Recent content by Denninmi

Quote: No, I hatched 3 duck eggs with him/her, so he/she wouldn't be completely alone, but that was the only goose egg out of 5 to hatch (they were shipped eggs). I am going to put a heat light out there for the 3 or 4 cold nights. Eventually, though, it will be more or less sink or swim...

My last gosling that hatched 07/30 has been moved outside, too big for the brooder in the garage. But, they're predicting lows of between 42 and 48 later this week. Is that too cold for him/her (gender unknown at this time)?

The danger in this situation isn't in the cooked, finished product. As long as the meat is fully cooked in adherence to modern food safety standards (which is an internal temperature of 170 degrees for the thigh and breast meat, I believe, IIRC), all viruses and bacteria will be fully killed...

There is a valid scientific reason not to feed the meat of hooved animals back to others of the same type - prions, the proteins that cause Mad Cow disease, Creutzfeld-Jakov syndrome and Kuru in humans are all spread by consumption of contaminated meat, and these proteins are really resistant to...

My concern, aside from the agression issue, would be the goose poo issue. They poo a lot. It wouldn't be the cleanest environment for children to play in, so I think I would be inclined to create a barrier to keep the geese away from the actual play area, so the kids aren't always getting into...

I'm going to rehome mine this weekend...to the freezer. Feed goes up, literally, a dollar a bag each month here. They were fun to grow, fun to watch, but at a bag a week, just too expensive to justify. $19 bucks now for the 22% turkey pellets that were $14 then $15 earlier this year.

They hatched over a few weeks period in June, from roughly the 6th to about the first of July. I just kept popping eggs into the incubator as they were laid.

I have to pick mine up and physically carry them in. They love to come out, but hate to go in. I can't blame them, its boring in there compared to outside.

I did a little experiment this year, some of which I shared previously. I hatched a number of eggs from my mixed breed heritage turkeys back in mid June. The parents are a cross of Royal Palm and Calico Sweetgrass. I did this with the intention of raising them for food of some sort ...

My basic understanding of it is to keep them as lean as possible, and make them work for their food with a lot of exercise. I also have heard that its important to supplement with a vitamin/mineral supplement. Try to find the minimal amount of pellets that they can get by on and remain...

Quote: Machete and stump. And a lot of prayers that it would be fast for them and I wouldn't get my fingers. And it was very fast.

Chilling lowers the hatch rate, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them make it. When wild ducks begin to lay here in April, it can still get very cold at night, and I know the nests are untended for the laying period. They are covered with down so insulated somewhat, but they still get...

Quote: Mine were confined, but I let them out a few times when I was outside with them. As I said, I don't know the weight for sure, since I was too tired, so I was just guessing. Whatever they weighed, I was happy with them.

Quote: No, I know its sacrilege to many, especially on turkeys, but I just skinned them. We rarely eat the skin on poultry in my house, too fatty. Once in a while if I roast or rotisserie one. Skinning is easy peasy -- slips off like a glove overall -- a little bit sticks on the small of...

Hey, just an update -- the turkey dinner was great. The biggest thing I noticed which is different from mass production/mass market grocery store birds -- it wasn't SALTY. Which is great, we all have health reasons not to consume a lot of salt. Unless you pay big bucks for a "natural" bird at...