8.10.2007

Sunny our Buff Rooster


This is "Sunny".
He is our Buff Orpington Rooster.
The original Orpington was developed in 1886.
He has a really akward crow, but he is on time at daybreak.
Unless of course the newspaper delivery man has his brights on-
Then he will crow at 4:00am.
He is very protective of his " girls" ,
but sweet to us and does not bother the cats,
dog, geese or ducks.
He will also come when you call.
We got him some buff orpington hens too.
They are our "golden girls". Here is a photo of one of them.

Ducks


We also have ducks.
We bought two mallards and they actually belong to my niece who named them Daisy and Emerson.
We also purchased what we thought were 6 blue Swedish ducks, and I think they are either Black Swede/ Cayuga or Mallard combinations. They have crested plumes and are showing signs of being more green than deep blue or black.
We love them though. They are sweetly skittish, and will come when you call, although not too close, and they LOVE to frolic in the water. Frolic is the word. They are the most comical birds in the yard. The females have the loudest quack. You always know where they are.The male quacks are more like muttering. They love to dabble and have already dug more holes in the yard than our dog ever will. But they keep the slugs and snails out of our garden.

Embden Geese


The second set of geese that we bought are Embden. The Embden goose is also known as the Bremen or L'oie d'Emden in France/Belgium. They are bright white and have deep blue eyes- IF you can get close enough to see them. They love to stretch out in arabesques in the sun after their breakfast and a dip in the water.
Although they are definitely sweeter than the older geese, they have picked up some bad habits, and they can get pretty loud. hey come when you call them and are curious if you grunt and whinny like they do, but are still pretty skittish.
Their feathers make lovely quills.

Geese


We have geese.
The first two geese that we aquired were sold as African Geese, but we think that they are actually Brown Chinese Geese, since they have a knob, but no dewlap. They are supposedly a cross between the white Chinese goose and a wild swan and the breed was first recognized in 1874.
They are VERY mean.
They are also VERY LOUD.They sound like a stepped-on clarinet.
But they are also VERY beautiful. They do "arabesques" quite regularly and they keep the grass fairly trimmed.