is there not an animal control where you live you can call? Maybe the Humane Society?
I did a combination of betadine (antiseptic)+warm water soaks and Veterycin spray for one of our ducks who had it (rip Gene), but he was obviously comfortable enough to let me tend to it. It will be much trickier to do the bandaging and all that with a wild duck. If there aren’t any local vets or Humane Society chapters you can call, perhaps try making her warm up to you first by bringing some food so that she eventually cooperates.
I got a couple older Pekin ducks for free, 1 has bad legs so I was worried it would be picked on but so far nothing. They won't go near the other group but they stay in the same coop (20x10 approx)
The layer group we raised this spring has been the worst group ever, they couldn't figure out going in at night for over a week. We finally gave up and moved their coop into the cow pasture so the electric fence is protecting them.
I'm unsure. Have ample land but fencing is expensive and I'd rather keep my flock small since if the CDC comes in and says my chickens need McNuked I might McLose it in these fine McStates.
Small is anything under 1 or 2 thousand birds, most people are shocked when we tell them how many chickens we have since they spread out a lot mostly in groups of 10-20. Fence material prices are the same reasons mine are free range.
The dogs scent probably helps keep them away, I don't have rabbits so I've got to warn you any fencing advice I give won't factor that in
Them all as in the chickens and future geese? Yeah I'm sure they'd be fine together. We have 1 Tom and 2 female turkeys that live with our main layer flock they get along just fine even though they were raised separate from the chickens.
Geese won't give their lives protecting the hens like a rooster will but yes having larger birds with the chickens helps deter hawks during the day. It's doesn't help at night though, I lost a guinea hen that stayed outside with the turkeys to a hawk or owl overnight.
Ugh gross, chicken shit it's what canines craveTo be fair, the hens thinks she's a large chicken and follow her around mimicking her, "foraging" which... LGD, we know what they're, "foraging"
You're welcome, those are silver laced wyandottes, similar color to a buff orpington or speckled sussexThank you so much for all your information! This was a wonderful starting point!
Your animals are beautiful btw! Did I see Orpingtons?
You'll want pasture for geese. They eat up to 80% of their food in grass, and even up to 98% if your grass is really good in the summer. I've got 5 geese (2 are old timers) and they are able to keep my back yard lawn mowed all summer, which is about aa 1/4 acre. They mainly focus on the fresh tips of grass that regrows after its been cut, so they like coming in and munching on my front yard when its regrown after mowing. Geese really benefit from sleeping in the same area, as they are territorial by design, and they prefer it if its a completely enclosed area. You can pasture them full time, but I've found that they prefer somewhere to retire to at night. Good thing about geese is they're pretty intelligent, and will follow pointing and directions much better then cows will. They are very good with routines, so if you lock them up at night, and walk them out to a new pasture everyday, and then take them back to their coop, they will learn the process very well. Depending on the quality of your grass you can get anywhere from 20 to 50 geese per acre, and I like to supplement their feed with the laying pellets I feed my chickens.I was wondering where the livestock and poultry thread was at.
I've got four wonderful rocks that are such good sisters, came from the same hatchery and were shipped to me because the store didn't have enough of the best cold Harty chicken breed.
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Just eat the eggs from them.
It's not uncommon for them to double yolk though it isn't very frequent, especially in higher heat.
Saw that Flemish giant rabbits are good for more docile chicken breeds (my rock girls) and the kids want a pet rabbit or two.
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So in the future I'm thinking of doing that.
Outside of ground proofing what must I do to make this a reality? My girls are very spoiled and have lots of space and I do not let them free range due to the amount of hawks that we have but they have very ample space, it's over 2k sq feet.
The rabbit/rabbits will be pets purely and large warmers for the chickens during winter. I do not intend to breed these unless someone local asks me to and even then I doubt anyone will.
Alternatively I am thinking about fencing in another area next year so we can get another animal holding center, mainly for the geese and possibly rotating them with the chickens so they don't get bored of sleeping/being in the same place always. The geese are going to be a larger breed so I'm less worried about a hawk attack with them, but they will have fencing of some sort.
At some point I'd like to put all my animals together possibly.
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(Shock and awe at the size of these specimens)
What's a good amount of space for some big 20+ lbs breeds of geese? Let's say I'd have around 4-8. Could look it up elsewhere but I'd like to see more love on this board so let's talk about it here!
This is great information to know! The whole post was great but for brevity, I've just included this part.
Glad to have been helpful!
I will probably look into going forward with the geese then since they seem more up our ally.
If the geese are raised with the hens as goslings then they should be fine. My geese were older when I got them (a lady was giving them away because they attacked her kid lol), so I had some issues with the geese picking on my hens a bit when feeding, and only during feeding. Now they all sleep in the same coop without issue.
I've heard of this rarely but I think that's because other poultry forums I've seen have more commercial, large and probably come from inheritance from family members, so, just larger numbers overall. These people genuinely seem as if it's something they've been doing their whole lives, are set in their ways, and, consequentially, their family's ways.
20 head of cattle is a good start, what's the capacity of your slat barn? Have you looked into any ways you could speed up your time spent on the cattle so you could get more without dedicating more time to them? Also is it a modern type of slat barn where you can clean the lanes out with a loader or are you cleaning by hand? What's your current sale method, do you have USDA cuts in stock that you're ready to sell or do you sell whole cows to feedlots or individuals?
I'd guess around 60 comfortably. I have 3 sheds. 1 shed with 2 bays, and 2 sheds with 3 bays. The bays arent all the same size but I reckon I could comfortably keep 60 cattle. I have a machinery shed also, that in the past was used as calving units with some bedding.
I feel my biggest source of time is fencing and dealing with water. I don't keep the cattle inside too long. I only have a few of them in at the moment, the bulls im weening. The rest of the cattle are out. And they're not too much work when they're out, once the fencing and water is working.
I do have the space to clean it out with the front loader, but at this scale its easier to remove the roughage with a fork and barrow. It's mostly rushes left over that the cattle don't eat. thats another job, topping them and spraying them before I have the field baled. I have a topper and sprayer, but the baling is left to a contractor.
I'm not based in the US, that classification for us would be at a later stage. I bring them to the local mart, sometimes its mega dealers that buy them via representatives, sometimes its other farmers of a scale more similar to me, that feel they can fatten them further.
There are some local farmers markets, but this is mostly for fruit and vegetables. It is cool that ye sell Chicken and Turkey at these. I wouldn't really have anything for this without a large change of how I'm farming.
Money well spent. I have always loved the look of these barns, the red ones, it is classic Americana.