I have had no chickens for almost a year...'possums ravaged my flock...I trapped 11 of the ugly things in a 2 week period and have seen no more of them...I have fortified my coop...I have 20 geese and am down to a scant 14 ducks and have had no predation for a while...so...I have ordered 25 chicks to be shipped mid month in October...15 boys for fryers and 10 pullets for eggs...I ordered 5 Delawares and 5 White Leghorns...I just want the eggs from the ladies and the roos of course will go to freezer camp...I ordered from McMurrey again as I have always had very good luck with birds from them...I ordered my first chickens from them 25 years ago...I have 6 Toulouse geese from them and 4 Cayuga ducks at the present...I don't show birds or anything of that nature...they are just here for eggs and entertainment...my Toulouse geese are the biggest busy bodies I have ever seen...they have taken down all my cds that they can reach, dismantled my solar night lights, removed all the pipe insulation around the water taps, taken down a shade tarp, munched all the leaves off the young peach trees I THOUGHT I had safely fenced up...they follow me every where and whatever I do, they are inspecting it to see if it is possible for them to duplicate what I have done or at least mess up what I have done...they are a little gang of juvenile deliquents... But I am excited to be getting a few chicky girls again...woo hoo!
I have geese from McMurray One African Two White Chinese and One Toulouse - Miss Adell!!! Boy is she a sassy girl!!!! My poor dear hubby can not even walk through our garden with out some type of protection - milkcrate, trashcan lid, hearding staff She is so fast!!!! And she really has it out for him Have you had your geese with chickens before? I am new to chickens and am wondering how it will go when I introduce my geese and my chicks for the first time. I have one gander - the african and the rest are female. I am going to wait until the chicks are larger incase anything goes wrong! My chicks are only two weeks at the oldest.
My computer is acting up today and I don't know how long I can run...I will try to post pics of the delinquents as soon as possible...I must say they are really lovely birds...so funny...I saw one of them flip a Cayuga duck into the septic pond behind the kennel this morning...she was leaning over trying to grab a sprig of grass and he just put his head under her butt and flipped her into the hole...it was pretty funny...she was mad and said goose was laughing his fuzzy behind off...such pranksters! Boris and Brown Chinese/African cross gander flipped his father, Barney, a pure Brown Chinese gander in the hole one morning...Barney was dazed and upside down just laying there...well this old crippled up woman had to go in and get him...it had to be a sight with big ole fat me crawling out of that hole on hands and knees with a big gander tucked under my arm...the ducks and geese were all gathered around shouting encouragement I tell myself...they were probably just laughing at us...
oh yes...geese are a hoot...I have 20...White and Brown Chinese and Toulouse...they have a lot of personality...I was sort of concerned with all of the horror stories I have heard about aggression in geese but I have had no issues with them...the two oldest ones I got as adults, the others I raised from infancy...Barney is the oldest gander and he did drop his head and hiss at me a few times when his girl was laying...but I just turned toward him and hissed back...it really messed up his mind and he just wandered off like he had an important date elsewhere...I have never let them intimidate me...I think that is the key...I have never had sense enough to be afraid of anything...the geese will "sneak" up behind me when I am bent over cleaning their pools and feeders...if I were a fearful person it might worry me a bit as they are low headed and stretching those necks out...I just stand up and face them informing them that goosing the human is not allowed and if anyone has any ideas about such activities, I do so love roasted goose...it seems they get the message as they back up a few feet and chatter amongst themselves while I finish and fill up the pools...they are pretty smart and trainable to a certain extent...mine come when I call them and are very easy to herd and move from yard to yard...they are a lot of live entertainment...better than tv!
