Bluebird Update

I did check on the boxes again two days ago. The number 1 box with the four eggs had brand new hatchlings! Boy, I really missed the boat on those. The bluebird parents probably started thier nest the minute after I first checked those boxes and saw they were still empty. I didn't have my camera with me the other day to get shots of the little ones, but here they are today. I am just fascinated with how quickly baby birds grow. Not only these, but also our geese and chickens. You can almost see them growing before your very eyes!

The number 2 box had a surprize for me today. Two days ago, there was a few blades of dried grass and that was all. Today, I opened the door to find a pair of tree swallows bundled up inside. They sprung out of there as soon as the door was open, so I didn't get a photo, of course, but it was neat to see. Last year, I also had tree swallows in one of the boxes, but it was in box number 1. I suppose they got here a little late and found they had missed out to the early bluebirds...


Another surprize awaited me in box number 3. The one that had two eggs on the 19th, now has six. They might have started incubating them, but I have not seen the parents yet. Maybe I will be lucky and have a nest with seven or more eggs.

Lame Broiler, More Sex Link Info and Terra Cotta is Out

I finally took the time last night to dig for info on a lame Rock Cornish cross. I had isolated this one some time back, for observation, thinking that it was sick. After a few days, I realized that it was apparently very healthy, but was not able to hold itself up on it's legs. So it is now back in the pen with the others. The book that I consulted is "The Chicken Health Handbook" by Gail Damerow. I have concluded that the weak legs are due to a vitamin difficiency. I have been feeding them Purina Chick Starter and Grower from the beginning, which I had just assumed would have all of the vitamins and minerals that they need. From here on out, I will add a vitamin supplement to their water.

All of the other birds appear to be quite healthy...large with enormous legs and feet. I have come to believe that maybe I have been feeding them too much, however. Since they act like a bunch of starving pirannahs, I guess I felt like they were starving! I hope the additional vitamins will take care of the problem along with cutting back on the feed to slow their growth.
_______________________________

While perusing through another Damerow book, "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", I came across some info on Sex Links. When I went back to Rural King a couple of days later to pick up some more broilers, I also chose two more layers. I originally had only the Ameraucaunas and Red Leghorns, but since these were straight run and a gamble, I decided to bring home the Sex Links so that I at least would have two pullets for sure. Well, I had previously been told that the solid blacks were the pullets, so I let the young employee grab two black ones and put them in the box for me. When I got home, I picked them up and they both had white bellies! So I wasn't so sure I had pullets, afterall.

Last night, I found this explanation by Damerow: "Since a pullet does not acquire her dam's sex chromosome, she cannot acquire any genetic information it contains. A cockerel...always acquires genetic information contained on its dam's chromosome. All characteristics that are controlled by genes on a hen's sex chromosome are called sex-linked. ...when a hen with a certain sex-linked trait is mated to a cock without it, the trait is acquired by all the resulting cockerels, but not the pullets. Since all the pullets are like thier sire and all the cockerels are like their dam, ...allows the sex-linked sorting of chicks according to things as their color...numerous variations are possible. ...If you cross a barred Rock hen with a Rhode Island Red cock, each cockerel will have a white spot on its head."

I am somewhat more reassured now that my two sex-linked chicks are pullets. They definitely did not have white spots on thier heads. I do remember seeing others with the white spots in the bin at the store. I also remember this white spots on the heads of the pure barred Rocks that we bought four years ago.
__________________________________________

Lastly, I wanted to comment on the use of Terra Cotta for a feed tray...don't. I had rigged up a feeder for the goslings, trying to save money. The hanging feeders are a little expensive at $18 and up. I bought a terra cotta saucer and put a large plastic funnel in the middle to keep the goslings out of the feed. Well, the terra cotta is pourous and absorbs moisture from the ground. I went to clean it out today and found mold growing under the funnel due to the ground moisture. Mold is not healthy, so I would definite not recommend the use of terra cotta!

Foster Parents, indeed!

Well, the adult geese have taken so well to the new goslings, that they have not left the pen since the day I brought them home! They are so protective of these fuzzballs, and so 'parental' in fact, that I believe the older goose has stopped laying altogether. (I should begin to use thier names for simplicity's sake, even though I don't really call them by name often). The gander is Larry, the older goose is Mo and the younger goose is Curly. The three stooges--HA! They really are very silly geese.

Yes, I think Mo has decided that these are 'her' goslings and therefore is done laying and has probably decided also that she must have set on their eggs and hatched them out, too. Which is fine, considering her miserable and futile efforts of the past years.

When the Toulouse goose that we had hatched her goslings out, she had them out of the pen and halfway across the yard by the second day. These adults have shown no desire to leave the pen with these to browse. They certainly have enjoyed their greens though, as I go out several times per day and pluck up armfuls of grass, dandlelions and that infernal creeping jenny. I am hoping that they will develop a taste for it especially. Then they can serve as 'weeder geese' for the time they are here... If I ever get them out of the pen.

Bluebirds

Yesterday was the ECIBS annual conference and I heard several people there saying that they already had nests with eggs in their nestboxes. A couple of people who came from south of here even had hatchlings already! I had checked my boxes for the first time a couple of weeks ago and there was not yet any nestbuilding going on. "I guess I had better check my boxes!", I thought.

This morning, I went out to see if anything was going on and sure enough! Two of the boxes already had nests with eggs. The number 1 box had four bluebird eggs, number 2 was empty and number 3 had two bluebird eggs.

Goslings Arrive

I got the news today while on my way to Greenup to pick up four more bags of chick feed from Dillier's Hatchery. Oh, Boy! I still had quite a bit of work to do to get the brooder ready. I had started on it yesterday, knowing that any day now the goslings would be in. Still had loads of old compost to clean out of the goose pen and fresh planer shavings to put down. Still had to place the cinder blocks to set our makeshift brooder house onto, had to hang the heat lamp, get the waterer set up and a feeder of sorts in place....

It was late afternoon before things were all good to go. I didn't make it to town to pick them up
until 5:30. As I walked into the store, there they were in a small galvanized trough waiting for me, "SOLD" sign prominantly displayed. There was a little boy there, maybe three or four, with his mom admiring them, but not touching due to the "Do not touch" signs everywhere. I told them that they were mine, so he could pet one. I picked one up and held it out to him. He was a slightly timid about the idea, but with encouragement from Mom, reached out and gave the fuzz ball a pat. I was surprized at the temperment of this little gaggle. The first ones that we bought four years ago would scream and run away if you reached your hand into the box. These just stood there looking at me...and the one that I reached for, calmly accepted me picking him up. He made gentle gosling peeps as I held him out to the boy...not at all afraid. My first thought was, "Oh dear, if these stay this sweet, how are we ever going to bring ourselves to do the 'dirty deed' when the time comes?"


Here is their home for now. Same as with the chicks, we used a factory-second spreader hopper, overturned onto some cinder blocks. This will be their shelter from the elements and from the older geese, if need be. I am not too worried about it though. From what I have read recently, the geese will make great foster parents for them.

'Geese Grow on Grass' --Mother Earth News, 1970

Easter Eggs

I have decided to stop collecting the goose eggs as of today. I think that Easter is a good day for that. The Africans have never successfully hatched out any eggs. That is not for lack of trying. Both have tried with all of their might...to their own detriment I think. I hate to see them sitting there for so many weeks, barely coming out to eat. They do come out and browse some, but I can't imagine that it would be enough time to nourish themselves. My two females share a nest which has actually worked out. With two nesting spots available last year, they both still wanted the same one. They ended up taking turns laying eggs. One would lay one day and the other would lay the next. When it was time to set, however; it was another story. The younger one (actually a daughter of the African gander at least) was hatched out by our Toulouse goose which we no longer have. She seems to be more dominant over the older one and 'wins' the preferred nest when it is time to set. So each had their turn setting for weeks on end, each on their own nest...only to eventually start breaking rotten egg after egg and finally giving up. I knew that when I saw them browsing all day that it was over.

So I decided to let them keep their eggs starting earlier in the year while it was still cool. Maybe this will make a difference. I'm not sure if the Africans are just not as good at incubating the eggs as Toulouse or what. Maybe they don't keep them turned as they should. I don't know if there is something else I should be doing for them. I do know that the gander covered all of the geese on a regular basis (And darn PROUD of it, too!) so infertile eggs would not be the problem.

Our goslings ordered from the hatchery will be delivered sometime this week. Maybe this will get them in the mothering mood.