Pilgrim Geese Nesting and Hatching Babies!

I have a trio of pilgrim geese that were laying eggs and were becoming broody.   Broody means they want to start sitting on the nest to hatch the eggs.   If you cannot provide them a safe place to sit,  it isn't good to let them hatch eggs.   They will sit on a next and become easy prey for predators, especially at night.  You will usually loose the nest and often the hen to predation.    I decided to put them in a covered kennel to let them sit on their eggs where they could be safe.   Both hens made a large nest and had 17 eggs between the two of them.   The gander (white) loved to sit up high and watch over them.

I wasn't expecting that many to hatch as they were young hens and this was their first next, so sometimes they don't know what they are doing and only 1-2 will hatch.      Much to my surprise  12 of the 17 hatched.   Here are images of the babies.  Pilgrim geese are a auto-sexing breed which means you can tell the males from the females based on color.  Males are white, females are grey.  Even as babies, the females will be darker with a grey beak.   The first three pictures show a baby female.    Baby geese are very cute.   The male also plays a role in raising them.   Geese are very social and are constantly chattering with each other, including the babies.

Riverside Food Coop - Supporting local farmers - monthly crop box for members.

I belong to the Riverside Food Coop and buy the produce for the members monthly  crop box from local farmers.   The Riverside Food Coop was formed to open a member owned grocery store that sells local produce, food items and groceries.   We currently have 178 members and need more members to begin planning for a store.    Visit Riversidefoodcoop.com to join.   Lifetime membership to the coop is $100.00.  Monthly payment options are available.
Here are pictures of the produce that I picked up from local farms to pack our boxes a few months ago.   We have around 50 members who get a monthly produce box for $30.00.   This  box is available to members only.

The Big Chicken Massacre

One morning I arrived at the farm to see feathers all over the place.    It looked like something had killed a lot of chickens and by the looks of the different colored feathers, it was more than one.  I had also forgot to close the large door to the coop that night so it was open all night. 

At this point, I wasn't sure what had killed all the chickens.   Whatever it was had eaten all of the birds, including the feet, head, and bones.   I ruled out raccoons as they will only eat part of the chickens.   It appears that I was missing almost 30 chickens including my two roosters, Roy and Delbert.     

I found this which appeared to be coyote scat near the pond.

The farm is completely surrounded by  houses and the perimeter is all concrete block walls which are over 7 feet high.    I found dead buried chickens along the walls of the farm.   This was another clue that it was coyotes because they will bury food they cannot eat and come back the next day and eat what they buried.

I dug them all up and disposed of them.  I didn't want them coming back to eat that they buried.

I found a portion of the farm that has access to the Santa Ana river.    The coyotes has dug a large hole under the fence and were accessing the farm through that area.   I installed a motion activated wildlife camera near the hole and got some really good pictures of the coyotes.   One of them had a really bad case of mange as you will see if the following pictures.  

There were a couple more visitors also after they coyotes stopped by.     I  placed concrete pavers on both sides of the fence so they couldn't dig under the fence anymore.   I haven't had any losses to coyotes since then.