Chickens and Geese

The geese are out in the small pen beside the barn during the day and we've gotten our first goose eggs. We're pulling the eggs from the geese for sale as eating eggs until we decide whether to let them raise goslings. We still don't have a slaughter facility that can handle the plucking process. We can process geese if we skin them. I'm not sure whether any buyers will buy skinned geese since crispy goose skin is so good. We've got a few more weeks to decide as we need to keep the first few eggs from each goose anyway. Hatching rates are usually better for later eggs.

The chickens are also now out most days. It depends a bit on what construction is going on whether I can let them out. We don't need chickens helping the workers build the shop. They sure love it and are starting to lay more eggs. The Hamburgs are still not doing well, this is their last year. I've tried several varieties from several places and none have ever done well so they are off the list as egg laying chickens. The stars are still the Golden Campines. Tough chickens and they are laying well now and have been all winter. The Brown Leghorns are also doing fairly well as are the Brabanters. It's nice to see the chickens enjoying the first grass and bugs outside after such a long hard winter.

Happy Chickens

With the combination of construction and the snow all the chickens are being kept in their house for the winter. To keep them happy we take lots of treats, scraps of food, stale bread, vegetable pieces like carrot ends or bits of lettuce and stuff. Here the chickens are happily scratching for their latest goody.

We have several breeds of laying hens, Rose Comb Brown Leghorns, Gold Penciled Hamburgs, Cream Brabanters and Gold Campines. In spite of the cold they are all laying very well. Normally they would be out scratching around but it doesn't make sense to have them loose in winter. We don't crowd them in a small house so they do fine when locked up.

The geese are also often locked in their winter quarters. They will tolerate more cold than the chickens and so on sunny days they get to go outside. We have a fenced pen for them so they can't get into trouble helping the construction crew.