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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2020 16:12:28 GMT -6
Such a delight!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 23, 2020 0:58:42 GMT -6
It has been pouring rain all day long today and the little gosling that I had to help out of its shell this morning was too frail to go back in the nest for the night. It still has trouble standing up, so it's spending the night in my button-up, quilted shirt pocket. It's nearly 2:00 am and this little booger has been awake and peeping like crazy for about an hour. All I have to do is touch the outer shell of the shirt pocket and it hushes right up. It's probably going to turn out spoiled as Sweet Pea ... He was the same way when he was little, always poking his head as far up my shirt sleeve as he could get it. I sure will be glad when this little guy finally falls to sleep.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 25, 2020 11:10:47 GMT -6
We had a torrential rainstorm last evening, right at dusk. There was a loud roar in the dark skies, to the North of us for about 20 minutes that sounded like a commercial jetliner taking off. It was a fearsome, dark, violent kind of storm that made a person fear for their life. The roof of our neighbor's house looked like smoke was pouring off it, due to the pounding rain hitting it so hard that it made a heavy fog rise up. At times, the rain was so heavy, that I could hardly see across our driveway.
It lasted quite a while. When it had finally let up enough to make a quick run to the goose pen, I put on a coat and took off to check on the babies. They had been caught off the nest and were all huddled under their poor mamas, which both looked like old, wet hens, with their soaking wet wings outstretched and held in place, shivering to protect their soaking wet babies. The ground everywhere was about an inch or two deep in standing water.
I picked them all up out of the standing water, one by one, and took them back to their nest, but the little weak one that had spent the first night in my pocket did not make it. I toweled the rest of them off as best I could. The nest was soaking wet, from all the rain that had blown in sideways through the covering, and from the vapor that had pounded up from the standing water all around it, but the two mamas were still able to warm it back up sufficiently to keep their babies warm through the night. It was 49-degrees this morning at 6:00 am when I came back to check on them. Somehow, they were all dry again. (That really attests to the fortitude of their dedicated mothers).
By 7:30 am they were all out of the nest and their parents were ready to go out to graze. So, I opened the goose pen door and turned them all loose, where they were soon happily grazing on the green grass inside the chain-link enclosure of my my berry patch that used to be the old hog pen.
Over the years, the hogs have wallowed a depression out there that holds water about 6" inches deep, by about 8' feet across. By 8:00 am, all the babies were out in that hog wallow, floating around like little fishing bobbers.
Just yesterday, while they were in there wading around in that same spot, they would not shed water and looked like little baby shorebirds with their wet, yellow, down all plastered and soaking wet.
Today, they are floating and swimming around just fine. I suppose all the exposure to the downpour last night must have triggered their oil glands to start working over-time. It's crazy, how they already walk around with their heads under water. You can barely see the one it the upper left corner; it's asleep, floating on the water. My original Cotton Patch goslings that were mail-ordered from Georgia, were raised inside, because it was so cold when they arrived. It took two weeks before their oil glands developed enough for them to shed water. By then, they were scared to death of getting wet. The first time I put them in a seed tray filled with water, they all took off running for their lives! They were fully fledged before they would ever take a swim. Even then, the first time one of them dived under, it would scare the rest of them so badly, they would all take off running, like some kind of water monster was chasing after them!Now, they all take to water, like it's their second home. Believe it or not, this puddle was clear, before they started playing in it this morning.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2020 12:13:07 GMT -6
I'm glad so many of them are doing okay. Those were some nasty storms.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 21, 2020 20:44:40 GMT -6
All this rain lately has it looking like Hawaii around here.The little, baby geese aren't so little anymore.A few weeks ago, the goslings could dive and swim under this water. Now, they can stand flat footed and walk on the bottom.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 6, 2020 20:12:54 GMT -6
RENDERING FIRST AID One of my goslings ended up with a crippled wing this morning. I caught it while it was still relatively cool outside and put it back in place as best I could, using three, loose rubber bands to keep it immobilized until I could super glue the pin feathers of its lower wingtip to the fluffed out feathers growing above the wing.After the glue set, I cut the rubber bands to let the top feathers support the weight of the wing tip.Within about an hour after I treated it, the feathers smoothed out until I couldn't even tell which goose I had doctored. In a few days, the skin of the pin feathers should peel free and release the 'temporary splint' that I made from using Super Glue. I may have to redo it later, but for today, it seems to have at least stopped the wing from incurring further injury from the wing tip hanging outward, as the gosling skitters around grazing and being a gosling.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 9, 2020 11:13:22 GMT -6
All those Boy Scout First-Aid lessons finally paid off.
By yesterday, The little gosling I doctored, by temporarily gluing its wing feathers in place, already looked a lot better. It had already broken free of the glue at that point and as it turned out, the added support for that short time period was just what it needed to get better.
Today, it's running around, flapping its wings and playing just like all the other geese. It's amazing how fast that healed. I kept expecting it to regress to the original 'splayed' wing posture that it had just three days ago, but it stayed in place and is no longer splayed.
What the gosling had was a condition called, "Angel Wing." Angel wing occurs because the flight feathers grow faster than the underlying wing structure. The heavy feathers cause the last (wrist) joint of the wing to twist outward. Once the bird matures, the affected wing awkwardly and permanently sticks out instead of gracefully folding against the body. One or both wings may be involved. Oddly, and for reasons unknown, when only one wing is affected, it is likely to be on the left side.
Do not confuse this condition with a similar condition called, "drooped wing" or "lazy wing."
As birds grow, sometimes their little wings have trouble holding up all the newly sprouting feathers, and one or both wings may droop slightly, without twisting outward. However, when a wing droops, watch for the possibility that it may begin to twist. A wing twisted outward at the last joint is what differentiates between the two.
I sure am happy to see this little guy get better. I was worried he would be crippled and unable to fly later in life.
After I fixed him, I looked up ways to treat angel wing and as it turns out, the thing I did was very similar to what is recommended.
This is a copy of what I read on the Cackle Hatchery website: While a duck or goose is still young, angel wing usually can be corrected by using vet wrap to secure the last two joints of the wing for 4 or 5 days. The wrap will hold the feathers in proper position and help the wing grow in the right direction until the wrist joint becomes strong enough to support feather growth. To prevent binding as the wing grows, and to allow the bird to exercise its wing muscles, remove the vet wrap each evening and reapply it in the morning.
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Post by macmex on Jun 10, 2020 5:46:36 GMT -6
That's great, Ron! I didn't realize that one could correct angel wing. Every once in a while one of my Muscovy ducks comes up with it, usually a drake. It doesn't seem to cause them any trouble, just looks awful. I eat that bird. It always seems to happen when I'm taking special care of them, as in giving the ducklings chick starter, because they're small and it's fine enough for them to eat. The ducks I basically ignore, letting them scavenge for the scraps of all stock feed, left by the chickens, never get it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 11, 2020 12:22:39 GMT -6
I didn't know you could 'fix' angel wing either. I just tried it because I felt sorry for the bird.
I didn't find out until later that it was treatable. Maybe, chickens don't get angel wing because they can't fly? Migratory waterfowl have longer wingtips and heavier flight feathers. Muscovy ducks were on the list that I saw while reading about birds most prone to angel wing.
I'm like you, George. I feed my baby birds chick starter because it's small and they can eat it. I've been told that high protein feed causes angel wing. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's recommended to get them off of chick starter as soon as possible and put them on a low protein diet of grass or cracked corn. (Be sure they have access to grit) so they can digest the grass and corn.
That's always a hard call to make when they're so small. You want to take good care of them, but it seems you have to be careful not to take too good a care of them.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 19, 2020 20:51:31 GMT -6
This morning, when I turned the geese loose, two of the goslings went the wrong way and got left behind in the goose run by themselves. By the time they got it figured out, the rest of the flock was nearly to the garden, so the two goslings took off running and flapping their wings as fast as they could, trying to catch up.
One of them was the little one that had a bad wing only a few weeks ago. Once it got air to moving beneath its wings, it took off flying. That was pretty cool to see!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 21, 2020 0:39:12 GMT -6
Veterinarian Chores Around the Farm, and Acronyms that can Stick With You for Life. This story probably falls more under the heading of "Domestic Critters" than "Cotton Patch Geese" but it's a tale or (tail) that needed to be told.My daughter has been witnessing some legal documents for me this evening. (She has always been the smart one in our family).As we were busy signing papers, we were carrying on light conversation to help pass the time. Jokingly, I added, "It would look really nice right there, if you could add your new found credentials after signing your name." My daughter did not agree, but she knew instantly what I was referring to.In our family; she has recently become known as an accomplished, and well educated, 'PbD'... For those of you not familiar with working farm animals, that stands for, 'Pig butt Doctor.'
Sadly, had she chosen to grab her pig by the head the day we were doctoring hogs, she would have been known as the family's 'PhD' instead … But no! she had to go and grab that pig by the tail instead, and now has become known as the family's, "Pig butt Doctor, (PbD) instead.
Had she grabbed ahold of the other end, as I did, she could have become the Pig's head Doctor, which would have been classified as a (PhD), and somehow a much more distinguished sounding position. The designation was not of her own choosing necessarily, so maybe, it was providence, as she and I had flipped a coin for that particular chore that Saturday...Oh well, the fate of some things in life can be as simple as a coin toss … Heads, you're the family 'PhD' or tails, well, you get the picture.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 30, 2020 8:42:33 GMT -6
Don't Forget to Break the Ice! It's that time of year again. Don't forget to break the ice on the water pails and troughs for all the farm animals and for all of your pets, each and every morning during this cold weather. Eating dry feed rations makes them extra thirsty this time of year. Imagine if you had to live off of saltine crackers and stale cornbread without a drink of water to wash it all down. That's how our farm animals make it through winter around here, (sweet feed, cracked corn, protein pellets, dry hay, dry dog food, and Special Kitty).
This was the first morning of the season that I had to break the ice, but I have geese, chickens, dogs, cats, and a deer, all depending on me for a drink of water each day, so it took a while to make the rounds.
It won't be much longer before I'll have to remember to bring the tea kettle along with me each morning to pour hot water into the water pails to melt through the thicker stuff. (I have a few plastic pails out there, so they can't take the force of pounding holes through the ice with a pick or an ax, like the steel troughs can.) It's a chore, but when you've got critters depending on you, you've got to be diligent in providing for them.
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Post by macmex on Dec 1, 2020 19:54:55 GMT -6
I found the same thing with the ice, when I did the rounds this morning. I forgot, however, that I wasn't wearing muck boots and decided to break the ice on the first bucket I came to, using the heel of my boot (regular boot). Yikes! I got a wet foot! That was cold!
For our rabbits I carried out bottles of warm water, to replace their frozen waterers. They always love this!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 16, 2020 20:17:19 GMT -6
Friends for Life and as Happy as Can Be. We have eight Cotton Patch Geese here that were all hand-raised on the farm; four males, four females. Four of them were mail order, day-old-goslings, imported from Georgia in April of 2019. Four of them were laid and hatched out by the year-old, mail order geese this Spring, (their first year anniversary on our farm).
We also have two resident Canadian geese that like to run with them, everywhere they go, just as happy as they can be to have domesticated goose friends to play with. Our geese are free-range, and only go in the goose pen at night; to be protected from coyotes.
Cotton Patch Geese can fly, but choose no to fly very far or very high. The Canadians are natural born flyers, but for some reason, they rarely fly more than 20' feet or so off the ground if they don't have to. (That seems very odd to me). I just figured they'd fly South at the end of Autumn, but so far, that has not been the case at all. In fact, quite the opposite has recently occurred.
A few weeks ago, there was a fairly gusty wind, during our unseasonably warm weather a few days before the snows came. It was a beautiful, warm, blue-sky-forever, sunny day, and all the geese were happily 'feeling their oats' as a group.
At first, they just took off running and honking, flapping their wings as they went. Then, the two, lighter, Canadian geese got airborne, and with a 20-mph headwind from the South, I think they were lifted a little more rapidly than they meant to be lifted.
Soon, they were high above the treetops, with all eight of the Cotton Patch Geese closely in tow!
As they rose higher and higher, they ended up farther and farther away. Before they knew it, they were passing the far reaches of the back fence of our garden. At that very moment, you could just see the panic set in ... If they could speak, they'd probably have been saying, "Oh crud! We passed our turn off!"
One by one, like old, sputtering, Sopwith Camels, the Cotton Patch Geese began breaking formation and banking sharply back to the North, honking like crazy, as they swooped back toward the garden!
The two Canadian Geese kept going for a moment before they realized their lifelong companions were no longer in tow. Soon there was a space of a few hundred yards between the two groups, as they desperately scrambled to regroup.
Though the Cotton Patch Geese can fly fairly well, they really are very poor at landing ... All I can say is that it's a good thing we have a heavy cover crop of Austrian Winter Peas planted this Fall, or they would have been in for a pretty hard touchdown ... Plop! --- Plop! --- Plop!
You could hear them doing belly flops and see them rolling out through the tall pea vines! Grace is not one of their stronger points.
The Canadian Geese were a little better off, as they are built lighter than Cotton Patch Geese and are better equipped to make softer landings, but by then, they were so far off course that they completely missed the garden and landed out in our neighbor's cow pasture.
You should have heard them, panic-hopping through the tall grass - honking frantically the whole way; trying to re-group.
I genuinely think it frightened them. Once the two Canadian Geese hopped the barbed wire fence and met the Cotton Patch on the ground, they all took off flapping as fast as they could go, right back to the open-top enclosure where they took off from in the first place.
That was their only attempt at real flight so far. I've not seen them try anything like that since.
I suppose that just goes to prove that sometimes, the bonds of family are stronger than the urge to migrate. Things like that become apparent this time of year as sadly, we are separated from our loved ones this Christmas Season, by the confines of the Covid outbreak.
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Post by macmex on Dec 17, 2020 5:19:29 GMT -6
That's so heart warming and entertaining! I'm glad the Canadians didn't lead the Cotton Patch Geese too far off before they turned around! Maybe in 2021 you'll have enough goslings to sell
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