How to feed Geese

When you raise a goose, you should think about feed too. Feeding goose is not difficult because it bird is easy eater. They can eat any poultry food. However the bird prefers green leaf than poultry food or grain. Some people raise it to control the grass growth. Therefore, they do not use cutting grass machine again.

Photo by : areasaburn
I had experience in feeding goose.I gave them with poultry food only. I mix it with rice and water. In my country, there is no special food for waterfowl because there is no waterfowl farm. Unfortunately, They do not like it. They prefer sugar cane leaf in my backyard although the leaf is so rough.

If you care or raise goose at grass backyard, You can save some bucks. You just add its diet with waterfowl pellet or grain.

A Goose needs at least 15% protein food, Meanwhile a Goosling needs at least 20% protein. You can give waterfowl starter feed. A layer needs at least 200 g food a day. Some breed provide ad libitum feed for goose.

This is list of the editable green leaf for goose such as : alfalfa, barley, corn leaf, paw-paw leaf, banana leaf, king grass, grass, spinach

The list of editable grain for goose such as :

Corn, barley, oat, sorghum, paddy, blue grass, timothy grass, other type pasture grass.

You can mix the food so the goose can get various nutritious.

Beside food, you need to put water basin for them. Do not forget to give grit and grain scratch feed.

You can also shepherd goose at pasture.Surround the backyard with fence that tall is three or four feet. It is useful to bar the goose to go outside. It helps the goose to keep them from predator to like raccoon, wolf, coyote and others.

A goose need at least four square meters for a goose. If you have a pair you should provide eight square meter. Also provide the shelter for goose. It protects them from rain and sunny day.

Read Also:
How to raise Goose
Five Famous Domesticated Goose
Ancona Duck The English Duck
Cayuga Duck : American Native Duck
Bali Duck

Silkie Bantam : Most Famous Bantam

Photo by : north60
History

This Bantam was introduced by Venice trader Marco Polo. This Bantam has been raised for more than 400 years in China. Chinese people raise the Silkie for its meat and eggs.
Anatomy
Silkie is a pure bantam. It has characteristics that is similar to bantam with its short body and short legs. Unlike other bantam or standard chicken, this chicken has five toes. The feet has thick feather.
The Roster has big rose comb like a king use big crown. The female has small rose comb. Some Silkie bantam has uncommon blue comb. The Silkie are either crested or non-crested. The crested is behind the comb. Some Silkie has bearded that cover the face.
Feathers
Silkie Bantam has different feather with common chicken feathers. The feather is similar to human or mammal hair. The feather is soft like silk. That is why people call the chicken Silkie Bantam. The feather structure of silkie is different with common chicken that has web like structure. Web like structure means, each feather strand rigidly adhering to the center shaft by a barb. Silkie has no barb, so their feathers are lose and floppy.
Coloring
The famous Silkie bantam color is white. Actually, there are other recognized color such as buff, black, blue, grey, and partridge.
Today, there are some color variations, such as, white splash, calico and others. The breeder crosses this funny chicken with other bantam to produce new color.
Skin
Most Silkie has white and yellow skin. There is some Silkie which has dark skin. The dark skin has dark meat and black bone. Chinese people make health soup with this meat and ginseng.
Characters
The Silkie is docile chicken. It is good for pet. The hen lays 250 eggs in a year. The hens go broody. The hens is good mother too that can care the baby.
The recognized color of Silkie
White Color

All the feathers are completely white in all section, from head to toes. White Silkie is the most famous Silkie bantam. People like its white clean feathers.
Buff Color
The Silkie has red brown or buff in color. There are black marking at the edge of the tail.
Black Color
The Chicken has black-green color in all section unless the feet. The beak and the face are black in color. Some black silkie has dominantly black color include the feet and the meat.
Partridge
This is the beautiful color to me. It is similar with red jungle fowl. The back of the neck is red or orange in color and the front of the neck is green beetle in color. The chest color is black beetle. The partridge has beautiful red or orange color in its saddle. The tail of the rooster is black beetle. The partridge hen is red bay and black in color.
Blue
Either the rooster or the hen has similar color marking. The chicken feather is bluish in color.
Gray
Some people are difficult to differentiate the gray and the blue. The roster is smoky gray in color while the hen is chinchilla color.

Read Also :
Rosecomb : The oldest Bantam in the world
Bantam Breedeing Method
Hamburg Chicken : Small nice Chicken from German
Booted Dutch Bantam
Dutch Bantam

How to care baby chicken

 Some hen cannot raise the chick. I do not why. Perhaps the hen is bad mother. If the hen ignore the chick you should raise the chick.

Some breeder prefer to care the chick so the hen can lay again. They want increase the production of eggs and more chicks.

1. Provide a brooder for some chicken. The brooder, which measure about three feet by three feet ( 1 m by 1m), are occupied by 10 chicks. Put the old newspaper below the cage that is important to keep the cage clean. Replace the paper once daily.  Alternatively. you can use wood choop as litter.

If you have not brooder you can use cardboard box.

2. The baby chick need heat because its silkie feather cannot cover the body. Use light for warm the chicken. There are some light that keep the chick warm beside this article. They need 24 hours light for one week. You can reduce the hours after one week.

3. Feed the chicken with statrter fowl feed. You can buy it at polutry shop or pet shop.Put the water silo inside the brooder. Clean the chick feeder and water silo.

4. Vaccine the chick such as avian flu vaccine and ND vaccine. If you live in American, you do not need avian flu vaccine.

5. Control the brooder frequently. Help the chick if you find a trouble.

Notice:

The location of brooder is safe from predator and bad weather.

Do not let the feed wed because it can cause disease

You can change the light if the chicken does not comfort.  The sign of chicken does not comfort with the lamp is that they avoid the lamp or the chicken gain near the lamp.

After the four week or the chicken become bigger, Remove the chicken to pen or coop

Read Also :
How to raise chicken with Fish
How to make mini incubator
How to heat cage with coal
How to produce bantam chicken
How to tame fighting chicken

How to raise Goose

Goose is one of domesticated water fowl that has been used by ancient people. The Roman aristocrat  like the liver of Goose because it is very delicious. Today, the goose's liver demand is very high.

If you like liver goose, you can raise Goose in your backyard. Goose in my country is a watchdog. They will shout loudly like trumpet, If an unknown person intrude their territory.

There are some variety of Geese like Toulouse which color is gray, Chinese goose which is the smallest domesticated goose, African which is domesticated in Africa, and Embden which is from Europe. Chinese has two color brown, white and buff.

The unique characteristics of geese is long neck like snake. The beak is so strong and it could expel an eagle or raccoon. The weight of mature Goose is 12 - 30 pounds. The Chinese which is small variety just reach 12 pounds; meanwhile, Embden Goose could reach 30 pounds. Domestic goose is different with the wild goose that can fly high. Domestic goose rarely use its wing to fly. They use the wing to expel the enemy.

Photo: Ralph And Jenny
If you want raise it. You can make a pen in your backyard. Round the backyard with wire so they can run from you. You need at leas 4 x 1 meters for a mature goose. Provide shelter that protect the geese from snow and rain. Make a pool inside the cage. Swan is like to swim and they need to swim.

Feed them enough. Geese is herbivore animal unlike other water fowl that eat fish and water insect. They prefer grass than grain. Feed them with rye, alfalfa, corns, oats, clover and green leaf. Off course, they like vegetable too like cabbage, lettuce, spinach and other. Provide them with fresh grass.You can give water fowl pellet to the bird too. Allocate water basin for its drink too. Clean the cage periodically and wash the food and water dish too.

you can slaughter the goose that older than six month. You can fry or bake it. If you want breed it, you need at least a pair geese.
Five Famous Domesticated Goose 
Ancona Duck The English Duck
Cayuga Duck The American Duck
Anatomy of Duck
American Game Fowl

Famous Homing Pigeon Breed

People use pigeon for racing for thousand years. Some hobbyist release the bird far from the house. They contend the bird to get the winner. The winner is the bird who first arrives at their house.

All pigeon can fly, but not all pigeon can fly fast. Only certain pigeon can fly fast. Here are pigeon bird that can fly faster.

American racing pigeon. This pigeon bird is dedicated as racing pigeon. The bird looks fat but it can fly fast. Most American racing color is blue bar. We also find other variations color

English Carrier. This bird is very tall. The tall is 7.5 inch unlike other racing. It weighs 20 to 23 ounces. The beak is long and there is a big wattle. There is no feather in their red feet. They have color variation including black, blue bar, dun, white and others. Today, people do not use English carries as racing pigeon. The hobbyist cares this bird for exhibition bird. This bird is dragoon descendant too.

Dragoon pigeon. The dragoon is a racing pigeon breed form English. It is believed the descendent of horseman and Tumbler. The color variations are white, blue-bar, dun, red, yellow and blue check. The beak shape like bullet and there are wattles below the beak. The owner also cross dragoon to get

Homing Pigeon

Homing pigeon is a breed of pigeon that specialist for racing . The breeder cross breed various pigeon to produce homing pigeon. This is the most famous pigeon for racing.

German beauty homing

This breed has big head, relative to its body. The breast is full and the tail is narrow. The beaks is wide with big wattles. The beak is almost similar to flamingo’s beak. It has long neck too like English Carrier. The feet are clean from feathers and red in color.

image by jackie Lou DL from Pixabay

Read Also:
English Carrier Pigeon
American Giant Homer
Jacobin Pigeon
Modena Pigeon
King Pigeon