Baymule
Herd Master
How exciting! They are so pretty. I can’t wait to hear more about them.
Finnie- Finally A Journal
- Thread starter Finnie
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Wow, striking!So back in November, @farmerjan and I met up at the Ohio National Poultry show in Columbus. We had a lot of fun looking at all the birds. I was hoping to find some white Chinese geese for sale, but all we could find were brown ones. We did see white ones being exhibited, although not for sale. Then we found an exhibitor showing BUFF Chinese geese! I had never even known that Chinese geese came in any other color than brown and white. These buff Chinese were very pretty!
So we took photos of the exhibitor number, and Jan looked them up in the show catalog and I took a screenshot of that. I was pretty excited because it turned out that they were from a town about an hour’s drive from my house!
So I waited until after the holidays and then I sent the guy a snail mail asking about the buff genetics and whether they ever sell any. (And I included my email and phone number so we wouldn’t have to be dependent on snail mail.)
And he texted me as soon as he got the letter! And it turns out, he had been planning to reduce his numbers a little bit. So we set up a meeting for today, and now I am the proud owner of 3 buff Chinese hens who will be 1 year old this spring!
View attachment 125696View attachment 125697
(I am posting this from the Rural King parking lot where we met. I’ll try to get more photos later at home, but sometimes that doesn’t work too well until they settle in some.)
SageHill
Herd Master
That is soo great!!! Nice looking too. Some things are meant to be.
Mini Horses
Herd Master
Love their coloring. You lucked out, they were close to you -- even tho the show wasn't. 
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Finnie
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I’m not sure which one, but one of these was one of the ones exhibited at the show. 
The young man (about the age of my youngest son) was happy to stand around and talk with me. I learned a lot.
He got his breeding stock from a breeder in Wisconsin. That person got the buff gene into the Chinese breed by cross breeding with American Buff geese, then continuing to breed back to brown Chinese to get the body shape and size back to the standard.
(The buff color is not in the standard, so they are just exhibited. They don’t compete against the browns and whites.) And since there is no written standard for how the buff color is supposed to look, it’s pretty much just up to each breeder what to select for. The main thing this man strives for is a dark and solid golden buff. Which I guess is hard because the sun likes to bleach it out. So when he’s showing, he keeps them locked up in the barn. Of course, then he gets a judge who prefers paler buff coloring.
They will be getting sun bleached at my place.
The young man (about the age of my youngest son) was happy to stand around and talk with me. I learned a lot.
He got his breeding stock from a breeder in Wisconsin. That person got the buff gene into the Chinese breed by cross breeding with American Buff geese, then continuing to breed back to brown Chinese to get the body shape and size back to the standard.
(The buff color is not in the standard, so they are just exhibited. They don’t compete against the browns and whites.) And since there is no written standard for how the buff color is supposed to look, it’s pretty much just up to each breeder what to select for. The main thing this man strives for is a dark and solid golden buff. Which I guess is hard because the sun likes to bleach it out. So when he’s showing, he keeps them locked up in the barn. Of course, then he gets a judge who prefers paler buff coloring.
They will be getting sun bleached at my place.
Baymule
Herd Master
Sun bleached geese are happy geese.
SteepedInSheep
True BYH Addict
Congratulations! Geese are the best. 
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Finnie
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Just going to add a couple things to my journal for keeping track.
Chicken count at the end of winter was 110. Plan is to reduce numbers to 50 to make it easier when the time comes to move. So I bought 13 chicks from Tractor Supply in March and when I got home from my vacation a couple weeks ago I bought 3 Lavender Wyandotte hens and 3 Black Copper Marans hens from the woman that my Black Copper rooster is from.
Chicken count is now 125.
(I know that doesn’t add up. There have also been some losses since I did the winter count.)
And, the woman I bought the hens from told me that the BCMs came from a pen with a nice BCM rooster, so of course I have fired up my incubator and have all 12 of the first week’s BCM eggs in there. I will set the second week’s eggs as well, and then I will crack one or two of the thirds week’s eggs open and see if they are still coming out fertile. So much for skipping the hassle of hatching and raising chicks this year. But I think I can sell most of these chicks as day olds. Just keep a handful to grow out and decide later whether to sell or keep.
Yeah. So I just added two new breeds to my list of chickens that I need to whittle down. I was going to keep 10 each of 5 breeds. I guess now it’s going to be 7 each of 7 breeds. It’s fine. A lot of my chickens are over 4 years old. I’d rather keep 50 young birds instead of 50 old birds. It will all work out.
Moving on to my health, I think I already posted that the ADHD testing came back positive. I’m seeing a therapist and a nurse practitioner. I am on atomoxetine (generic Stratera), which they start out at a low dose for the purposes of acclimating to it because people had adjustment problems when they used to start right out with an effective dose. So I’m not seeing any noticeable differences yet. I just started the next up dosage yesterday, so the people around me should start seeing some differences soon. (Likely before I notice.) The therapy though is definitely helping with my mood.
And, my NP, my therapist and the medical doctor who supervises the practice were discussing my case now that they have the copy of my ADHD test answers and the notes from that psychiatrist (at a different practice) and they all agreed that I have autism as well.
That is such a relief to me, because for years I have suspected I had “Asperger’s syndrome” because so many of the symptoms describe me. Back in the day Asperger’s was a separate condition from Autism, but in recent years they have reclassified it as being on the Autism Spectrum. They call it “high functioning autism”. It can go undetected because coping mechanisms can cover up the social problems it causes. That’s what I have done my whole adult life. (As a kid I had serious social inadequacies that I hated but only learned better skills once I got into the working world. Out of necessity.) And, these two diagnoses explain why I have battled depression for most of my adult life. It is a huge relief to know that I was not imagining having Asperger’s. And a huge relief to know that now I am getting the right help and the future looks hopeful.
(As an aside, my son who is bipolar also recently got the same testing done as I had, and he is also diagnosed with autism and ADHD, so he is also getting the right help now. Which is really going to make a difference in his managing the bipolar disorder. Thankfully he is getting this help at 30 years younger than I did!)
The other two subjects I was going to note were African violets and knitting, but I am tried of writing now, so I will leave those for another time.
Chicken count at the end of winter was 110. Plan is to reduce numbers to 50 to make it easier when the time comes to move. So I bought 13 chicks from Tractor Supply in March and when I got home from my vacation a couple weeks ago I bought 3 Lavender Wyandotte hens and 3 Black Copper Marans hens from the woman that my Black Copper rooster is from.
Chicken count is now 125.
(I know that doesn’t add up. There have also been some losses since I did the winter count.)
And, the woman I bought the hens from told me that the BCMs came from a pen with a nice BCM rooster, so of course I have fired up my incubator and have all 12 of the first week’s BCM eggs in there. I will set the second week’s eggs as well, and then I will crack one or two of the thirds week’s eggs open and see if they are still coming out fertile. So much for skipping the hassle of hatching and raising chicks this year. But I think I can sell most of these chicks as day olds. Just keep a handful to grow out and decide later whether to sell or keep.
Yeah. So I just added two new breeds to my list of chickens that I need to whittle down. I was going to keep 10 each of 5 breeds. I guess now it’s going to be 7 each of 7 breeds. It’s fine. A lot of my chickens are over 4 years old. I’d rather keep 50 young birds instead of 50 old birds. It will all work out.
Moving on to my health, I think I already posted that the ADHD testing came back positive. I’m seeing a therapist and a nurse practitioner. I am on atomoxetine (generic Stratera), which they start out at a low dose for the purposes of acclimating to it because people had adjustment problems when they used to start right out with an effective dose. So I’m not seeing any noticeable differences yet. I just started the next up dosage yesterday, so the people around me should start seeing some differences soon. (Likely before I notice.) The therapy though is definitely helping with my mood.
And, my NP, my therapist and the medical doctor who supervises the practice were discussing my case now that they have the copy of my ADHD test answers and the notes from that psychiatrist (at a different practice) and they all agreed that I have autism as well.
That is such a relief to me, because for years I have suspected I had “Asperger’s syndrome” because so many of the symptoms describe me. Back in the day Asperger’s was a separate condition from Autism, but in recent years they have reclassified it as being on the Autism Spectrum. They call it “high functioning autism”. It can go undetected because coping mechanisms can cover up the social problems it causes. That’s what I have done my whole adult life. (As a kid I had serious social inadequacies that I hated but only learned better skills once I got into the working world. Out of necessity.) And, these two diagnoses explain why I have battled depression for most of my adult life. It is a huge relief to know that I was not imagining having Asperger’s. And a huge relief to know that now I am getting the right help and the future looks hopeful.
(As an aside, my son who is bipolar also recently got the same testing done as I had, and he is also diagnosed with autism and ADHD, so he is also getting the right help now. Which is really going to make a difference in his managing the bipolar disorder. Thankfully he is getting this help at 30 years younger than I did!)
The other two subjects I was going to note were African violets and knitting, but I am tried of writing now, so I will leave those for another time.
farmerjan
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Wow and double wow... SO GLAD for you that you are feeling like things are finally falling into place and you are not CRAZY....
I never picked up on it at the Poultry show in Columbus...
Temple Grandin has Asperger's... brilliant woman and wonderful in the cattle handling world... designs handling facilities for cattle... "seeing it from their perspective"... had written books. Have seen her twice and listened to her presentations...
Hey, your chicken math makes perfect sense to me
I never picked up on it at the Poultry show in Columbus...
Temple Grandin has Asperger's... brilliant woman and wonderful in the cattle handling world... designs handling facilities for cattle... "seeing it from their perspective"... had written books. Have seen her twice and listened to her presentations...
Hey, your chicken math makes perfect sense to me
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Finnie
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I have read at least 3 of Temple Grandin’s books, gone to see her speak once, and also have the movie about her on DVD. I think they did a real good job with that movie. It seemed very close to how she is in her books and real life.Wow and double wow... SO GLAD for you that you are feeling like things are finally falling into place and you are not CRAZY....
I never picked up on it at the Poultry show in Columbus...
Temple Grandin has Asperger's... brilliant woman and wonderful in the cattle handling world... designs handling facilities for cattle... "seeing it from their perspective"... had written books. Have seen her twice and listened to her presentations...
Hey, your chicken math makes perfect sense to me
