Nothing like hearing quacking under your window to get you moving. Especially when your window opens out to the dog pen!
No, there should not be a duck in the dog oen. At least not if it wants to stay intact. Lucky for the duck, the dogs had not been let out yet.
A few minutes of outsmarting a duck and success! Here’s a picture of the culprit…who has now been chicken wire fenced out of her secret fit through spot. Bad duck!
These pictures came up as I was scrolling through my phone and I realized I never posted them! My first ever homegrown goose egg! It was a bit odd shape as the factor was just starting…bit very cool to find .
Of course, the parents were protective and for several months after wards I had to convince them to leave the nighttime pen so I could collect eggs. Looking forward to this year’s batch soon!
Quick egg comparison between the largest and smallest eggs laid on our homestead. Top to bottom is goose, duck, chicken, and serama chicken. All edible or hatchable and all nutritious!
In case you’ve never seen one, here are some pictures of what a young harlequin dutch rabbit looks like. The pattern contrasting with the white markings makes for a very pretty animal!
I made the mistake of mentioning an upcoming show while in the dutch rabbit pen. One of them decided to sculpt both of his adjoining neighbor’s faces overnight!
Of course I had fully intended to enter those two. Luckily I had nit finished my entry yet! So if you’re going to a show, don’t tell the rabbits!
I’ve seen people on Facebook poat pictures like this and stert frantically asking what disease their rabbit has. If the fur is missing between the eyes and it’s clean with no dandruff or redness, it’s either a cagemate or a neighbor.
I have 2 does right now (and now this buck) that have to be in cages that either have solid dividers or are next to a non show contestant because they like to lick other rabbits. Nothing wrong with their diet, it’s just fun!
Sammy and his group were “helping” me today as I was wiring in the new bird area. By helping I mean making sure all the tender grass in the sod I dumped was devoured, as well as reminding me they were there randomly.
When I sat down for half a second, Sammy came over giving me his opinion of my break time. Sp I scooped him up for some Sammy snuggles and reminded him that they take way more breaks than I do!
After a quick picture, it was back to yanking off all the grass pieces! And back to work for me….
My steel dutch doe Susie had a litter of 6 and did great!
However, my blue satin’s first litter wasn’t so good. She had 1 healthy and 2 peanut kits. The peanut kits were humanely culled and since 1 kit can be harder for a first time mom to raise, I decided to give it to Susie.
I took a black mismark out and added the satin kit in. The mismark went over to a chinchilla dutch doe who had a litter the same day. So far, everyone is doing well!
I’m excited to see how these progress, as I see several steels and that’s a color I want to do more of. Baby power!
Physical therapy for one gosling that was having a hard time standing. Warm water, deep enough for it to paddle in!
After therapy, drying off and getting some well deserved snuggles!
Same gosling right after getting in the water bowl (oops).
Just for a bit of fun, here is a comparison between a blue runner duck egg (left), a brown leghorn chicken egg (middle), and a serama chicken egg (far right). I would have included a goose egg but my handb isnt big enough!
And a big bowl of duck eggs in the fridge. These are waiting to age before being boiled, fresh eggs are harder to peel!
Say it after me: Genetics is fun! Wheeeeeeeee!
…..no, no it’s not lol. It’s confusing and tricky and sneaks surprises in 13 generations later. The only fun part is …cute babies!
I love to read, so when I was recently looking for another book that might help explain some rabbit genetics I kept seeing recommendations to buy this book, ABC About Bunny Colors. So I did! Turns out it’s authored by an Ellyn Eddy, although it doesn’t say that on the cover anywhere.
It arrived and is a self published POD (Print on Demand) style. In my experience the bindings don’t last as long if it’s a book you want to lay flat, so if you have a local copy shop that can cut the edge off and spiral bind I recommend that as this is the type of book you’ll need to stare at a page for a long time.
It was recommended as a “so easy!” genetics book that’s been around a while. As I’m reading the covers, I see that the tagline is “You shouldn’t have to be a nerd to be a rabbit breeder”. Right here…first negative.
First off, that’s insulting to nerds. Nothing wrong with nerds. Second…yea, if you have to insult someone to sell books you lose points in my eyes.
Moving past the cover…I started in. It does start with an easy to follow style and presents the information simply…well, it tries to. There’s a huge miss by using barely different sizes of images to represent the different sets of genes. The theory of using pictures vs the typical ABCDE is great, but I had a hard time telling the different sized trophies or square floral designs apart. I got where the author was coming from, but perhaps different colors vs sizes would’ve worked better.
The first few pages are indeed easy to follow. Simply written. Using the pictures does make for some weird formatting as some lines are double spaced and some single, but that’s a minor thing. Then, by page 13, it starts changing tone and moving away from the easy to understand into regular normal genetics talk.
Once Chapter Two gets going, now we’re out of easy and into “this will melt your brain”. The author tries to keep it light with some asides and doing “fun” titles for the sections…but, it’s not an “easy” explanation after this. This continues through the rest of the main body of the book. However, the chapters are well written and there is a ton of information on each color/gene/locus etc.
At the end, there is then a glossary of terms used, and an appendix of genotypes of common varieties- one of the best parts!. Then another appendix with some color name alternates and what breed uses them, which is another of the best parts especially when I raise two different breeds that like to make things complicated.
Overall…this is not as it’s advertised, an easy to understand genetics book, with the exception of the first chapter. It is a great reference for someone wanting to learn genetics and has a lot of in depth information on each set of genes (although it skips over some of the oddball chinchilla genes, it’s honest about it). I wouldn’t call it a practical guide, and yes, you DO need to be a little bit of a nerd to understand genetics the way it is presented.
To be fair, genetics isn’t easy. I’ve been looking for a “breed this get that” information source and unless you’re doing REW (Red Eyed White) to REW breedings , genetics won’t let that happen !
Do I recommend buying this book? Yes, but be prepared that you will need to digest it in chunks…repeatedly… and it’s not the easy spoon fed tome people make it out to be.
SM
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