April Virginia

Make sure you have a saucer under your bucket to catch the maggots. They fall 24/7 and if allowed to burrow into soil, they pupate and hatch flies. I use a round plastic sled disc and tip the juice out periodically.

Free jars - when you buy food, choose food that comes in a container you can re-use. Mayonnaise jars fit a canning lid. Gallon pickle jars can be used for dry storage. Often, a large jar full of food costs less than buying the new container.

Free food
HUNT MUSHROOMS. There are local groups to help you learn and they are easy to air dry and store.

FORAGE WILD FOODS Tons of info on the internet and it gives you a reason to take long nature walks. Plantain leaves are great cooked like spinach, dock seeds are an interesting crunchy grain. Wild garlic, black walnuts, spice bush seeds, pawpaws, grapes - it’s all free!

FERMENT some of your fresh food instead of canning. It is tons easier than canning, uses less energy and creates lots of good bacteria for your gut.

OTHER PEOPLES PROPERTY There are lots of people with fruit trees who just can’t use the whole harvest. It needs to be cleaned up, so ask around.

CHEAP STUFF IN GENERAL- COUNTRY AUCTIONS. Many lots go for $5 or less. A “lot” is often a tray full of items. Some lots are “clean outs” as in you get to take everything in those two cabinets, for example, or the entire attic or that closet. Check out the auctions in your area.

PARAFFIN SEAL My grandmother sealed jam and jelly with paraffin wax and re-used the wax when the jar was opened. The paraffin was washed and saved. The jar got a used lid to go into the fridge. People also used lard to seal some preserved meat. Foie gras is cooked and preserved in goose fat.

john mcginnis wrote:Thanks all for the replies. Shame they don't make them anymore. A reusable product after first use.

There are still some jellies sold in a reusable glass jar. Saw them at Walmart super center last week.

Chuck Zinda wrote:All these diagrams and suggestions for an "awesome shower" seem like overkill and not very permies oriented.

We all have our “permies degree”. All the way from “I bathe in a creek” to fancy marble shower in a regular house on a regenerative permaculture farm. The devices we are communicating on to reach permies.com are clearly not permie oriented. Some permies don’t use any electronics. I love this community for helping people figure out how to build great things in a more sustainable permie way. Whatever that “great thing” is. I am finding this thread very helpful because I, too, want a great shower!

“It seems that gravity feed is possible if you have sufficient vertical drop.”

Is there a formula to determine sufficient vertical drop?

Tina Schutte - wash as directed above but at this point you need antibiotics and insecticide from a vet. If a vet bill is out of the question, call Valley Vet and speak to one of their vets about otc products you can use. It’s free and they have good prices.
A new thing I did over the summer was pack my dog’s wound with food grade diatomaceous earth. There was no way to bandage the wound and he wouldn’t sit still for two stitches. The DE dried it out and he didn’t get maggots. The DE killed any, if they were there. It is safe for my dog to eat. I’d try this on your duck. Stitching a wound that was full of maggots is not a good idea, it needs to heal from the inside out.

How to prevent fly strike in sitting birds

I’m sorry you lost her. Unfortunately, losing animals for various weird reasons is a big part of farm life. There are so many things to learn about each animal and even specific breeds have their issues. Sitting fowl are very vulnerable and some die doing it or shortly thereafter.
It sounds to me that your goose died from “sitting fly strike”, which occurs when bad eggs start oozing or good eggs break and attract flies, which lay eggs on the egg. Maggots hatch and eat the egg first, if they can get through the shell, then attack the sitting bird. When a bad egg explodes under a sitting bird, the belly of the bird is plastered with sticky, tasty maggot food. There can be many types of flies laying eggs and some maggots eat live flesh, right into the organs.

So what can we do to prevent some deaths?

-If an egg breaks in the nest at any time, for whatever reason, you need to clean all the eggs, the bird and replace nesting material. Wash the bird with Dawn and blow dry. If there are maggots present, wash with shampoo containing permethrin, which is safe for fowl. Check human lice shampoos or dog flea and tick shampoos in your country.  
-Write with indelible marker on the eggs you want her to hatch. Other birds may add to the nest, some birds steal and add to their own nest. Any egg that appears three days after she starts sitting, is not going to hatch because she will abandon it 2-3 days after the others start hatching. Remove the newcomers, hatch them yourself or eat them.
-If the bird kicks an egg out of the nest, candle it before putting it back in. Some birds remove dead eggs, some good eggs may get accidentally moved out. Candle to be sure. Dead eggs make great compost.
-Only leave an appropriate clutch. Extra eggs risk breakage and rot, which attracts flies and predators.
-Candle the eggs on day 12 to make sure they are growing. By day twelve you will be able to see veins clearly. If they have a crack or are not growing, compost or feed them to livestock.
-Protect your bird from predators as best you can.
-Place food and water nearby to encourage intake. Some birds sit and stay, some take breaks. Make it easy for them to care for themselves during this draining process.
Happy hatching!

Amit Enventres wrote:I'm not raising ducks, but I can tell you some general rules I learned about cows that seem to apply through all animals.

1. Selective breeding. Find your nicest male and breed him - kill any aggressive or overly aggressive male. When you raise young males, find the nicest and use him as your next male. Keep doing this long enough, and you'll have bred a less aggressive variety.

2. Don't breed the sons to the daughters. Not good for genetics. If you save a son, find him some new ladies.

Hope that helps!

All of this totally applies to all fowl.

This is the original green eggs with ham. Sam liked them🤷🏽‍♀️
On a more serious side note, found clutches should go to dogs or the garden as fertilizer. There is no way to tell how old they are. When collecting eggs to incubate, they should ideally be stored at 50F to inhibit growth of this fungi and bacteria that may have entered the shell.

There are many different breeds of ducks and geese. Some do better than others in gardens. In general, they will trample or eat small plants and eat leafy greens, vegetables and fruits. Weeder ducks were developed for cotton and tobacco and older corn, none of which they like to eat, so the young weeds were tasty compared to the crop.

If your fowl are only protected by a five foot fence, it is only a matter of time before predators attack. They need secure housing or a livestock guardian dog 24/7, or both, depending on your predators.