So far this year, we've really upped our quantity of birds. Some of the additions were planned, and others were not. Amongst them are chickens, ducks, and geese.
First of all, we adopted two new ducks, Lily and Daisy. They came to us separately, but both on short notice and not in top health. We found Lily via a friend via facebook via craig's list. Lily, a Cayuga, was hatched in a classroom, and then brought home to live with chickens, whom promptly attacked her. When we picked Lily up, (she was named Cala at the time) she was bald on top of her head, and one eye was in really bad shape. We took her to the vet and she got eye goop for us to apply twice a day for some number of days which I've since forgotten. In our care, she gained weight, grew all her feathers back, and her general disposition improved greatly (she was a biter). She also narrowly avoided eyelid reconstruction surgery (yay!).
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| Lily during her bum eye days |
Daisy came to us via the waterfowl hospital. Some well-intentioned person found this duck and dropped her off at the waterfowl hospital in rough shape. The hospital couldn't keep her so we stepped in. Daisy came to us with bad lice on her head, and some weird foot problem, which later turned out to be a broken toe. A week or so went by before we brought Daisy back to the vet. She was already free of lice at the time. They did some x-rays and discovered a severely broken toe that the doc says will never reconnect. Daisy's foot was super swollen and full of gross liquid. She was on antibiotics and some kind of anti-inflammatory pain killer that made her totally zonk out. We finally learned the correct way to force feed a duck her pills, unlike our previous failure with Penelope to do this. Daisy is in much better spirits now (the doc said she was 'depressed' when we picked her up) her lice are gone, and she's making a great recovery with her foot. Naomi is going to take her back in tomorrow to get the foot drained and get a follow up. We're hoping to put her into the main flock tomorrow if all goes well with Dr. Duck.
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| Daisy, after getting her foot drained at Dr. Duck |
We also got Cornish Cross broiler chickens this year for the first time. I was expecting them to be weird, but I got more than I bargained for with just how weird they are. These are the same type of chickens raised commercially for meat like you'd buy at the supermarket. They're generally 'harvested' around 50 days- commercially at 40-42 if I remember correctly. We have to withhold their feed for 12 hours a day so they don't "flip" or die suddenly from gaining weight too fast. They cry for food when they don't have any, and they eat so much so fast that their crops bulge tumorously from their chests. And they're heavy already, like, SUPER heavy. We started putting them outside this past week now that their chicken tractor is finished. We're looking to send them to freezer camp before the end of June. If we wait too long, we risk losing all of them, They're like Cinderella's carriage, but a chicken that we're going to eat. And instead of turning into a pumpkin, they're going to die at midnight.
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| bulging crops and all |
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| the tractor |
Then we got a new group of layers and multi-purpose birds that will become our pastured flock, but our plans changed a little on this. Because of the bird flu that's going around, a large part of our order didn't come in. We were supposed to get 3 Buff Orpington cockerels and a bunch more Buff Orpington pullets, but no buffs came in at all. Instead, I chose some more Silver Laced Wyandottes and got a couple Silkies. I had never been interested in Silkies at all until I found out they're great broodies. The feed store said they could get more Buffs in, but not until June 3, so I said OK. I really really wanted some boys, and the only boys they had that day were Rhode Island Reds. Noooo thank you! So now we're waiting on our Buff Boys, 3 of them, and I threw in 3 Buff pullets for good measure. So, we ended up with way more chickens than we first intended to, but that's OK. Those boys will be way behind the other birds, and will be too small to do much protecting for quite a while, but it's better than no boys I guess.
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| little silkie! |
We got luckier with our goslings than we did with the chicks however. The goslings weren't supposed to come until June 26th or something, but I went into the feed store one day to drop off the order form and they said the geese were coming early- May 22th instead. We're having fun learning from them and watching them. They're so wiggley! The geese have been spending their days outside in the polydome where they can eat grass and not make a stinky mess in a brooder in the house. I can't wait until they are bigger and can be outside full time. And I can't wait until they're eating enough grass that I don't have to mow!
Once we get the boys on Wednesday, that should be it for animal acquisitions for this year, unless of course I pull off my rabbit plans. It's really time-consuming to have so many small birds that need constant attention- changing water, filling feeders, dumping out poopy brooders, and turning lights on and off, but it's also fun, rewarding, and the little puffballs are so cute!
