Gallifrey Forest Farm

Pilgrim (or Settlers) Geese

2016/10/13 deej 0

Geese aren’t everyone’s idea of a great back-yard animal. I’ve heard all the stories – they’re noisy, vicious, aggressive, messy, horrible hellbeasts. But I have a confession to make: I’ve always kinda wanted to have geese. Since well before I saw the film Fly Away Home (about a little girl who rescues a nest full of orphaned Canada geese, and raises them, teaching them to fly and eventually leading them on an epic microlight journey as she teaches them a safe migration route for their annual migration), I thought geese were adorable. I didn’t have any latent desire to have chickens (although since getting my first hens, I’ve discovered that I love keeping chooks, and I really miss it when I don’t have them around), but geese are different. I have no idea why 🙂

This week, my very first goslings hatched. I’ve had four Pilgrim Goose eggs in the incubator for the last month (goose eggs take 26 – 35 days to hatch), and three of them have hatched. Given that geese are well known for being difficult to hatch in an incubator, and even commercial farm advice is to hatch them under a broody mother goose or under a muscovy duck, that’s a pretty good hatch rate. I was desperately hoping at least two would hatch, because geese are flock critters and form very strong flock bonds – having a lone goose is cruel and very bad for the goose. So three is fantastic. It looks like at least 2 of them are girls, too (I can’t quite tell for the 3rd). Since geese can live well into their teens, sometimes longer, that means that if I have a pair of girls I can find them a good (unrelated) gander in a year or two and start breeding my own goslings.

The domestic goose (Anser anser domesticus) of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia is descended from the greylag goose (Anser anser), while the domesticated goose of East Asia (Anser cygnoides domesticus, commonly called the ‘Chinese goose’) is descended from the swan goose (Anser cygnoides). The two types of domesticated geese can interbreed, and many flocks include both types, and/or hybrids. There is evidence of domesticated geese in Egypt over 4,000 years ago. Pilgrim geese, sometimes known as Settlers Geese in Australia, are an autosexing breed – males are white, while females are darker, with grey and white or brown and white plumage. Pilgrim Geese were bred in the 1930s in America, and are probably derived from a few European breeds of autosexing geese. They’re generally mellow and calm natured, and for being good foragers and good parents (laying 20 – 50 eggs per year). Like all geese, they have good eyesight, good memories, and they prefer to have a set, calm routine. When there isn’t something riling them up, they aren’t usually that noisy, either.

Geese are grazing animals, more like sheep and goats than like chickens. With access to good pasture, they need little or no supplementary feeding, although if there isn’t plentiful pasture they can be fed grain like other poultry. They will (apparently) eat hay, but only if it’s wet, as the dry hay is difficult for them to eat. Goslings should be fed grass clippings from 2 weeks of age, to help with the development of their gut flora – feeding grass earlier than that is also ok, as long as gosling starter crumble is also available. Young geese grow very quickly, and need a high protein (around 28% protein) feed for the first 4 – 6 weeks). Feed for goslings cannot contain any medications or pesticides/herbicides, as their livers can’t process these chemicals. Adult geese will happily graze pasture or weed gardens (they avoid some cultivated plants, but cannot be trusted around lettuce and similar salad greens), or they can be fed grain or poultry pellets and grass clippings. If pasture is not available, geese must be provided with grass or greens such as lettuce. They also need plenty of fresh water – like ducks, they need to be able to submerge their entire heads to clean their nostrils. Geese do not need water to swim in unless you want fertilised eggs (they mate in the water).

Domestic goose breeds can weigh up to 10 kg at maturity, although there are smaller breeds (such as the Pilgrim Goose, which weighs from 5 kg up to 7.5 – 8kg), and they lay up to 60 eggs per year. Chinese Geese tend to lay more eggs than the European breeds. All geese (wild and domestic) are seasonal layers, and only lay in spring, usually starting in August or September in the southern hemisphere. A goose will generally lay an egg a day during the breeding season, and will go broody and sit on her eggs when the clutch reaches 5 – 15 eggs. If the goose-keeper steals the eggs, the goose will keep laying.

Goose eggs are large and hard-shelled. They weigh 120 – 170g each, and are both edible and tasty; the flavour is slightly different to chicken eggs. Like duck eggs, goose eggs are richer than chicken eggs, and when cooked the yolk texture is slightly denser. If you want to hatch them in an incubator, it will take 26 – 35 days, at 37.5 degrees C. Once the goslings begin pipping and trying to hatch, it can take up to 3 days for them to emerge form their eggs – be very careful if you decide to help them out, since (just like chickens, and any other bird) if the chick is still connected to the egg, breaking those blood vessels can cause serious injury. (That said, I did help my gosling out of their eggs, by gently cracking the shell so they could get out more easily – I was afraid that the egg membranes would dry out too much during hatching and they wouldn’t be able to get out. I’m an anxious bird-parent.). The humidity requirements are complex, with two options:

For a wet incubation, the humidity should be 50 – 55% until day 27 (or until the first pipping), then increased to 75% until hatch.
For a ‘dry’ incubation (which means you can incubate chicken, quail, or guinea fowl eggs at the same time), keep the humidity at 20 – 25% for the first 14 days, before raising it to around 60%. From day 7 onwards, mist or sprinkle the eggs daily with tepid water; after day 15, every 2nd day you should submerge the eggs in warm water (37.5 degrees C) for 1 minute. Form day 7 the eggs should also be cooled (taken out of the incubator) for 5 – 10 minutes, increasing to 15 minutes per day after day 15.

Geese which are hand raised and regularly handled do, apparently, become very tame. They recognise individual humans (and dogs, etc.), and will raise an alarm if a stranger approaches while being perfectly happy to let ‘their’ humans approach. The only exception is egg laying season, during which the males will aggressively protect the nesting females from any intruder. Female geese may lunge at a person to protect goslings, or if on a nest full of eggs. Other than that, geese are fairly docile; they can be easily herded, as they tend to move directly away from an approaching human. There is no need to run (geese can injure themselves if forced to run) or make noises, just walk slowly towards the geese and they will move away as a flock. As an aside, when catching geese, never grab them by the legs, as their leg bones are easily broken; instead, grab the goose by the neck (gently), either by hand or using a shepherds crook. If picking up a goose, make sure to keep the wings controlled, as geese are very strong and can injure a person if they hit them in the face with their wings.

In spite of the fact that a goose is quite a large bird, foxes (or dogs or cats) can and will kill one if they get the opportunity. Because of the risk of predators, geese should be locked into secure housing at night just like any other poultry, and should be protected with secure fencing. Goose housing should have either a solid or slat floor, and a fox-proof door to lock the birds in at night. Fresh absorbent bedding such as wood shavings (in an 8 – 10 cm layer) will help maintain dry conditions and keep your geese clean and healthy (but do not use any scented bedding or anything containing eucalyptus, because it can kill goslings!), and you should provide nest boxes. Goose houses should allow 1 sqm per bird. Other than safe housing, geese need some shelter during hot, summer weather, and if you get snow or severe rain and storms, they’ll need shelter from those too. Aside from night time housing for predator protection, you can free range geese without a problem (remember that you can easily herd them, like chilled out sheep), or you can keep them in a fenced yard. If geese are kept in a yard, you should allow 2 sqm per bird, although larger is better. You should provide 15cm of feeder length per bird to prevent competition for food, and clean, fresh water deep enough for them to submerge their whole heads.

Goose used to be the festive roast of choice in Europe; the meat is darker, richer, and more succulent than turkey or chicken, similar to duck. Goose fat has historically been rendered and used to cook other foods (goose-fat potatoes are amazing!), and the technique is coming back into fashion – you can buy tubs of goose fat in most supermarkets now. Goose quills were the feathers used to make pens before the fountain pen and ballpoint became common, and goose down is still u sed to stuff pillows and duvets. Geese will mow your lawn (and fertilise it at the same time) and weed your garden, and they’re smart enough to make pretty good pets too if you take the time to tame them and teach them that you’re not a threat and are rather a source of treats and happiness. They don’t need much from you in return: a safe place to sleep, clean water, and a bit of food to supplement their grazing.

In summary: geese are awesome, and goslings may be the cutest fluffs that ever fluffed. Ask me again in 6 months when my goslings are adults 🙂

For more info:

Feast like a Viking

2016/10/08 deej 1

This evening we’re off to a Viking-themed pot luck feast – the idea here is that everyone who goes takes a dish, and each dish forms one course of a massive degustation style dinner. We’ve been to a few of these dinners, each with a different theme, and they’re an enormous amount of fun. The food is always amazing, and so plentiful that we all waddle out at the end of the night swearing to be better about taking tiny portions of each dish next time.

The idea for this iteration is reasonably authentic Viking style food. So, being me, I went off to do some research. I came up with several ideas and recipes, including

poached salmon (apparently the Vikings boiled their meat rather than braising, roasting or grilling it for the most part, and also ate a lot of fish),
baked apples stuffed with honey and hazelnuts (all apparently authentic ingredients commonly available to and used by the Vikings),
Viking style root vegetables in honey and butter (a mix of carrots, turnips, swedes, parsnips, beets, and cabbage, with the root vegetables par-boiled first, then the whole lot fried in a great deal of butter with honey drizzled over – apparently an authentic recipe from an old recipe book), and
fresh curds with berries in honey (it seems that the Vikings didn’t view milk as something to consume fresh but rather as a raw ingredient used to make cultured milk drinks like skyr, yoghurt, curds and fresh cheeses, and aged cheeses – and all these products were eaten frequently by most people. Berries were widely available in the summer, and honey was also commonly used).

After much indecision, we’re taking curds and berries (aka deconstructed cheesecake), as well as some home-brewed mead. I thought I’d share the recipes, in case anyone else felt like experiencing some Viking treats.

Fresh curds, served with honey and summer berries

Topping

500g berries (we used raspberries and strawberries, but you can use any combination of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, boysenberries, currants, etc.)
1/2 cup honey, warmed until it’s liquid enough to pour
1/2 cup fruit liqueur (we used home-made, gin-based strawberry and apricot liqueur, but you can use any clear liqueur flavoured with berries or stone fruit, or just use vodka or gin)

Make the topping: Combine the berries, honey, and alcohol. Stir well, and leave to steep for at least 3 hours. If possible, allow to steep overnight.

Note: We used a home-made strawberry liqueur, made by infusing sliced fresh strawberries in a 50/50 combination of gin and apricot schnapps for a month. We then used the alcohol soaked strawberries in the topping, along with half a kg of frozen raspberries.

Curds

700 ml full cream milk
50 ml apple cider vinegar
1 kg fresh yoghurt (we used a combination of sheeps milk and goats milk yoghurt, but any will do)
1 – 3 Tbsps sugar or honey, or to taste (honey is more authentic)
1/4 tsp salt

Make some fresh ricotta cheese: Heat the milk just to boiling point, until it starts to form bubbles. Stir in the vinegar, which will cause the milk to curdle. Line a colander or sieve with a clean tea towel or with cheesecloth, place over a bowl (or the sink if you don’t have a use for the whey), and pour the curdled milk into the lined colander. Leave to drain for 5 minutes.

Make the curds: Combine the yoghurt, sugar, salt, and the drained ricotta in a bowl. Pour the whole lot into the lined colander, and allow to drain for at least 3 hours, or as long as overnight, until it reaches your desired consistency. You may have to empty out the whey from the bowl under the colander a few times as the curds drain.

Serve the curds topped with the berry mixture. Scatter with chopped hazelnuts if desired.

Apple Melomel

Combine 2 Tbs honey with 1 cup water. Boil hard for 2 minutes, then cool to room temperature.
Hydrate your chosen yeast (champagne yeast, cider yeast, or a specific mead yeast are best; we used baking yeast for this experiment because it’s what we had) in the room temperature honey-water.
Combine: 1 L honey (about 1.5 kg), 1 L fresh apple juice, and 3 L water. Bring to a boil, and skim off the scum and foam which rise to the surface.
Add 1/4 cup organic raisins, and simmer gently until the raisins are hydrated and soft.
Mash the raisins to release the juices.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, then strain into a fermentation vessel. Add the hydrated yeast.
Ferment. The mead we take with us tonight will only have been fermenting for 2 days, but we’ll leave some to continue fermenting until it’s done, and then age it for a couple’ve months to see what we get.

the hatching begins: 5 quail and counting

2016/09/28 deej 1

The first little peep hatched yesterday, and more hatched overnight. So far there are five tiny, baby quail chicks in the brooder. So fluffy!

Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica (not Coturnix coturnix – that’s the common quail from which the domesticated Japanese quail is derived), are a small, round bird kept for eggs, meat, and sometimes for their voices. I’m unsure about that last, since they’re not especially tuneful; they’re not a noisy bird, though, and I imagine their quiet chattering and the occasional trilling crow of the males could be a pleasant background noise.

Because quail are relatively quiet, and because they’re such small birds (even the giant meat quail are only up to 300g at maturity, and strains bred for egg laying tend to be 90 – 200g at maturity), they’re perfect backyard livestock. You can even keep them indoors, in a small aviary, if you don’t have a back yard suitable for keeping birds. Many people keep them in aviaries with other birds (parrots and parakeets, canaries, pigeons, etc.) because quail are primarily ground-dwellers and will eat leftover spilled seed that the other birds waste, thus discouraging rats and mice.

These birds cannot be free ranged – they’re not smart enough, and they’re too flighty. Give a quail a scare, and it will shoot upwards in a panic; sometimes they land somewhere in the vicinity, sometimes they go further. I know one person whose panicked quail flew straight up until it died of a heart attack or hypoxia, and then feel like a stone right back down to where it started. Quail must be kept enclosed or you will lose them, and unlike chickens they cannot be relied on to come home at night. It’s recommended to either have a low ceiling on the quail enclosures (no more than 35 – 40cm) so that the birds don’t break their necks when startling upwards into the ceiling. I’ve found that giving them some cover to hide in makes the neck breaking less of a problem, as they prefer to hide under a bush or broken ceramic pot if there’s one available. Rabbit hutches make quite good quail enclosures, or make a mini version of a chicken tractor.

Like any other poultry, quail can be stinky if their coops or cages aren’t kept clean. They need daily cleaning, and their water needs to be checked daily as well because they do tend to poop in it if they can.

Female Japanese quail, which can be differentiated from the males (at least in the wild-type colour – there are a range of other colour variations) by their lighter breast feathers, begin laying at 6 – 8 weeks of age. They will lay an egg a day for the rest of their lives, about 2 – 3 years. They’re photoperiod layers, so they do need long daylight hours to keep them laying – not a problem in Perth, but in some places people use artificial lighting. Eggs hatch after 16 – 17 days of incubation at 37.5 degrees C. The chicks, like newly hatched chickens, can survive for 12 – 24 hours on the leftover yolk, so don’t worry if you don’t see them eat or drink at first. They’ll get it quickly enough.

They are voraciously hungry when they hatch, and basically from then onwards. They eat a variety of seeds and insects, and if exposed to the possibility of eating greens when they’re young they also love some greens – but quail are very habit-bound critters, and once they’re 3 – 6 months old it’s a real chore to get them to accept any new food as edible. My last lot of quail were terrified of greenery, and would circle around it and cheep plaintively that they were hungry because the scary green stuff was too close to their food to risk going to eat. Generally, quail should be fed a gamebird diet or turkey starter; chicks need about 22 – 25% protein for the first 5 weeks, and laying birds need about 24% protein.

Quail eggs can be used just like chicken eggs; they taste almost the same, although slightly sweeter and slightly richer. About 3 – 4 quail eggs are equivalent to one chicken egg in terms of volume, and they work perfectly in baking at that ratio.

Quail raised for meat should be killed humanely, just like any other bird or animal raised for meat. We use controlled atmosphere killing, using nitrogen gas (carbon dioxide will cause the sensation of suffocation, which is cruel; nitrogen is odorless and the bird doesn’t feel any suffering, it just goes to sleep), but you can also break the animal’s neck or cut off the head with a sharp axe or knife. Generally, plucking quail is very difficult, as their skin is quite delicate; most people just skin them rather than plucking. Gutting the bird is a bit tricky due to their small size, but it can be done.

If you want to hatch your own, you’ll need an incubator or a broody bantam hen – Japanese quail don’t go broody or set their eggs. The instinct to hatch their own eggs has been bred out of them.

Summary:

Produce: eggs, meat, fertiliser (bird poop is great fertiliser)
Space requirements: minimum of 125 – 145 sq cm per bird
Food: adult quail eat 14 – 18g per day, and need around 24% protein
Water: obviously
Other requirements: quail are flighty prey birds, and will be happier if they have some cover or something to hide under if they are frightened. They are also avid dust bathers and really need some clean sand to bathe in (they may turn to cannibalism and feather picking out of stress and boredom if they have no sand available for dust bathing).

More info and pictures? Try these sites:

so many eggs

2016/09/22 deej 0

The other great thing about spring is that the chickens have all finished (or mostly finished) moulting, and have started laying again. We’re getting 4 – 10 eggs a day. So today was an egg-using-up day.

(On that note, if anyone is interested in putting in a regular egg order, please contact us. We don’t have an endless supply, but we definitely have more than we can use. Note that our chooks are not free range, because we don’t have the ability to protect them from foxes if they’re out and about, but they do have very swish and spacious coops and runs, and get spoiled rotten with treats and fresh grass as well as their regular food. We keep mostly Transyvanian Naked Necks and Wyandottes, with a few miscellaneous other pretty-feathered floofs as well.)

Using up eggs isn’t a chore. I’ve always liked eggs and I love baking, so.. scrambled eggs on toast for lunch, hard-boiled eggs to have as morning tea treats tomorrow, and my new favourite tea-time treat / dessert: clafoutis. I can’t claim to be entirely authentic on this, since I made up the recipe based on having made it once before, years ago, and having a broad general idea of what the dish is mean to look & taste like, but it’s pretty nice.

Clafoutis is almost a baked sweet custard; it’s an egg-heavy, custard-like batter baked with fruit in it (traditionally cherries), kindof like a sweet quiche but less omelettey. It gets a crunchy, sort of cakey crust, but the inside is.. well, it’s a French recipe, so I’m sure you can imagine. Made with sour cherries, fresh peaches, or blackberries it is entirely amazing. (I may have to get the planned sour cherry trees in soon, and some berry brambles.)

Batter:

4 eggs

1/3 – 1/2 cup sugar, to taste (use more less sugar if using sweeter fruit)

1 Tbsp olive oil

about 1/2 – 2/3 cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

a scant 1/2 cup plain flour

2 cups of fruit, chopped or sliced (or whole if using berries)

Beat all those ingredients except the fruit together into a smooth batter. You may need to use a whisk. The consistency should be similar to pancake batter.

Pour the batter over your chosen fruit (I used caramelised chopped apple, but any fruit will do) in a cake pan or pie plate. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25 min, or until completely set. Serve warm (although cold is still pretty good).

If you want to use caramelised apples as per my experiment this afternoon, roughly chop your 2 cups of apple (about 4 – 5 small apples), then pan fry with 2 Tbs butter, 1 Tbs cumquat & lime jelly (yeah, I made that too – replace it with marmalade for the closest approximation), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1 – 2 tsp brown sugar. Cook the apple until the jam and butter have melted and dissolved the sugar, the whole lot is bubbling and smelling of delicious appley caramel, and the apple is almost cooked.

spring by any measure

2016/09/20 deej 0

I love spring. I know that in a month or two I’ll be longing for a cold night to cuddle up, but for now (while there are still some very cold nights up here) I’m loving the sunshine and the flowers and the (slightly) warmer weather.

Almost all the stone fruit are starting to flower now, and the persimmon has put out a few green shoots. The wattles have put on a growth spurt, and most of

them are now taller than me – only 2 years in from being planted as 30cm high seedlings. The open soon-to-be-pasture in between them is covered with cape dandelion – I know it’s a weed, but it’s also a useful pasture plant for dry areas, edible and palatable to most stock and able to survive the summer without extra water.

The wildflowers are out in force. I haven’t really gone and tried to identify any, but there were 8 different types within 2 sqm when I looked casually the other day.

Lagerfeld rose My roses are flowering, too, although they didn’t really stop over winter.

And last but not least, I have some eggs in the incubator. Four pilgrim goose eggs (and I really hope at least 2 hatch!) in the hopes of some pasture eating soil improving critters, a dozen more guinea fowl eggs (this time the foxes won’t get them, for sure), a dozen quail eggs for the newly renovated quail coops, and two eggs form my eldest and favourite hen, Splash. I’ve seen the rooster mating with one of the other hens, so he’s clearly all grown up now, and I’m hoping he’s getting jiggy with Splash too – she’s such a sweet natured, smart bird that I’d really like to hatch some of her chicks. Also, she must be part aracauna, because she lays blue eggs, which is just cool.

And, in closing, I am really looking forward to some more beach weather. It’s too cold for me to want to swim yet, but it’s already walking-on-the-beach wind in the hair weather. 🙂

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