It all about poop

Any parent of a child knows that you have to deal with poop. In goes food and water, out goes poop. Same with birds. But birds can't hold it in. Kids you can teach; there is a time and place. Not with birds. You see, birds are designed to fly. You can't have a bunch of poop stored up because poop weighs you down; you can't fly with excess poop. Birds have no social graces. When they have to poop, they poop, now. Gotta fly away, get away from predators. Food in, water in, poop out.

Birds don't have a large intestine like we have where water is reabsorbed. They figure if they have a ready supply of water, a lake, river, what have you, they can poop freely. If they are thirsty, they drink. No water, they die -- oh well.

So when you take over mothering duty and keep the birds inside the house, what happens? They eat, they drink, and they poop. Everywhere. The bigger they get, the more they eat, the more they drink, and the more they poop. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that you soon have a poop situation on your hands. Water is not smelly. Food is not smelly. Watery poop is beyond smelly.

In the wild, geese nibble and move, nibble, move. They are always taking bites of grass here and there, always moving. Poop does not pile up.

In my house, the seven cute goslings are contained in a kiddie pool about six feet across. I have fed them nearly 50 lbs of food now. And quite a lot more water. That is some serious poopage.

You can hide poop by piling on more bedding. That works for about the first week. The second week you give the goslings to Lissa while you learn all about guinea fowl at the annual Guinea Fowl Breeder's Association meeting. The third week you add bedding daily, to no avail. The poop piles on faster than is humane.

Want to know what happens when you fill a small pool with water for them to play in? They first take a big gulp or two to quench their thirst. Next they hop in to take a bath. Once in? They poop. Water seems to be a laxative to geese (and ducks).

There seems to be a similar response with geese and carpets. I can walk the geese across my kitchen floor on the way to the yard, where fresh grass awaits. As long as they stay on the linoleum, they hold their poop. But if they wander for just one second onto the clean carpet? They let out the most noxious pile of poop you care to see and smell.

This evening I moved the poop machines to the outdoor aviary. They should be fine, especially because I tossed Sally Muscovy in with them. Although the nights are still cool, they'll still be warm -- they are covered in goose down, afterall.

Poop, be gone!

first week

This next picture was taken 6 hours after the previous one which I asked you look at closely.



Their feathers are a bit less wirey in the above photo. Turns out there is something on their feathers like a protective coating that they rub off within the first few hours. Once it's gone, they can fluff up and hold in their body heat.

Here's a closeup of the stuff that rubbed off during those few hours.



Lastly, here's a movie of their first outing.

And then there were seven

There was a late-comer to the party, so now I have a 100% hatch rate!

For those of you who have broadband, here's a movie of the day-old goslings.

Take a close look at the picture. Tomorrow I'll show another. You'll see a subtle change. I'll tell you what, then.

A watched egg never hatches

I went on errands for a few hours; when I returned, I found three out-of-the-shell goslings, and one half way out. Two more are completing their escape hatch, and will likely push out before evening.

You may relax now.

I've already beaten the typical 50% hatch rate according to Metzer Farms. If all goes well tonight, I'll have an 86% hatch rate!

Nervous parent

Yesterday there were four eggs pipping; today there are 6 (out of 7). Although I know it takes up to 2 days for goslings to break out of their shells, it is still nerve-wracking watching them struggle so long.

In general, it is a bad idea to help birds out of their shells. If not done carefully, one could tear at their delicate layer of fur stuck to the shell, and cause bleeding. Also, there's a correlation between weak hatchings and weak adulthood.

Hatchlings can be heard chirping in their shells even before they break the shell. This is because there is a tiny bladder of air at the big end of the shell, separated by the membrane in which they are encased. So, once they break through this membrane, they get an added boost of oxygen, and start chirping. Then they make a hole in the shell using a special "tooth" at the tip of their beaks. (This tooth falls off after about 2 days.) While all this is going on, the mother is there making mother noises back at the chirping goslings. Perhaps it is to help encourage them to break free. So, I am making mother goose noises at them; and they seem to respond to this with stronger chirping.

I'm the mother

Looks like eggs have begun pipping; it's day 29, right on schedule. Foie is not taking the bait, so I get to play momma goose.