Chicken owners who collect and hatch eggs from their backyard breeder flocks may be divided into two camps: the so-called propagators or multipliers, who emphasize quantity, and the breeders, who emphasize quality. Both groups hatch lots of chicks. To the propagator, the end goal is the large numbers of chicks. To the breeder, a […]
Continue ReadingMonth: May 2019
Do Ducks Have a Penis?
A male duck has a penis, unless it falls off. But that’s getting ahead of the story. Like most birds, chickens don’t have a penis. But ducks, geese, and other waterfowl are among the few species that do have a penis. It’s a long, corkscrew appendix that remains inside-out, tucked within the duck’s body […]
Continue ReadingDo Roosters Have a Penis?
Like the males of 97 percent of all bird species, a rooster does not have a penis. An incubated egg that will become a rooster starts to develop a penis, but early in the second week of embryonic development, a cell death protein called Bmp4 cloaks the incipient penis, causing it to stop developing and […]
Continue ReadingGreen Goose: The Cook’s View of the Goose Tribe
By: Victoria Brady Thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com While some undoubtedly keep geese as pets or raise them just to sell, country folk and homesteaders often raise them for the table. This has not changed since the beginning of Goosedom. The noble turkey springs to mind when thinking of a special occasion meal but, while less common, the […]
Continue ReadingRaising Geese Before the Popularity of Incubators
The following comments are taken from “Ducks and Geese” published by Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company published in 1904. Varieties discussed were the White and Brown Chinese, the African, the Emden and the Toulouse, the latter two growing by far larger than the others. The Emden was described as a mammoth variety, pure white in […]
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