Sebastopol Geese

We have a small flock of sebastopol geese - 8 birds at the moment.  These are incredibly beautiful creatures that graze our small acreage and swim on our little dam.  Someone recently asked me what they are for.  I said that they are just here to be beautiful and that's the truth.  There's nothing quite like seeing these beautiful creatures in our backyard.

These babies are now all grown up and curly now.  I really must take some more photos.

They are a completely different bird to keep compared to chickens.  They are interactive and very personable.  Quite a delightful part of the home flock.

Broody chickens!

Broody chickens can be something of a pain at times.  Having heritage breed chickens is great, but this is one of the downsides.  Each season in the warm summer they decide they want to sit and hatch out some chicks.  This just isn't practical because they stop laying eggs and the chicks don't usually do that well here anyway.  We have snakes and crows and all sorts of nasty predators that take the chicks.  It's better to rear the chicks in brooders here away from broody hens.  Yeah, I know, that's a shame but it's the practical option.  Otherwise we are always losing babies.  So our sussex pullets need to be snapped out of this mood when it comes on them.  This isn't easy.  We have to move them or cage them differently to disturb their 'mood'.  We have some suspended breezy wire cages that seem to do the job.

Chickens Galore?

Most of the year it seems we do have chickens galore, but right now not as many as usual.  We breed in Spring but reduce numbers over the year to the special ones that get kept on for the following breeding season.  So we have no chicks at the moment.  That seems a bit odd.  It was good at first because it is less work, but right now I think I have a touch of incubator withdrawal and I can't wait to start it up again.  In a couple of months we'll be collecting eggs again and loading up.  I can't wait to see some chicks again and will post some pictures as that comes around.

In the meantime, here's a picture of some of last year's babies.