TheBanyanTree: hope sings

Tue Feb 14 01:39:59 PST 2006

(One of these days I'll remember that replies on TBT go back to the 
originator not the list - only been making the same mistake for six 
years, but ...)

Hope sings  . . . doesn't it?

Back in 1988 I was living in this small village called Bungendore about 
40 kms from Canberra - well small village in country then, large 
touristy commuter suburb in area of hobby farms now - and me and the 
lady I was living with went to an auction at a farm just up the road 'a 
country mile' meaning about twenty. At the end of the sale I hadn't 
bought anything - I didn't known about M, I'd hardly seen her during the 
action. She turns up at the ute (pick-up truck) with a mysterious 
looking sack tied at the top with string. "What's in the sack?" I ask. 
"Oh, couple of things I picked up, nothing to worry about."  Hmmm. I 
look at the sack and, on cue, it moves!! "Wouldn't be snakes, would it?" 
I sez as I place it gently in the ute tray. "Oh, no, course not, never 
buy snakes!"

We get home and in the sanctity of a half-acre back yard with grass 
three feet high, an uncertain fence and no outbuildings except our 
woodworking workshop and sale area, I tips the contents of the bag out.

Two bantam chicks.

Four ducks of indeterminate species.

Two geese - no, rephrase that - 1 goose, 1 gander.

"Er, where we going to keep 'em," I ask.

"Oh, you got to build an enclosure and house thingy for the geese and 
ducks. The bantams no problem the man said, their wings are clipped, 
they'll just hop up in the trees over night, pop down again in the morning."

Yeah, right - six o'clock in the evening, dark at seven, build an 
enclosure and house thingy, nothing to it! So we shoved the geese in the 
old garage which housed the power saw & stuff, found a big wooden box 
with lid, drilled holes in the sides, put straw and ducks inside for the 
night, and let the bantams hop up in the trees.

Next morning down to 4 ducks, 2 geese - never saw the bantams agen!!

Went down the landfill and found some wire and timber, threw up a fence 
and house thingy - not bad, was still there last time I saw the garden 
about 10 years ago. Gradually things settled down, had the geese eating 
out of my hand within a week or so, but we did have losses to foxes or 
wild dogs - within 6 weeks only the geese and one duck remained. They 
were happy as pigs in sh..  in their cubby house at night where nothing 
could touch them and the geese were the best watchdogs ever during the 
day, nothing but nothing could get in our yard unheralded.   Not even us!

But then the gander began to get randy. Nothing in the books we'd bought 
and read on goose culture prepared us for the shock of seeing the gander 
practising you-know-what on the duck one morning. That poor little duck, 
I can see her now, or at least the extremities of her, the rest was 
covered in goose feathers. It wasn't as if she was well, either. She'd 
had a couple of bingles with the foxes that ate her sisters and had a 
gammy leg to prove it. Mind, she could move like greased lightning when 
she needed to - like, during the weeks before the goose got broody. 
Eventually though I had to build a little house for her 'cos the gander 
wouldn't let her in the big one!

Geese start laying about the end of September in Oz and our goose was no 
exception. Laid an egg a day for ten days, burying each one carefully in 
the straw in the goose house so they were all close together. On the 
tenth day she began sitting under the watchful eye of the gander. From 
then until the eggs hatched he let her out of the house for 15 minutes 
night and morning, no more, no less. Funny thing, all the eggs hatched 
on the same day - well, nine of them, the tenth was a dud - and we 
suddenly had a family of tiny yellow chicks. Not for long theough - they 
doubled in size and weight every week for about two months.

Nothing like having geese in the back yard - specially eleven of them - 
keeps the grass down and intruders (even foxes) away - make you famous 
in the town too. Course, they ARE  a bit noisy but .. got to take the 
rough with the smooth, eh?

roger

paul wrote:

 > Amen!  :)
 >
 >
 > The new batch of chickens arrived today.  Picked them up on the way to
 > work... I walked into the post office and heard them chirping from the
 > back room.  Really sweet sound.   Left them in the truck, R came a
 > half an hour later, took them home, and did the "scatter feed on the
 > newspaper and wet their beaks so they know where the water is"
 > routine.  Out of the box he had to put one chick down, it had a
 > broken/dislocated leg.  Well, one foot was pointing 180 degrees the
 > wrong way and the chick's eyes were already glazed (I can explain
 > 'glazed' if you want).  Anyway, events occur.
 >
 > So.  I'm at work and the way I understand the story, he 'bout wore
 > himself out over the chicks.  Says he had to check on them every 20
 > minutes or so.  I think this is really funny... Mr. Shoot All The Damn
 > Critters To Get Them Off The Feed Bill is stressing on baby chicks.
 > "But they are cute" he says.  Then he had to go to work for a bit.
 >
 >

paul wrote:

> Amen!  :)
> 
> 
> The new batch of chickens arrived today.  Picked them up on the way to
> work... I walked into the post office and heard them chirping from the
> back room.  Really sweet sound.   Left them in the truck, R came a
> half an hour later, took them home, and did the "scatter feed on the
> newspaper and wet their beaks so they know where the water is"
> routine.  Out of the box he had to put one chick down, it had a
> broken/dislocated leg.  Well, one foot was pointing 180 degrees the
> wrong way and the chick's eyes were already glazed (I can explain
> 'glazed' if you want).  Anyway, events occur.
> 
> So.  I'm at work and the way I understand the story, he 'bout wore
> himself out over the chicks.  Says he had to check on them every 20
> minutes or so.  I think this is really funny... Mr. Shoot All The Damn
> Critters To Get Them Off The Feed Bill is stressing on baby chicks.
> "But they are cute" he says.  Then he had to go to work for a bit.
> 
> I came home to an empty house, got a beer, changed clothes, checked
> e-mail (nothing WaS but I did win a nice auction on eBay), fed the
> woodstove, got a beer and went to see the chicks.  Yeah, R did a great
> job.  And of course the chicks /are/ cute.  But...  I ordered 12 each
> Black Star and Red Star (at 2.04 each) , and 12 Leghorns (at 1.95
> each), all females.  Plus the 'free rare chicken'.  FreeRare is not a
> Polish like last time.  Thank You Very Much, I don't need another
> chicken that stupid ever again.  I don't know what FreeRare is but he
> (I'm sure it's a he) is the largest chick in the entire group.  Maybe
> he will crow pretty.  Anyway, to cover "shipping losses", I was
> expecting like 13 of each kind + FreeRare, like 40 chicks in all.  Ok?
> 
> R says there are 55 chicks.  I didn't unpack the chicks and counting
> baby chicks that are running around in a four by four foot box is like
> counting droplets of mercury in a bowl.  Best I can tell, I received
> 12 Black Stars, 13 Red Stars, and a TON of Leghorns.  Huh, maybe they
> had some extra Leghorns to get rid of?
> 
> 55 chicks minus the one R had to put down and minus the Red Star that
> was not doing at all well when I got home... the one I cupped in my
> hand to get warm for an hour or so and decided to bring into the house
> to get it warm by the woodstove (like I need a house chicken?)(on
> carpet? with Wilma?) and remember that 2nd beer?  I was about to
> burst.  Well, it's not easy to do the zipper and underwear stuff with
> one hand.... but in the time it took to get from the barn to the EDC
> and find a basket of feathers (for a nest), the chick woke up and got
> all bright eyes like it was finally warm enough and Yeah! I feel
> good!....  So I get to the house, do my stuff, chick is still looking
> around, I walk from the bathroom to the livingroom, maybe 30 feet and
> sit on the sofa, the chick says 'chirp', nestles down and goes to
> sleep.  Cute.  I guess she got warm enough.  Says 'peep' a couple of
> minutes later... and a few minutes later, well...  head rolls over and
> shitshitshit.  shitshitdamn.
> 
> It's all part of having critters.
> 
> So... I have 53 chicks.  If they all live through the night.  Plus
> another 18 chickens.
> 
> Oy.  And when they all start laying in 4.5 to 5 months from now...
> minus out four roosters, I could be collecting up to 67 eggs a day.
> 
> 
> paul
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