Beautiful, beautiful Wyandottes

Few things please the eye so much as a lovely large partridge wyandotte.

This is probably one of the nicer pictures I've got of her showing type as she's usually busy MOVING or looking for food.

Had a nice day at Warrigul Bird Day today - took the 6 OEGb and 3 Wyandotte - Penny, her son Twobands and an unrelated pullet. Penny took 1st. Twobands wasn't shown of course being PB line but I'd brought him just to get opinions on and pleased with what I was told. OEGb - my first blue-goldenduckwing male placed and the honey-dun girls got a 2nd. I also brought the new trio to get opinoins on as I wasn't sure if I'd keep/onsell.

More geese pictures...

I'm having way too much fun photographing them. Unlike the chooks, they actually hold still.

Even in the rain, geese are happy!

A better one of the Embden. Beautiful blue eyes!

And positively catlike in grooming

And grooming.

And grooming. (Yes, this is right side up.)

Picture it - a sunny but windy day, Mr. Ambrose Aylesbury has had his morning meal and his crop is bulging to the point it's nearly dragging, the great gut! Content at last (read: unable to stuff a single pellet more down his gullet) he waddles over to the clamshell pool, clambers in and begins splashing about with much joy. So great is his joy in the act of bathing he fails to notice he's near the edge of the pool and his head, chest and crop are standing right over the edge. With another joyous splash his great full crop of food overbalances him and he comes forward, over the edge and out of the pool still rapturousy shaking his wings, tail and body in the bathing dance - unrealizing he's actually fallen out due to his fat gut. A few more flaps and he notices (finally...) the "pool" is distinctly short of water and full of grass. He stops, looks down and looked a bit puzzled... "Hm, fancy that... I could have sworn the pool was full of water when I entered! Ah, no matter, mustn't interrupt my bath!" and continues flapping and shaking as if he were in the pool.

Silly duck. Lucky he's cute...

One Year

Only one year and I'm well on my way to being a "crazy bird lady". ;-)

Would you believe on 30 May last year I got my first three baby chooks in Australia and it's sprawled into this in only a year??? LOL To be fair, I was warned how addictive poultry is! To celebrate I spam you all with more goose photos! ;-p

Some of my mob come up for a chat.

Young fellow enjoying the sunshine after a good meal.

Look ma, I'm in colour!

Having a stickybeak.

Pretty as a picture... *snap*

Who needs a rubber duckie? Real ones make bath time more fun!

A place for every feather and every feather in it's place.

Everything must be "just so".

Duck, duck, GOOSE! (I just can't help myself.)

Beautiful geese

After months of waiting eagerly, I was finally able to get my first geese the other day. A beautiful young pair of Embden and a young pair of Brown Chinese from Tim at Tribe of Honk.

This is one of the Embden, a bit muddy as it's not had a chance to visit the dam.

The little Chinese looking very elegant... the above picture also shows an Aylesbury behind it (the white splotch) and the Faverolle boy in the background.

The problem of bringing out a camera when chooks are aware that photographing them equals treats!

There is a bit of a shadow over their homecoming as when I released them from the crate, it's mate took off in a panic and made it to the dam. Since we couldn't get it off the water, we hid behind the shed thinking it'd come out and we could then shoo it toward the shed. When we peeped back out a few mins later it was gone - not in the dam, not in the field or adjoining fields. I've spent all night combing our property and yesterday and today looking everywhere, putting flyers out, knocking on doors, posting signs, newspaper etc. What a thing to loose one of your new babies less than 10 minutes after arriving home. :-( Several neighbors have flocks though so I'm hoping the quickness of it disapearing means it heard someones birds and took off to them and we'll hear from them when they find a new goose there.

Big weekend - Victorian Waterfowl Show, which my 2 Aylesbury were entered in. (Firsts in open duck and drake, Tim's were in young duck and drake, his girl taking breed.) The judge made a comment it was nice to see more people getting them out there and hopefully getting more people to take them on as awareness grew.

I fell in LOVE again. This gorgeous little call girl of Broken Birds...

I just love her pretty colouring - so soft, and her lovely dark slately points!

Then today was another auction at Euroa. I got to catch up with a number of people we'd seen at the VWA show and several I've not seen since the last Euroa auction. Everyone from VWA show was there so it was a regular BYP get together!

There were absolute heaps of Indian Games, lots of Pekins in a variety of colours with mixed results, nice number of geese, guinea fowls, OEG, Muzzies, a pair of very nice looking Pekin ducks etc. There were a few Partridge Std Dottes there but the penciling was so poor I'd warrant they were CB instead of PB if I didn't know there were so few CB lines anymore! One had lots of silver in it as well. So I passed on them. Silkies... some black ones but nothing that impressed me. Partridge likewise.

In the end I ended up buying a lavender pekin roo and his daughter

and a "lavender-something" also from John Damiano who incubated eggs for me previously.

Pretty fella!

I also got a trio of OEG bantams - roo is a golden blue duckwing like my other one and the two girls dubbed dun-pyle and golden blue duckwing but a bit course so will probably onsell.

Last but not least, a few clips of the afternoon as it faded into evening on our 'wandering' trip back home...



Last but not least - a few photos of the Wyandotte kids and Aylesbury...

Jarrah x Penny - Clutch #1, Two Bands

Jarrah x Penny, Cluctch 1, One Band

Pullet from the same clutch (foreground) and Penny (background)

Now why couldn't they stand like this at the SHOW?!?