I've been wanting a goose for a while now. I didn't want two or more, just one. They can be aggressive, especially a pair in the spring. When you only have one it sees you as it's mama, or at the very least part of it's flock. I wanted a girl and the Pilgrim Goose is the only breed that is auto-sexed, which means you can tell at hatching whether it is male or female. You can tell because they are different colors. Guinevere is a Pilgrim Goose. She was just the cutest fluff ball at 2 days old. Rachel was convinced she didn't have anything under that fluff :)
She spent a lot of time in my lap....
Going for rides....
Being protected by Tucker...
And, playtime in the water!!!
Ducks and geese produce an oil that is distributed over their feathers as they preen themselves which helps them float. Mamas provide this for them because as -lings they don't produce this oil until their feathers are fully grown. So, when raised without their natural mama they cannot be allowed to have water deep enough to swim in unsupervised. They have so much fun in water they will get water logged and drown. Guinevere definitely likes her water time! There are snips of grass and clover in there for her to eat as she plays.
Outside in the sunny weather is super fun! And, boy had she grown at this stage!
We also have 4 turkeys, 3 of which are toms. I guess males were in abundance this year (or I'm a male magnet LOL) since that's what everything seems to be when they have matured at our place. We'll be getting a few more soon hoping they'll be girls and having two bloodlines will be good for production. This little fella is about 4 weeks old.
Here's Guinevere watching Tom show off to another turkey. He's the largest so far. Jerry has been rather sickly so he might be culled, but there's another tom to take his name :) These are Red Bourbon turkeys and will be a very pretty reddish brown with white trim when grown... I hope to get a couple of Royal Palms, a smaller black and white turkey with very good meat.
Then we have Bobwhite quail. These won't be for eating. They're just for fun. We got 50 ~ will release half and keep half hoping they'll reproduce more for release. We love their sounds. This photo shows them at about 2 weeks old. They're now 6 weeks old so I guess release day is quickly coming up!
And, ducks, of course! These are Rouens ~ they will look like overstuffed Mallards. We ended up with 5 little boys and 2 girls. Gotta find somebody with some girls...
After moving them outdoors Guinevere was super excited to take over duck duty. Sadly, within the first hour she'd drowned one so she was then only allowed to observe from outside their run for the next few weeks. The smaller ducks, Muscovies, were added about a week later.
Michael has been working on transforming an ugly structure in the middle of the pond (the previous owners had plans to put in a fountain) into a shelter for them. Should be done this weekend. Of course, they don't have enough feathers yet but it shouldn't be too long before they'll be able to call the pond their home! The shelter is really only to provide them with extra shade since they'll only have the tall growth along the banks, the pier, and their shelter. We've planted trees around the pond and have plans for more but if I waited for those to grow I'd never have ducks!!
Okay, last photo. It has nothing to do with Guinevere but... I've been tagged or had the chicken swing video posted on my timeline countless times by very sweet friends. I'd like y'all to know our chickens now have their very own all natural swing! It's a blurry photo but it's proof they use it. And. love it! I'm hoping to get more perches put up outside their coop for them.
That's it for now. I hope you like the photos! Until next time...
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