Farm News 05-07-06
Sunday morning, after chores, 54°
Birds
Monday morning the Baltimore Oriole was whistling in the Honey Locust over the chicken yard. They seem to prefer the Honey Locust for their nest, a neat pouch that hangs from a twig. It looks like this male spent some time refurbishing the nest before it started whistling.
Some books list the Baltimore Oriole as a sub-species of the Northern Oriole. They are not closely related to the European Orioles, but, instead, are Icterids, the Blackbirds and their ilk. Orioles are nectar and fruit eaters. They will cut into a trumpet-vine flower at the base to obtain the nectar inside. The books say that they will feed on orange halves, but I have never been able to attract them to the feeder.
The hummingbirds are back. May 1st seems to be the day the hummers reappear. Now I need to clean and refill the feeders. What is in them now is probably fermented. The hummers may deserve a little buzz after flying back from Central America, but very much of that stuff can get them in trouble.
Incubation
The world's dumbest, ugliest, least truthful chicken will not become a mother except through the intervention of an incubator. Ting left her nest on Friday and spent the entire day that she was being followed by a flock of adoring chicks. Eight of her eggs, though, are in the incubator in my office. Somehow, helping Ting reproduce seems like an act of biological littering.
Ting had an email address, ting@geezernet.com, which she obtained by sending forged messages to my Internet Access Provider. PETE, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Electrons, yet another collection of single issue folks, objected to the address because Email to Ting constituted the forced movement of electrons without any discernible social value. Silly gazillion electrons are moved every microsecond to sell you Canadian pharmaceutical deals, why should Email to Ting be unethical?
Our local Internet Service Provider, a nice fellow but a rather timid sort, continually failed to connect Ting's address to the rest of the Internet under the pressures exerted by PETE. What the hell do you do about a situation like that? I've know this guy for over twenty five years, since he was twelve, and he caves in to some outfit like PETE. How does a modern radical justify dealing with the problems presented by organizations like PETE?
Why not? Do I have anything better to do?
That's one of the nice rewards for being a neo-radical. I can give answers like the above to difficult questions and still be considered sane.
In other incubation news, the brown hen duck is on her nest under the northern-most pine tree, and Drusilla, the Golden Sebright, is on her eggs in the loft of the barn. Saturday evening two of her chicks had hatched. Blue turkey is on her nest along the south wall of the barn. In the incubator there are turkey eggs and eggs from Ting.
The baby ducks in the barn no longer need heat at night. They could be turned out to range if they weren't so stupid.
Baby Goats!!!
Lucy goat had twins on Wednesday, a boy and a girl. Like most baby goats, they are just about the cutest things in the universe. The little male is light brown with a white star in the middle of his forehead. The female is dark brown. Both babies have white muzzles and ears.
They schedule photo opportunities up to a maximum of thirty hours per week. They travel nicely by first class, which they define as being held in someone's arms, talked to, and being stroked and admired. Goats are wonderfully adaptive creatures and instinctively find a way to thrive in most social and biological environments.
Marriage and Chicken Bones
Mrs. Dr. M., bless her, took time, during her second week of marriage,to write to us about dogs and chicken bones, an act which represents the kind of dedication I find in D.V.M. surgeons but not M.D. surgeons. When she promised me that she would perform any heart surgery I might require during the rest of my lifetime, she so reduced my anxiety that I might never again need heart surgery. But first, a letter from an unemployed reader:
A reader responds:
Some readers have very strange online personae. 'Yawnee Yukmore'? Anyway, I doubt that feeding cooked meat of some species to a dog would then influence the dog to hunt for raw meat of the same species. Humans identify most things by sight. Dogs seem to identify most things by smell. If cooking meat alters the fundamental aromas, and I think it does, then a dog would not make any link between cooked beef and cattle. Actually, lots of herding dogs enjoy raw bones of the very animals they herd, but they never kill the animals themselves.
Dr. M. says,
Dr. M., I am very happy for you and wish you a joyful future. When you grow old and gray, you will be able to think back, and say to yourself, “I helped save a few dogs in my second week of marriage.” That will be pretty good stuff to think about when you are over 70.
Okay, is all this clear? Cooked poultry bones go to the landfill. All other bones go to the dogs and cats.
E-mail Subscribers: 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.
Birds
Monday morning the Baltimore Oriole was whistling in the Honey Locust over the chicken yard. They seem to prefer the Honey Locust for their nest, a neat pouch that hangs from a twig. It looks like this male spent some time refurbishing the nest before it started whistling.
Some books list the Baltimore Oriole as a sub-species of the Northern Oriole. They are not closely related to the European Orioles, but, instead, are Icterids, the Blackbirds and their ilk. Orioles are nectar and fruit eaters. They will cut into a trumpet-vine flower at the base to obtain the nectar inside. The books say that they will feed on orange halves, but I have never been able to attract them to the feeder.
The hummingbirds are back. May 1st seems to be the day the hummers reappear. Now I need to clean and refill the feeders. What is in them now is probably fermented. The hummers may deserve a little buzz after flying back from Central America, but very much of that stuff can get them in trouble.
Incubation
The world's dumbest, ugliest, least truthful chicken will not become a mother except through the intervention of an incubator. Ting left her nest on Friday and spent the entire day that she was being followed by a flock of adoring chicks. Eight of her eggs, though, are in the incubator in my office. Somehow, helping Ting reproduce seems like an act of biological littering.
Ting had an email address, ting@geezernet.com, which she obtained by sending forged messages to my Internet Access Provider. PETE, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Electrons, yet another collection of single issue folks, objected to the address because Email to Ting constituted the forced movement of electrons without any discernible social value. Silly gazillion electrons are moved every microsecond to sell you Canadian pharmaceutical deals, why should Email to Ting be unethical?
Our local Internet Service Provider, a nice fellow but a rather timid sort, continually failed to connect Ting's address to the rest of the Internet under the pressures exerted by PETE. What the hell do you do about a situation like that? I've know this guy for over twenty five years, since he was twelve, and he caves in to some outfit like PETE. How does a modern radical justify dealing with the problems presented by organizations like PETE?
Why not? Do I have anything better to do?
That's one of the nice rewards for being a neo-radical. I can give answers like the above to difficult questions and still be considered sane.
In other incubation news, the brown hen duck is on her nest under the northern-most pine tree, and Drusilla, the Golden Sebright, is on her eggs in the loft of the barn. Saturday evening two of her chicks had hatched. Blue turkey is on her nest along the south wall of the barn. In the incubator there are turkey eggs and eggs from Ting.
The baby ducks in the barn no longer need heat at night. They could be turned out to range if they weren't so stupid.
Baby Goats!!!
Lucy goat had twins on Wednesday, a boy and a girl. Like most baby goats, they are just about the cutest things in the universe. The little male is light brown with a white star in the middle of his forehead. The female is dark brown. Both babies have white muzzles and ears.
They schedule photo opportunities up to a maximum of thirty hours per week. They travel nicely by first class, which they define as being held in someone's arms, talked to, and being stroked and admired. Goats are wonderfully adaptive creatures and instinctively find a way to thrive in most social and biological environments.
Marriage and Chicken Bones
Mrs. Dr. M., bless her, took time, during her second week of marriage,to write to us about dogs and chicken bones, an act which represents the kind of dedication I find in D.V.M. surgeons but not M.D. surgeons. When she promised me that she would perform any heart surgery I might require during the rest of my lifetime, she so reduced my anxiety that I might never again need heart surgery. But first, a letter from an unemployed reader:
A reader responds:
I have been feeding my dogs chicken bones for years. The two before this one died of old age. They all would get excited when we were finishing eating and ready to fling the remains out into the yard.
The only thing I have found that might possibly be a worry is that the current dog has a propensity to kill chickens. Some people think it is instinct, but I worry that it is because she likes to eat them. (I have reason to suspect that she does eat what she kills.) So, the question is, does she kill and eat chickens because I caused her to develop a taste for them?
Outside of that, my scientific brain says there isn't much difference between a chicken bone and the bones of dead birds or geese that she has drug into the yard for munching. You know, the "natural" stuff.
Yawnee Yukmore
Some readers have very strange online personae. 'Yawnee Yukmore'? Anyway, I doubt that feeding cooked meat of some species to a dog would then influence the dog to hunt for raw meat of the same species. Humans identify most things by sight. Dogs seem to identify most things by smell. If cooking meat alters the fundamental aromas, and I think it does, then a dog would not make any link between cooked beef and cattle. Actually, lots of herding dogs enjoy raw bones of the very animals they herd, but they never kill the animals themselves.
Dr. M. says,
Taking a moment out of marital bliss (we are packing the house) I shall set clear the guidelines on poultry bones in dogs:
Raw bones are ok. Cooked bones are not. The protein that holds the minerals together that makes the bones solid denatures (uncurls) in the cooking process.
Do not ever feed your dog cooked poultry or fowl bones. If you are going to feed raw bones, supervise them!
Dr. M.
Dr. M., I am very happy for you and wish you a joyful future. When you grow old and gray, you will be able to think back, and say to yourself, “I helped save a few dogs in my second week of marriage.” That will be pretty good stuff to think about when you are over 70.
Okay, is all this clear? Cooked poultry bones go to the landfill. All other bones go to the dogs and cats.
E-mail Subscribers: 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 9:02 AM
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