Sunday, April 29th...Another Day Under A Landing Strip Of Geese......

The geese are coming and going at a fevered rate. The rush must be on! Many fly into the lake only to find a pair of geese caring for young that were already born. The parents were obviously smart enough to brave all of April’s chill to establish themselves as early settlers this year. (It takes 28 days...nearly a month to hatch a clutch of geese eggs)

Here are the contenders for the spots available

Those coming in now are finding that sharing a lake with a couple already established, is not appreciated...and then added, the fact that our ducks take up a large portion of the water and bank, leaves little space for other wild geese. Our ducks are stupid and will not take the geese seriously as they get perilously close to the family of geese, who do not care to be infringed upon. Our dummy ducks don’t seem to care! The geese continue to go nuts all day long chasing our uncaring ducks away from the goslings, so they have absolutely NO patience for their own kind and send them flying, soon after their landing. There was wild action early this morning with a pair at one end of the lake and another at this end of the lake. Neither had little ones, so I was very fearful that the Mom and Dad pair already here had lost their seven little goslings to a predator during the night and were still trying to protecting their turf. Later, when I went for a refill of coffee, to my pleasure and relief, I saw the original couple with all seven goslings, merrily munching on bugs and grass by the barn. They must not have been involved in the early morning skirmish among the other two pairs of “childless” geese.

These are the Victors of the original Spot....Un-yielding to the others...

I’m glad that the family is safe and happily carrying on. These morning hours, give them time to teach and browse their young unbothered before I release the farm animals.
I never release the farm animals before eleven o’clock, in hopes that all the local hawks have been satisfied on mice and moles in the fields, making it safer for our birds to be out feeding, without confrontation. The fox will come at any hour of the day, but since fencing the entire perimeter of the pastures....fox attacks and loss have been almost non-existant. If it has happened, we haven’t noticed.
Today I will work a little in the brooding house, filling the two incubators with duck eggs, guinea fowl eggs, turkey eggs and possibly a few chicken eggs. Spring is here and soon everyone will be looking for little peeps to raise for themselves. Once the incubators are filled, hydrated and ready to go, I will catalog the date, identify and number the eggs and we will begin the twenty-one or twenty-eight day regime of waiting and re-hydrating. If all goes right, they will begin to emerge.
We have one friend that wants several ducks for her son and another friend on the farm down the road that wants Pekin ducks for himself. There are always folks hunting for guinea fowl keets or chicken peeps each spring and the turkey are for us to raise and sell. We will raise them for the holiday seasons and sell some of their eggs. They are Royal Palm turkeys. You know, the ones that are beautifully white, with black markings and their eggs are delicious!


The beautiful Royal Palm Turkeys. Great Tasting bird and eggs!

They’re just a tad bigger than a large chicken egg, but a little smaller than most large Pekin duck eggs....surly a hit when people try them.
Stay tuned for more farm adventures.....things are finally starting to heat up here and start moving.
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