Farm News 02-27-05
Farm News
Sunday morning, after chores, 48° and cloudy
Duck and Goose Eggs Appear
The first duck eggs appeared, lying in the hay or grass here and there. It takes ducks a few days to get it all organized and start laying in a nest. The first duck egg I found was a nice blue-green color. Some ducks lay white eggs, some lay green eggs, and some lay blue eggs. They all taste the same and look the same once you take them out of their shells.
Duck eggs are good to eat, so good, in fact, that it makes one suspect that they are loaded with cholesterol or something. My favorite duck egg recipe calls for mixing them with some goat milk, diced Spam, and green food dye. Scramble and serve with toast. My children called it 'Horrible, Awful, Yuck!' and ate it frequently. Now my son accuses me of juvenile cardiac abuse.
Wednesday the first goose egg appeared. Good old Beth is always the first goose to start laying and on Thursday I saw her sitting on her nest. Thursday evening, when doing chores, I found her egg. It was a monster, 4 7/8” long, and definitely a potential art object.
Converting an egg into an art object begins with 'blowing', removing the contents, of the egg, leaving an empty shell. Use a Dremel tool to drill holes in each end of the egg. Then stick a wire in and stir up the contents. Hold the egg over a bowl and blow the contents out one hole into the bowl by blowing in the other hole. Blowing goose eggs is respiratory therapy from hell but it can be done. The remaining shell can be filled with plaster if it is fragile, but a goose egg shell is pretty rugged.
I remember reading in Popular Mechanics many years ago something about cutting duck and goose egg shells with a Dremel tool. One could cut an egg shell lengthwise, creating something similar in shape to a bathtub, which could then be set on end in a one of those glass dome snow scenes with a tiny statue of some saint inside. Bathtub shrines were once considered very cool in some areas around here and a miniature version with snow might be a real moneymaker.
Tinkerbell Finds an Egg
Tinker is a goose who hatched in the incubator late last year. When she hatched she had a foot folded the wrong way. It took her a long time to learn to walk and she was generally a nuisance, but I never did the sensible thing, and Tinker is growing up. She has crooked legs and a pronounced limp, but she gets around. Right now I would compare her to an early teenager.
When I decided to hand raise her I knew that she would have difficulty being accepted into the goose flock. Geese are exceptionally clannish; even though Bebe and Butch are her parents, they wouldn't accept her for a year or more because she wasn't raised in the flock. Sarge and Beth, who were also raised by a human, would be more likely to accept her than would Bebe and Butch. So, the two pairs of geese, Sarge-Beth, and Butch-Bebe, live in the pasture and Tinkerbell lives in the barnyard.
Don't misunderstand, they aren't fighting. Tinker has spent the night in the pasture with the big geese many times. The problem is that she spends the night sleeping away from the adults and is more vulnerable to predators. In another year or so I might be able to peacefully integrate her with the other geese but for the moment it isn't really much of a problem.
Tinker likes to hang out in the chicken yard whenever the gate is open. Several times each year we put a big round bale of hay or straw in the chicken yard and let the chickens turn it into compost material. The chicken yard is covered several feet deep in nice fluffy, scratched up hay, perfect stuff for a gimpy goose to relax on.
Friday I noticed Tinker staying in the same place in the chicken yard. After an hour or two I went by to check on her; she wasn't caught on anything and didn't call when she saw me, meaning that she was happy. Later that afternoon she was still there, so I tried to figure out what was going on. She would walk around near her spot, but wouldn't stray very far from it. Finally, after I had watched her for a while, I saw her reach out with her beak and roll an egg over in the hay.
Tinkerbell had found an egg! When chickens came close to her egg she would make threatening moves and drive them away. Christmas, the tom turkey, would come by and strut for her occasionally, but Tinker, like every other bird in the yard, generally ignores him. Three our four times an hour she would reach out with her beak and roll the egg a little way, and then go back to standing guard. She never tried to set on the egg but simply watched over it most of the day.
Several other times, with young geese, I've seen them become fascinated for a while by an egg. Most birds either ignore or eat eggs, but today Tinker was like a little kid with a doll. She didn't really know what to do with it, but she like it a lot, until she finally got tired and walked off.
Book Review
Animals in Translation, by Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
A lot of people know who Temple Grandin is, she's the woman born autistic who has a Ph.D., teaches at Colorado State, and is the world's leading expert on livestock handling facilities. Dr. Grandin designed the livestock handling facilities in over half of the slaughter houses in the United States. When McDonalds decided to require that their suppliers use humane livestock handling procedures, they went to Dr. Grandin.
Dr. Grandin proposes that animals, and some autistic people, think in pictures instead of words. In this book she fits her theory into evolutionary psychology, offers some guidelines for animal training, and provides a wonderful tour of the mental life of a brilliant autistic person.
This is a pretty good book; whether you keep pets or livestock or are an animal rights partisan you will take away more from this book than you expect. About half way through the book the social relationships of the barnyard animals began to stand out starkly for me. The difference wasn't that I understood the relationships, it was that I suddenly, clearly, saw them.
The Strange Behavior of Nyn
Sunday afternoon Nyn displayed some very strange behavior. When I entered the rabbitry Nyn was hopping around in her cage with a mouthful of straw, looking like she was preparing to have bunnies. When one of her bunnies, who were still with her, got in her way she would nip at it and roughly push it aside.
I took the bunnies out and put them in their own cage. They were 5 weeks old by that time and could be weaned without a problem. Then I put a nest box in for Nyn. She put some straw in the nest box and pulled a small amount of fur. And then, nothing else. She went back to normal. A few days later she pulled some more fur in the nest box, but then, back to nothing. The bunnies are doing fine on their own and Nyn is due for breeding again next week, I think. We'll see what happens.
Ayte's Bunnies: Wiggly
Ayte did an amazing thing: she had eight bunnies! Wednesday morning Calvin and I counted them and found eight nice healthy, wiggly bunnies. Most of them are white with brown spots, but we did notice one that appears to be black with white spots.
It's amazing how fast bunnies develop. When we counted them they were only three days old, but most traces of their umbilical cords were gone. At ten days they will open their eyes and by two weeks of age they will be hopping around exploring their world.
When we finished counting Ayte's bunnies we sexed Rosie's and Nyn's bunnies. All the males went into one cage and the females in another. Six of the ten were males; only one of Rosies bunnies was female, a nice little brown one who has been to the city several times and is very easy to handle.
A Promise to the Squirrels
Last year the squirrels ate every single hazelnut I grew. I don't know where I was when they started to ripen but I know where the squirrels were, they were collecting hazel nuts. Hazel nuts bloom early with long catkins. There are four hybrid hazelnut bushes in the orchard and the earliest blooming is now in full flower with three inch catkins hanging all over it. Alas, it is probably in vain, for there is nothing else to pollinate it. Two other hybrid hazelnuts are ready to bloom, but the wild hazelnuts are not yet starting.
Skinner might have been somewhat extreme, but some of his methods worked well. Humans, being smart, should be able to design a Skinner mechanism that will train wild squirrels to bring hazelnuts to a hole connected to a collection bin. They can have the wild hazelnuts, we just want them to bring the crop from the hybrid bushes, which bloom earlier and bear nuts later than the wild ones, usually. If the squirrels don't like the idea of collecting hazelnuts for us, we could remind them that the alternative is to let the squirrels eat the nuts and then we eat the squirrels.
Farm News is available by email. To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
Sunday morning, after chores, 48° and cloudy
Duck and Goose Eggs Appear
The first duck eggs appeared, lying in the hay or grass here and there. It takes ducks a few days to get it all organized and start laying in a nest. The first duck egg I found was a nice blue-green color. Some ducks lay white eggs, some lay green eggs, and some lay blue eggs. They all taste the same and look the same once you take them out of their shells.
Duck eggs are good to eat, so good, in fact, that it makes one suspect that they are loaded with cholesterol or something. My favorite duck egg recipe calls for mixing them with some goat milk, diced Spam, and green food dye. Scramble and serve with toast. My children called it 'Horrible, Awful, Yuck!' and ate it frequently. Now my son accuses me of juvenile cardiac abuse.
Wednesday the first goose egg appeared. Good old Beth is always the first goose to start laying and on Thursday I saw her sitting on her nest. Thursday evening, when doing chores, I found her egg. It was a monster, 4 7/8” long, and definitely a potential art object.
Converting an egg into an art object begins with 'blowing', removing the contents, of the egg, leaving an empty shell. Use a Dremel tool to drill holes in each end of the egg. Then stick a wire in and stir up the contents. Hold the egg over a bowl and blow the contents out one hole into the bowl by blowing in the other hole. Blowing goose eggs is respiratory therapy from hell but it can be done. The remaining shell can be filled with plaster if it is fragile, but a goose egg shell is pretty rugged.
I remember reading in Popular Mechanics many years ago something about cutting duck and goose egg shells with a Dremel tool. One could cut an egg shell lengthwise, creating something similar in shape to a bathtub, which could then be set on end in a one of those glass dome snow scenes with a tiny statue of some saint inside. Bathtub shrines were once considered very cool in some areas around here and a miniature version with snow might be a real moneymaker.
Tinkerbell Finds an Egg
Tinker is a goose who hatched in the incubator late last year. When she hatched she had a foot folded the wrong way. It took her a long time to learn to walk and she was generally a nuisance, but I never did the sensible thing, and Tinker is growing up. She has crooked legs and a pronounced limp, but she gets around. Right now I would compare her to an early teenager.
When I decided to hand raise her I knew that she would have difficulty being accepted into the goose flock. Geese are exceptionally clannish; even though Bebe and Butch are her parents, they wouldn't accept her for a year or more because she wasn't raised in the flock. Sarge and Beth, who were also raised by a human, would be more likely to accept her than would Bebe and Butch. So, the two pairs of geese, Sarge-Beth, and Butch-Bebe, live in the pasture and Tinkerbell lives in the barnyard.
Don't misunderstand, they aren't fighting. Tinker has spent the night in the pasture with the big geese many times. The problem is that she spends the night sleeping away from the adults and is more vulnerable to predators. In another year or so I might be able to peacefully integrate her with the other geese but for the moment it isn't really much of a problem.
Tinker likes to hang out in the chicken yard whenever the gate is open. Several times each year we put a big round bale of hay or straw in the chicken yard and let the chickens turn it into compost material. The chicken yard is covered several feet deep in nice fluffy, scratched up hay, perfect stuff for a gimpy goose to relax on.
Friday I noticed Tinker staying in the same place in the chicken yard. After an hour or two I went by to check on her; she wasn't caught on anything and didn't call when she saw me, meaning that she was happy. Later that afternoon she was still there, so I tried to figure out what was going on. She would walk around near her spot, but wouldn't stray very far from it. Finally, after I had watched her for a while, I saw her reach out with her beak and roll an egg over in the hay.
Tinkerbell had found an egg! When chickens came close to her egg she would make threatening moves and drive them away. Christmas, the tom turkey, would come by and strut for her occasionally, but Tinker, like every other bird in the yard, generally ignores him. Three our four times an hour she would reach out with her beak and roll the egg a little way, and then go back to standing guard. She never tried to set on the egg but simply watched over it most of the day.
Several other times, with young geese, I've seen them become fascinated for a while by an egg. Most birds either ignore or eat eggs, but today Tinker was like a little kid with a doll. She didn't really know what to do with it, but she like it a lot, until she finally got tired and walked off.
Book Review
Animals in Translation, by Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
A lot of people know who Temple Grandin is, she's the woman born autistic who has a Ph.D., teaches at Colorado State, and is the world's leading expert on livestock handling facilities. Dr. Grandin designed the livestock handling facilities in over half of the slaughter houses in the United States. When McDonalds decided to require that their suppliers use humane livestock handling procedures, they went to Dr. Grandin.
Dr. Grandin proposes that animals, and some autistic people, think in pictures instead of words. In this book she fits her theory into evolutionary psychology, offers some guidelines for animal training, and provides a wonderful tour of the mental life of a brilliant autistic person.
This is a pretty good book; whether you keep pets or livestock or are an animal rights partisan you will take away more from this book than you expect. About half way through the book the social relationships of the barnyard animals began to stand out starkly for me. The difference wasn't that I understood the relationships, it was that I suddenly, clearly, saw them.
The Strange Behavior of Nyn
Sunday afternoon Nyn displayed some very strange behavior. When I entered the rabbitry Nyn was hopping around in her cage with a mouthful of straw, looking like she was preparing to have bunnies. When one of her bunnies, who were still with her, got in her way she would nip at it and roughly push it aside.
I took the bunnies out and put them in their own cage. They were 5 weeks old by that time and could be weaned without a problem. Then I put a nest box in for Nyn. She put some straw in the nest box and pulled a small amount of fur. And then, nothing else. She went back to normal. A few days later she pulled some more fur in the nest box, but then, back to nothing. The bunnies are doing fine on their own and Nyn is due for breeding again next week, I think. We'll see what happens.
Ayte's Bunnies: Wiggly
Ayte did an amazing thing: she had eight bunnies! Wednesday morning Calvin and I counted them and found eight nice healthy, wiggly bunnies. Most of them are white with brown spots, but we did notice one that appears to be black with white spots.
It's amazing how fast bunnies develop. When we counted them they were only three days old, but most traces of their umbilical cords were gone. At ten days they will open their eyes and by two weeks of age they will be hopping around exploring their world.
When we finished counting Ayte's bunnies we sexed Rosie's and Nyn's bunnies. All the males went into one cage and the females in another. Six of the ten were males; only one of Rosies bunnies was female, a nice little brown one who has been to the city several times and is very easy to handle.
A Promise to the Squirrels
Last year the squirrels ate every single hazelnut I grew. I don't know where I was when they started to ripen but I know where the squirrels were, they were collecting hazel nuts. Hazel nuts bloom early with long catkins. There are four hybrid hazelnut bushes in the orchard and the earliest blooming is now in full flower with three inch catkins hanging all over it. Alas, it is probably in vain, for there is nothing else to pollinate it. Two other hybrid hazelnuts are ready to bloom, but the wild hazelnuts are not yet starting.
Skinner might have been somewhat extreme, but some of his methods worked well. Humans, being smart, should be able to design a Skinner mechanism that will train wild squirrels to bring hazelnuts to a hole connected to a collection bin. They can have the wild hazelnuts, we just want them to bring the crop from the hybrid bushes, which bloom earlier and bear nuts later than the wild ones, usually. If the squirrels don't like the idea of collecting hazelnuts for us, we could remind them that the alternative is to let the squirrels eat the nuts and then we eat the squirrels.
Farm News is available by email. To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
posted by The Geezer at 8:13 AM
1 Comments:
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