Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[CasieD]

good AM,

DD#1 was here yesterday with her son.. they decided to blow the goose eggs.. So I went tnd showed them the procedure I use.. we formed an assembly line,, I drilled 2 holes, she held the egg over the pan and grandson pumped the air.. It was not long and we were all finished.. we ended up with one of those large round bottom metal mixing bowls about 3/4 full of egg..

I heated up the skillet and ran a soup mixer through the eggs to break up the "strininess".. then I used a coffee mug and began frying omelets.. I ended up with two stacks about a foot high..

the birds will be getting treats for a few days..

Now I would like to sell the blown out shells.. I suppose craig's list will be my first attempt..
how much should I ask for them ?? we must have well over 100 of them..

I took the pup to the vet yesterday.. they tried to make him pee.. no success there.. so she gave me some antibiotics to try.. figured it was crystals or a urinary tract infection..
the same conclusion that Annie had made..
yah, whatever.. $54.00

the pup is up to 55 pounds ..he is as tall as Dora, but not as long..

.......jimonlyonecuppadowncan'tthinkclearlyyet........

Jim, I've been seeing a couple of post on CL of blown out goose eggs and thought it was you already, guess not. Anyway... they are selling them for $3.50 an egg in the Arts and Crafts section and $2 in the Farm and Garden section. You could try posting them in the Buy Sell Trade section here too if you don't mind shipping them.

 

[Terri O]

Good morning! Hurley I read somewhere on here a very large tutorial about hatching Muskovy eggs. It was an interesting read. I will see if I can find the link for you. There was something that makes them too large to turn with death as a result. How did you turn them in the egg? Do you have some cool obstetrical vet tool? If anyone could save them it would be you! (I have plenty more eggs if you want to try again!)
BBP--are your calls laying yet? Mine are paired up and mating but not laying--at least where I can find them. Way too cold IMHO anyhow!

FOr those planning on coming to help butcher I have set the day for next week Thursday...if there are any left that is!
The heat lamp burned out yesterday of all days...the one that wasnt on it's feet well was dead when I got home (and frozen too) so I didnt bother to clean it up. What are you folks' opinions on butchering after dead?

Judge--the laying mash has added calcium and a lower protein content. The started can be medicated or not and has a higher protein for proper growth...maybe more vitamins too. It would be counter productive for your mill to make it for you. That one bag is probably all you will need for such a small amount of chicks. I have not heard of that brand myself.

OK DrH--I thought I had already told the beginning of the story but maybe I didnt. Peggy's roomie had been feeding her dogs rotten meat and other yucky things from the fridge and she had been asked very nicely NOT to feed the animals that or anything else. This person was due to move out by Midnight of that very day. She has been trying to get Peggy to react for about a month. I think she really wanted to get her in trouble--seems to thrive on that sort of stuff. So the room mate was headed to the barn with rotten apples and Peggy thought they might be poisoned or something. Peggy is just super protective of her animals and when the Room mate didnt stop when she yelled she went and got her gun to fire a warning shot--wish she did when the room mate reached for the door handle. Then she ran in the barn and stood in front of the gate to the horses. The room mate was on the phone to the police saying there was a crazy person with a gun not letting her go into "her" barn.
I guess the whole town police dept was there and they all had their guns pointed at Peggy when she came out of the barn!
So ultimately she was charged with pointing a gun at a person, reckless discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment of a life. She might have fines and she might have prison time if convicted. I hope we can get all charges dropped...maybe

So it's still darn cold out there today! 1 here right now. We got about 2" of new snow too. Not sure what I am going to try and accomplish today...maybe bake something? Tomorrow I am thinking about going along to an agility trial with a friend from church. She is trying to get me into that sport with one of my dogs. I sure wish Elliott could see better cause I think she would be good at it!

Well, time to get moving I guess...TerriOthinkingshewouldratherheadbacktobedforanap

 

[Hurley]

Good morning! Hurley I read somewhere on here a very large tutorial about hatching Muskovy eggs. It was an interesting read. I will see if I can find the link for you. There was something that makes them too large to turn with death as a result. How did you turn them in the egg? Do you have some cool obstetrical vet tool? If anyone could save them it would be you! (I have plenty more eggs if you want to try again!)


Well, time to get moving I guess...TerriOthinkingshewouldratherheadbacktobedforanap

Yeah, I read that as well as a long missive on incubating goose eggs that was very helpful. I know Muscovy are supposed to be tough to hatch and I'm delighted that I got my 3 UBER cute little guys here. Man, they are stinkin' adorable, especially when they sit along my neck, twittering and playing with my chain and locket.

I just am mad at myself because I wanted to pip the eggs earlier, but was trying to be good and not make the common mistake of "helping" ducklings that just weren't ready.

I read, too that the failure to turn can come with these guys getting too large in the eggs. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubating-and-hatching-muscovy-eggs
I did weigh them and if anything, felt they were losing egg weight a little too fast for what they recommended, but at the end the appearance within the shell appeared perfect, not too dry, not too wet, membranes looked great.

As for my special obstetrical vet tool...I used a plastic kid's water color paint brush handle to probe down along the neck until I could get under the jaw and gently worked the heads up to the air cell, while avoiding the vessels in the membrane. Made one bleed a little, but it quit very quickly with pressure on the membrane, so very little blood was lost. I think I just waited too long on these guys thinking they should be strong enough to pip and since they aren't call ducks. Those shells are HARD, though.

I LOVE my little duckies. Think I'll see what these 3 turn into (drake/duck wise) first. If I have a trio, may just wait on them. How long until you can sex them and how long to mature to butcher for the drakes?

Can't help with the butchering on a Thursday, gotta work.

 

[Terri O]

Darn--I forgot to quote...oh well.
Hurley--
You can tell what they are pretty early. The drake starts getting a longer tail earlier it seems. I have two that I kept with the meaties to see if my hunch that the ones with the stripes always turn int o females. In this case it worked but my sample was a bit small!

I will mark this spring though to see if it is true.
I sent you a link...now sure if it is the one you read.

Back to mixing mash...TerriOreallytinkingabouthtatnap

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Well the duck I got from you had no stripes and it was a girl...

 

[Angiebubs]

Whew! over 200 posts read-finally had time to jump on and catch up!

Thanks for sharing all the pics; What a bunch of cute fuzzy butts!

Denise: Sorry I didn't post your pics-just read your post! Glad you were able to get those posted. I cant wait to see what they look like as they feather out. SOrry to hear about your expereince with the shipped chicks. Are you closed to Mankato or the cities? I grew up down there and moved to the "big city" of N Mankato when I was 11.

Egg tooth: Either fall off or wear down over the first week or so.

BBP: LOVE the new addition! I need to come over and see all your newbies soon!

Cind: I love the video-have "WHen a maaannnnn loves a chicken.." stuck in my head now LOL

Hoping to open the coop up here soon-had 2 days locked up as it was -18 at night and high of negative to zero.

Girls have given me 12-14 eggs a day this past week (4-5 frozen/cracked ea day). I think its due to leaving a heat lamp plugged in at night for thenegative temps (secured to rafter with several zip ties)

 

[delisha]

We are having another heat wave! It is a balmy 17. It is so much better than -7 last night. The new snow looks so pretty. I am going to be taking pictures of the new baby's in the coop possibly today or tomorrow. I have never seen them, and I think she will probably get off tomorrow and show them where food and water is. We will see. If she sticks another day, pictures will have to be tomorrow. Not peeking is getting harder and harder.

The temp and humidity is stable in the incubator. Tuesday is day 18 for the Silkies and Wednesday is day 18 for the Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex, Marans and Cochins. I will probably remove the turner Wednesday unless someone thinks it would be better to do it Tuesday.

I have never hatched out Muscovey's in an incubator. I would have no idea how. I did put them in one once, but, another hen went broody and I just gave her the eggs.

 

[denisemhogan]

Omg...I LOVE baby ducks!!!!! Those are soooo cute. I want some...but I don't think I'll be adding anytime soon. Do you keep them with your chickens? I know when I was a kid they had all our poultry running together. We also have hunting labs ....just afraid they won't last around here. I can't tie a dead duck to them when that's exactly what they've been trained to do. And the last time I had geese...they ended up flying south into the freeze when they chewed up all the underwriting on the truck. I was in the hospital much of my pregnancy and came home to no geese. Can't blame him.
Fencing...I work for a maintenance free fence company...would love to afford a nice fence around my garden...but even at cost it's expensive. But I do need to come up with something. My garden is in between the coop and the orchard...and they love to stop in the all you can eat dinner on their way to the orchard. They love to hang out there. So does piggie. Between them and piggie...I won't have a garden...so another expense to come up with....guess ill have to work a few more weekends this spring. Speaking of work...have to work tonight...I help our friend out who owns a liquor store. I think tonight is busier than even New Years. Beer will be flying out the door.
Well...thinking of that...I better get moving along here. Oh yeah...does anyone have advice on trimming a beak? I have a friend who has a roo with an overgrown beak.

 

[Hurley]

Right now one of the yellow ones looks more masculine with a broader beak and longer head, the other two look more cutesy and refined. Will see how they turn out.

Terri, not sure if I mentioned before or not, the but for your reference if it helps any, both chocolate eggs failed to hatch, but I opened them and both looked just like my striped one. I let them dry out and didn't see any change to chocolate of the dark parts as the fluff dried. Did have one dead in egg that was all yellow with a black cap. The others were a mix of yellow and striped like the ones I have.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Terri no, my calls aren't laying yet. And I'm expecting a new pastel hen today. A friend is driving to southern MN to get mandarins and she's going to grab my call when she's down there. So I should get plenty of ducklings this year out of 5 hens. I usually only have 2 or 3.