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Moose Manor Farms

Crazy Birdy Bedtime

5/7/2012

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So I'm out locking up the birds for the night and start, as usual, with the duplex broody coop but find Mama Cochin and her 20 rowdy chicks (who've just started free-ranging this week) missing - uh oh!

Mama Cochin is sharing the duplex coop with my broody duck (due to hatch this week) so I peek in on the adjacent apartment occupied by Miss Blush, my Welsh Harlequin duck and her 10 eggs, where I find 5 fat baby chickens snuggled in there safe with her - LOL!  These two apartments share a single attached yard so those chicks must've figured cranky Miss Blush was better than cold, plain straw next door.

As I lock all the doors on all the various houses I search with my flashlight for Mama Cochin inside each - she has to find a suitable nighttime house for her babies. Just as I start to think I'll be covering a couple acres this evening hunting under prickery holly bushes for my Mama Cochin, the last house to be closed up is where I find her... she's taken over the doghouse my fat goslings are living in!  The small goosy-gooses are outside in their pen instead of in bed where they usually are after dark, so I herd them inside where I see my Mama Cochin tucked into a corner... many tiny heads poking out, curious as kittens, from her fluffy feathers.  Everyone safe and warm this windy, chill night.

Wonky but satisfying social dynamics you don't typically consider: Baby chickens shacking up with my broody duck (poor Miss Blush!); Mama chicken and her hooligan brood bedding down with baby gooses... and one adult Khaki Campbell duck (Miss Faith) who somehow ended up sleeping in the barn with my newly broody Muscovy girl, Lumi, this strange, mixed-up night.  Everyone completely tolerant, if not downright companionable, with the other.  Only at Moose Manor, eh?

Well, everyone is locked up tight and all babies are accounted for and pleasantly cooing while warming with a fluffy mama of some stripe.  It could certainly be worse!       

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The Goslings Have Hatched!

4/18/2012

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On Easter Sunday 3 little baby goslings were coaxed from their satin shells into the world.  My mama Muscovy, newly named Gåsmer or "Mother Goose" in Swedish, has been such a wonderful broody, and now caretaker, of these fat Buddha goose babies.

Of the 6 eggs I put under her she hatched 3, and based on the notations Kim wrote on the shell, I now have 2 Sebastopol and 1 American Blue goslings.  It would appear that the golden baby pictured above is a white Sebbie and one of the dark & yellow fluffers is a Saddleback Sebbie.  The other dark gosling is my new little American Blue.

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Miss Gasmer & her troup

All 3 are very sweet and friendly.  When I open the door of their little house in the morning they meet me right away with their tiny necks craned out and their little baby goosey sounds peep peep peeping through.  One especially, my tiny Curious George, really does like to snuggle a moment every morning and chew on my hair.  GoldenChild is the least happy to be picked up but, honestly, doesn't seem to mind that much.  I've been handling them quite a bit to keep them friendly, although I'm not sure, in my experience, that there's a true correlation to the amount of handling they get as babies and their level of friendliness as adults.  I'll say for sure that some handling is helpful but once they mature I see a big difference between behavior as a baby compared to their level of trust as an adult - in opposing directions most often.  One thing remains constant: their response to the sound of my voice.  All my birds respond positively to the sound of my voice but each respond differently to my nearness.  So, all that said, I think a moderate amount of stress-free handling is important when they're small, but don't expect them to still be eating out of your hand in 2 months.

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I haven't determined the sex of these fluffers yet.  I did an initial gender evaluation but it was inconclusive so I'll have to do another after a short instructive video viewing at the Metzer Farms website.  I'm hoping that my American Blue is a girl so that I can finally have a pair... unfortunately, one of my 2 boys will have to find a new home.  Sad but very necessary for pair bonding.

I'm excited that the babies are finally here, healthy and happy.  I'll keep you posted on their progress!

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The American Goose Egg

3/9/2012

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American Goose Eggs

Today my American Blue Goose hatching eggs arrived from my friend Kim Kelly!  She even tossed in a couple of bonus Sebastopol eggs...

This will be my first time attempting to artificially incubate goose eggs.  I have a Muscovy girl who looks like she's giving a great deal of consideration to going broody but hasn't really committed herself to it full time yet.  That's a bummer because I was hoping to remove the wooden eggs from her nest and slide these wonderful works of goose art right in under that warm, feathered bum of hers.  Wouldn't she have been pleased to sit 5 days less than her own would've confined her?  Oh well... I can certainly put that fluffy bottom to work on other duties once she gets herself settled.

These eggs are HUGE!  I had to take some pictures just for posterity. I knew they were big but until you actually hold one...

This is one of the goose eggs next to an average sized, grade "large", chicken egg -  one of my Marans eggs to be exact.  Just look at the size of that goose egg!  Wow.

I can see how it's often said that a goose egg is a meal for two - LOL! What an omelet, eh?  And I know, I know... when you compare the size of a gooses body to the size of a chickens body it does make sense - it's just - how often do you hold an egg that size?

Cross your fingers for me that I get a good hatch so that I'll have a reliable supply of these enormous eggs of my own.  I'm hoping for a minimum of 2 girls from the Americans and a pair from the Sebbies (that'll be a wonderful stroke of luck!)  A girl can dream...

What a fun project I'm embarking on tonight... I'll try to post pictures of their progress over the next 30 days. 
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Goose vs Chicken
Yes, that's actually the true color of the chicken egg. French Black Copper Marans lay a pretty chocolate brown egg. Neat, eh?
And, of course, there will be a meeeellion photos of the babies once they hatch out.  Who doesn't love baby goose breath?
Egg Comparison
Egg comparison: American goose, Muscovy, Cayuga duck, Campbell duck, Marans chicken
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Muscovy Babies at 4 Weeks

1/23/2012

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No matter how often I watch them grow, I’m always amazed at the rapid bulk this variety puts on daily.  I’ll peek in the window of the Muscovy loft in the chilly pre-dawn to say good morning to mama Lumi and her brood dozing under the heat-lamp and when I return from work in the evening I see her kiddos have sprouted up during the day!  

In the past I’ve noted that for this strain of French White Production Muscovy the drakes put on 12 pounds in 12 weeks… whew!  They just seem to grow while you watch.

As a comparison to the video I took of their first day out when they were only 2 days old, here’s a video I took of them starting their day on December 29th when they were 4 weeks old:


Muscovy Baby
They’re curious, quick, and sassy.  It’s hard to keep an eye on them all the time, but they do have eyes on them throughout the day.  Unfortunately, only 9 remain of the original 13.  I lost one the first week when it climbed into a chilly duck pond.  That prompted me to keep them separated in their own yard until recently when they began to feather out.  One was born with an issue and only made it to week 2.  After letting them out to range the property again with mama, I lost 2 more over several days to cold pond water… as I said, it’s hard to keep an eye on them all day and this is really the wrong time of the year for baby waterfowl.

This is the first time I’ve let a Muscovy mama raise the babies and, mainly because it's winter,  it’s been a lot of work for everyone!  But I’ve learned so much and hopefully Miss Lumi’s lessons benefit future broods.  A new and improved system will go into place this year so that when my girls inevitably go broody on the cusp of winter we can avoid the major pitfalls.


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Christmas Babies... Muscovy Style

12/14/2011

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My girl Lumi is a mama!  (“Lumi” is a Scandinavian word for “snow”).  Miss Lumi is only 8 months old now but back at the end of October she and her sister decided to set a couple of nests.  I figured that they'd give up before the required 35 days and I'd planned to gather the abandoned embryos for my incubator... if I got to them in time.  Halfway through, her sister decided she'd rather be playing outside, but Lumi stuck to it (she even rolled her sisters eggs over into her own nest!) and on December 1st she hatched out 13 little babies.

I knew it was gonna be cold when those tiny ducklings hatched out so I was hoping that mom would keep them inside where they had lots of room to run around but temps were slightly more reasonable.  Everyone is doing great, mama Lumi takes her fuzzballs out for a walk about every other day.  But the babies are still unable to climb the long ramp back up to the Muscovy Loft so I usually have to gather them all in a bucket before it gets dark and plop them back inside under the heat lamp.  After spending the entire day trekking all over the barnyard in 40 degree temps, the kiddo’s are pretty pooped and make a big puppy pile under the lamp -  totally crashed out.

Here are some pictures of their outing on day 2:

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When the babies can't make it all the way up the ramp into the Muscovy Loft, Mama Lumi frets back an forth up and down the ramp to show them how, then gives up and gathers them under her to keep them warm until help arrives.  She doesn't like me to pick up the babies but everyone is happier when they're back inside after a long day in the cold!
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Here's a little video of them exploring the barnyard:
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Buffy the Buff Orphington chicken is a mom again!

8/25/2010

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Today Buffy hatched 10 of the 15 eggs I put under her when she went broody (again!).  

She hatched out 6 Welsummer chicks in April (read about that here) and then in August she went broody again.  For a week I kicked her out of the nestbox each day and collected the eggs.  She’d run around the barnyard like she was supposed to until that night when she would sleep in the nest box.  I figured if she was so committed I’d order her more fertile eggs (remember, I have no rooster here).  So I ordered a dozen  from a fellow chicken keeper (Dipsy Doodle Doo) in Arkansas (Clovis Place Garden and Poultry) whom I met through BackyardChickens.com.  She was kind enough to put together a variety pack of colored egg layers of interesting looking birds and sent a collection of 15 eggs of Ameraucana, Silkies in a variety of colors, Naked Neck Turkins, and frizzles.  The colors of the eggs I received were really great!  There were tan, olive green, and two shades of blue.  

I can see that I have one Turkin because it’s the only chick without feathers on its neck.  The others are interesting colors but I’m not sure yet what I’ve got out there.   Once they’re old enough to sex I’ll figure out what to keep and what to sell and look forward to then finding out what color eggs I’ll be getting.  Very egg-citing!

Buffy just loves being a mom and she’s very good at it.  I let the other chickens out to free-range and close their access off to the henyard, then I open the broody box gate and let Buff take her babies out for a private scratching match.  That’ll work great until they’re bigger and she’s ready to bring them out onto the property.  For now they’re snack-size morsels for the Muscovy so I’ll keep them in a safe place until they’re old enough.  Wow… 10 more chickens!  Wonder how many will turn out to be roo’s?

 


 


 


 


 



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Buffy is ready to leave the broodie-box

5/28/2010

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Buffy has been very serious about raising up her babies.  She stayed in the interior nest area of the broodie-box for the entire first week.  Finally I saw her come out into the tiny attached outdoor area but if you got too close to the box she'd round 'em up and head back inside.  But at least everyone was getting some fresh air.

I opened the front gate of the box today and just let her decide if she was ready to venture out into the henyard with the babies yet.  She must be going stir crazy being cooped up in that nest for a month!  Well, she was very cautious but finally brought them out into the 30 x 30 enclosure that surrounds the henhouse.  I had already let the other girls out onto the property to free-range so she had the whole space all to herself.  It was nice to see her out laying in the sun with the babies all around her, some snuggled up into her fluffy feathers.

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Buffy is a new mom!

5/19/2010

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Buffy went broody on me and was fully committed to hatching this crazy purple plastic egg I had put in some unused nest boxes to encourage the girls to lay there.  I don't have a rooster so I got on ebay (gosh, you can buy anything there!) and ordered her some fertilized Welsummer eggs to set.  I built a broody box with her own extra large nest box and tiny outdoor run while she doted on her new eggs and 20 days later she had 5 babies!  She likes having her own private space and I'll like it when she gets off the nest long enough so I can clean it out.

The Welsummer's can be sight-sexed at birth - female's have a distictive triangle on top of their head and clear eyeliner, on the males all these marks are very fuzzy - each of Buffy's babies have well defined, sharp markings so I think I just got 5 more hens!  Yay... what luck!

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    Dana

    About Farmrgirl

    Small town Calif. farm-girl leaves the ranch behind for many years of adventure at sea, travels the world, then moves to Washington DC in 2007 where she finds the perfect homestead to settle down: acres of secluded Southern Maryland woods where she goes granola by raising her quality of life, Mastiffs, ducks, chickens, and tomatoes {& one Bengal kitty}... sustainably.


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