Duck duck duck goose... gander

Soaking up a little sun last weekend. From left to right, Crusty, Olga, Sven, Broccoli, and Beef(y). Goose Chalet and the new Duck Hut in the background. (My new duck hut is AWESOME... More on that later).

What happened to my goose babies

Bobcat. 

Gone are Affie, Baby Girl, and my big bitey jerky gander Bitor. I really loved him, for all that he was a bitey jerk. He had one hell of a personality. Sweet Girl passed a couple months ago, and we couldn't find a mark on her.  We figured there must have just been something wrong with her, but perhaps that had been a bobcat too.

Took precautions, weren't good enough. Damn cat came within 30 yards of our house. Don't know why it went after the geese instead of the ducks.  We ended up moving what fowl were left (the 3 ducks) to the pen next to the house.

Hubby went out and bought a furtaker's license and a bobcat card.  We'd determined it was a bobcat due to pics on game cams we'd set out.  Over the first weekend he had it, he got not one... but TWO freaking bobcats.  Both females.  @$#%@#$%#$  A friend of ours is a rather good hobby taxidermist, and we're gonna get his help to cure the pelts. 

I've decided that I won't have any more farm critters that are "pets".  We can't make our critter areas absolutely impenetrable.  Don't ask why or berate that I don't.  It's just not currently feasible, and I'll leave it at that. 


RIP my little goose babies.

 

 

We HAVE to get rid of some chickens!

Too many chickens. The ladies are really ramping up, and we're getting anywhere from 8-14 eggs a day. Craziness, and it's only gonna get worse as the days get longer.

Planning on culling a several of the poor producers and escape artists, and will be giving a few more to my pal Paula. That should take us down to nice small(er) number, and we'll be able to let Bellina and perhaps another hen hatch a couple batches of replacements this year. We're even considering buying some good dark maran eggs to pop under Belly when she goes broody. Fun fun fun!

Oh, and Paula... LJ will be on a new shift here soon, and I'll have some weekend time free. Totally willing to come help you dig your ditch. :)

Happy Friday, all!

Update: more to come

We're busy. Busy busy busy. Hubby is changing jobs, we're trying to get the other house ready to go on the market, balancing farm and work and sleep, new critters, heartbreak over lost feathered friends, and on and on. I'm going to make a real effort to get a few posts up over the next week. I've even been catching up on the blog lives of blogging buddies and finding a few new blogs of interest.

Hope everyone out in the blogging world is doing well!

I leave you, for now, with a pic of our two new geese (because all of my goose babies are gone... More on that later) and our ducks.