cockerels. But they are so sweet and pretty. I have only seen pics of the buff's they are nice looking birds.
I've been trying to keep up with everyone but it's playoffs so I'm spending most of my time yelling at the TV.
Can't choose. Each one adds something totally different in my life. I think it would be like saying you have to choose a favourite child and well as parents, we need to love each one equally or step up and pay for their therapy sessions. We love each for their differences; good vs. bads. We can prefer one say because they take care of themselves better but to say that makes us love one over the other, simply unfair. Sometimes we need to love the one that needs us more because...they need us!
As far as which ones I can keep into my very old age...it would depend on how my body fails me over time (how many spare parts in the bathroom as opposed to in the bed--teeth, glasses, wig, hook for hand...) and what financially I can afford to keep doing. The ones that cost more to feed consume more feed because they are the ones producing meat and eggs...so we can't really say much negative because we get back what we give; reap what we sow.
Landfowl requires differences from waterfowl right down to nutritional requirements, even housing offered. I find the wild types, so the pheasants in the landfowl and waterfowl like swans, Mandarins, Shels...to be easiest to keep...less mess, less dependence on me to "keep" them once set up--more an issue getting the right facilities up and running and then no real bother. We have certainly made the domestics less able to thrive on judicious neglect. The wild ones can afford to be more wild & indifferent to us because they don't need to be suck ups to survive.
I had the chickens first, but the waterfowl came later as an adult because I was wrongly led to believe you had to have access to water for bathing when in reality, they really need clean fluid water so they can clear their nostrils and swallow food and not choke.
Disease wise, waterfowl are much healthier with less issues...I use to show ducks because I was far less likely to bring something home that a good wash and quarantine of 8 weeks would eliminate.
The ducks grow up far quicker and are comparable and sometimes even better than chickens at producing eggs (275 to 325 eggs/year in Runners/Campbells with eggs being 20 to 35% larger than chicken eggs). Ducks are very efficient producers of animal proteins (2.6 pounds of feed = 1 pound of duck; better converter can be found in the broiler chickens at 1.9 pounds to 1 pound of meat).
Males in the duck species are less likely to maim/kill each other...a roo can do a lot more damage quicker with beak and spurs compared to a drake with his bill and body weight though certainly, males do harm each other so need to be watched during breeding season with the ratio of boys to girls acceptable to reduce fights.
I personally found duck colour genetics easier and faster to grasp but then colour patterns in ducks don't really pay a lot of attention to down colour or the chick stage in down either (yellow down turns to white in adults...so you can judge say a Pied pattern or Bibbed instantly at hatch in ducks, almost knowing how many flights will be white and if they will be balanced between wings). Chicken patterns like Partridge do take some time to jive and make sense of. Both species require double mating to prefect some varieties.
Longevity, we still have the very first duckling we ever hatched...Seashell is going on 14 years and her ovaries have quit, so she is a "he" in feathers now, but fully healthy. I like to fall in love with something and not have it up and kick in a few short years. The older, the better--the more comfy I feel even if teaching old dogs new tricks is a challenge!
Lots of pros and cons to each but make me choose...no thanks and so far, don't hafta.
I would miss both the chickens and the ducks equally...so don't have to choose and my hopes are that when I can no longer keep birds, it will not be a choice of one over the other, it will sadly be NONE. Hope that day never happens but to think it can't is unrealistic and potentially cruel & abusive to the animals.
Busy day yesterday...here at the funny farmed zoo. Easter is like that...you get the turk for consumption stuffed and on and then go round making the critter's day special too.
Plate of snacks for the men folk (son shows up around noon...he has pets at home that he needs to return home to potty so he has a limited amount of time here to visit, eat and return to his own domain) to snack upon while I toss treats to the creatures.
Does it not make others roar with laughter the new IDIOT warnings we see on products now..on this tin of cranberries?
Really...really, you need to LABEL that you can't possibly open this side (the side that nestles in the top of the other cans--the BOTTOM of the can) with a can opener...really? What is next, shoes with labels on the soles, "THIS SIDE DOWN?" Goes to the "green side" up jokes...whatever...sometimes I think the human race is doomed...instant bacon, roast beef precooked dinners encased in plastic for mega $$, single servings for one cup of coffee with a horrendous amount of throw it away packaging...convenience with a cost for future generations as we fill up the land fills and people so dumb we have to read labels to know which end to apply the can opener to?
So while the stuffed turk bird cooked...the kid (he's over thirty but will always be our BOY), Rick, the dogs and I sat out and enjoyed the pleasant sunny weather. Rick wanted to pump off the water in the fish pond...expecting (but may be disappointed--what a late year, eh?) lots more snow to disappear and maybe the pond to be empty for next weekend so Rick can move the pond fish outta the garage to their summer quarters.
The two rabbits frequent under the Dolgo tree on the right, so you can see Foamy smelling them out...no bean sampling dougal!
The one chore I wanted to see done yesterday I got to. Funny situation because there is clear areas and snow areas...so strategic planning was required to succeed. Har har.
In the orchard we planted, have an Inukshuk (one day want to get it a dog...a rock dog) and a sheep waterer planted with some natural to the area water plants...water garden of sorts that Rick made me.
This is the area in June...yes, the May Day Trees here bloom in JUNE...ha ha ha...kind of an insult!
Over the winter the water evaporates and you need to top it up for spring time so it can grow. Not a lot of maintenance but needs the occasional topping of water.
So got a cart with water and two five gallon pails along with the big calf sled; these were the equipment of choice to get the deed done...
Now all it needs to do is stay warm, sunny and let it grow.
Saturday was bath day for the new additions in quarantine...the Crested adult Ducks (two black and a grey hen) and the two pairs of Buff Tufted geese.
The two pairs of geese needed rubber tubs full of hauled water to enjoy a good soaking.
See them getting use to the presence of the 'yote like red dog Fixins--guard dog of her "stock."
Can we say we could "cook our ganders" in such a set up--completely enthralled at the biz at hand...bathing! Such silly gooseys. Boys bathed but the two ladies did not. Maybe next time they will jump in and soak. They did some neck & chesty bathing but no full dunking.
The bump heads!
Successful weekend... Clean birds and Crested ducklings learning about new food groups...the variations of greens on offer...romaine, now spinach. Minced up extra fine so they do not suffer impacted crops. Tiny pieces...gobbled up.
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins Higgins
Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
- Jul 9, 2013
- 188
- 13
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Stayed up till 2:30 this morning filtering and jarring honey from our bees! It was an awful sticky mess everywhere, but the honey sure was good. Got 5 gallons of honey sitting in my kitchen now because we ran out of jars lol.
That sounds delicious!
Sounds delicious
I need this terrible fate to happen to me! I haven't messed with bee's after I went into the A. F. as a snot-nosed kid back in '69. My Grand-Pa kept some Bee's and let me help him with them when needed,(never often enough for my liking, finger licking good!!)
Scott (who didn't even know what a bee suit was until that bee movie back in the day)
Ohmigoodness! I'd love to be overrun with honey! What a lovely problem! I can't wait to have bees one day
Great answer! I had a feeling you would have a hard time picking between them! Great photos, once again, the snacks all look yummy, even the animal snacks, except maybe the pups'. I love the Inukshuk, very interesting item, I had to look it up. And I agree with how stupid people are nowadays with all the warning labels! The coffee is hot? Why would anyone need to be told?!
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