Hey Brandy & Brandon!! Sounds like things are going well with the swans. Lots to catch up on when we talk.........
in the meantime, for any who are interested:
like clockwork, our male swan Samson is turning into a beast this week, and all the Canada geese and mallards that have spent the winter on our pond eating us out of house and home don't know what's happening as Mr. Mellow is now gearing up for breeding season. Who needs a calendar with Samson around? LOL! He's not only chasing everybody off the pond, he's also been seen starting to carry every stick and twig around over to the nest area, so here we go again!!
If interested in mute swans from a great and very healthy breeding pair, please let us know as we'll be having babies in May most likely--to be fair to the swans, we don't let them go till October which is still a little early to separate them from Mom & Dad, but any later and we're too much into winter to want to stress them with relocation and separation from the family unit. Please check out our website for contact info, etc. (And of course, if interested in alpacas we'd love to talk about that, too!)
www.criasdelcielo.com
BTW: in Ohio, you definitely want your birds to be pinioned. Fish & Wildlife actively kill loose mutes and at the very least addle the eggs so they won't hatch in many areas. I've talked to our local officials about this quite a bit. I don't know if it's actually a law, but Brandy is right that mutes are not native and are displacing breeding/feeding grounds for trumpeters who are native and are on the endangered species list. Fish & Wildlife considers them to be nuisance birds
but I have been reassured that as long as they are pinioned and stay on our property the officials won't mess with us.
