So Many Quitting

[goosedragon]

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Heck Patrick, most of the time even I will admit that you are GOOD ~gd

[goosedragon]

GD, Sorry your goose got herself injured. That had to be hard to take her out of her misery. It is never good. I had never heard that noise from a goose before and I hope I never do again! There was no question she had to be put out of her misery, not hard, just had to be done I find the mating of geese strange. I have a white goose that wants the white gander. The white gander is gaga over the African. The brown gander pines for the white goose and the brown and white ganders fight a lot. They are Chinese. I have been keeping the ganders separate and the white goose was raped by a bunch of roosters I had on death row (at any rate they tried to rape her and had her on the ground when I got in the pen to get her). The roosters wait on death row ended. They were butchered the next day. She hid out for days in the duck barn when I separated her from the roosters. Finally I took her and the African goose and put just the two of them together in the front yard for a couple of weeks. Gradually she started to act like she was getting over the emotional trauma. I let two brown gooses and the white gander in with them. I kept them there for a week. By the time I sent them back to the barnyard she was making up to the white gander a little. My front yard was nearly mowed, weeded and fertilized. The whit goose is doing well enough to aggravate the ducks unmercifully now.

My muscovy drakes were the rapers [i even caught them doing a wild rabbit once] they (2) would work together to panic the young geese and if they left the goose flock they got nailed. If they stuck with the flock the whole flock would beat the snot out of the drakes. If you think geese are strange did you ever keep track of young [16-26 yea old] humans? now that is realy strange.~gd

[Mary]

Yes, I was one of those humans and I saw a lot of strange behavior from my pears. I knew drakes were likely to rape anything they could. Had not seen them work together before this bunch. They tend to fight each other in my group of drakes more than working together. I got tired of the girls being beat up by them and penned all the drakes together. They do a right smart job on each other. I thought that was fairer.

I can only imagine the sound your goose made. When that kind of thing happens one just knows what has to be done. I faced that with a dog I had that a motorcyclist hit. It broke my dogs neck and paralyzed him. He didn't make any sound. I think because of the pain he went into a coma or trance to escape. Seams we all face something like that sooner or later if we have pets or livestock.

[Evy]

Help! I've wandered into BYC & can't get out ! Yes, geese do form bonds, but they don't ''grieve'' as we know the term. Old dogs & horses have been known to die after an owner passes. Coincidence? Maybe. A fish??That's too much of a stretch. I have a 100 gal. aquarium full of tropicals that mob the glass when I approach. They don't love me, they're just hungry & if one of them dies...they eat it!

[KSWaterfowl]

Checking back in here after a hiatus from TPC, I have to say we just recently were gifted with the remaining birds in a nice flock of largefowl modern games. I don't know what the arrangements for payments are exactly yet, (so I say gifted) but we got some really nice birds from a breeder that sold his house and was moving into town. Its a shame to see him giving up his large moderns and his bantam ameraucanas but he is getting to the point where his kids will all be out of school soon and he said its a new season in life and he wants to travel. Oh well, his loss is our gain. I have been saddened to see several of the waterfowl breeders reduce breeds, but we have done the same thing in the past and are just in the last two years beginning to rebuild our welsh harlequin flock to what it was before we started having children. (the children are just starting to get more "loud" now about what they like, so we can't have all of the birds we would like to have.) We also disposed of our show Pekin flock, which had been on the sale block for a while mainly because of the feed costs, but the first day it reached 106F here this year, the whole quad was dead in their house. With the door open, and fresh water in their pools. (They weren't the smartest ducks) We just recently added tufted roman geese back to our flock because last year I couldn't keep up with the lawn for all the moisture and this year its the exact other problem, but we will have rain again and the geese will be wonderful partners in keeping some of the yard short. We will probably try to show some of them if we can ever get them to finish getting their wings in...they are the slowest birds to fully feather in that I have ever seen. I've tried various feeds, but I think it has something to do with the complete lack of lush green grass to feed on.

K&S

[Oregon Swedes]

The thing about wanting to travel is a big issue. It seems to be very difficult to find competent people to care for birds when you want to go on vacation.

Even when friends or relatives will volunteer, they often lack knowledge and birds can die under their watch. It makes it very difficult to get away. So I can see how anyone who wants to travel would have to give up their poultry.

[Evy]

Hey K & S...glad to see you ! I've only been to a couple ''local'' shows since my husband died 5 years ago. No one close to tend things or to go with. I miss the people, but I still keep a few birds. Gives me a reason to have to get up in the morning.

[Mary]

Having a reason to get up in the morning is why I got into birds again. I got way over my head to begin with even though it was fun having all those chickens, ducks and geese. I finally got my flock down to something reasonable.

Getting married again has presented the problem of wanting to travel again and he has a beautiful motor home that has rarely been used. Getting reliable help doesn't seam possible. Either they don't have a clue what to do in case of sickness or injury with a bird or they forget important things like collecting eggs, or food or water or don't remember to count the birds at night that have been free ranging.

[judyc]

Hey K&S, Good to see you here. I believe that you bought a Brinsea incubator from me last year? With the drought last summer, I kept a sprinkler going for the Pekins and Buff geese. I had the only green lawn around for miles. Of course that was reflected in my electric bill. Eh! You can't take it with you, and since I don't smoke or drink, I figure it's cheaper than those two habits.

Poultry seems to have these cycles of popularity. Thirty years ago, I wanted Marans. I couldn't find them for love or money, but now they are everywhere. It will be the same with the waterfowl.

[Angela]

I've actually let go of most of my poultry and kept my waterfowl. I'm not going to say that they are easier to care for, because they are not...but they please me more.