Thursday 26 April 2012: Roger

Well it's been an eventful afternoon.

As planned we headed off to do the weekly us & them food shop.
When we left I had a niggle when I saw Biscuit on the pond just sitting about. Not necessarily uncharacteristic but there was just a niggle.
I put it to the back of my mind & we headed off.
As some of you may remember food shopping for us is an "all day ish" job with a 40 odd mile round trip so it was getting on for 4pm when we arrived home.
Biscuit was on the pond as she had been when we left but she was quiet.
We unpacked and I then headed out to have a chat with her. No honking or small talk as she would normally do I knew then we had a problem and potentially it was a very serious one.
I texted HRH and went to the bird first aid kit to arm myself with all the stuff required mainly calcium tablet and oil.
We were expecting egg number 2 today with geese laying every 30ish hours it was about due.
Once we'd got her in her house I popped a calcium tablet in her mouth she spat it out a few times but took most of it eventually and then I checked her over. There didn't appear to be an egg waiting nr where it should be so we got her some food, grit, dandelion leaves and some fresh water.
Geese have a 2 hour gut transit time all she was passing was water so I knew she hadn't eaten for at least 2 hrs. The advantage to the 2hrs is that the calcium tablet should work quickly.
The reason behind the calcium is that allows the muscles to relax and then the egg passes easier (in theory) along with some oil for lube all we could then do was wait.
An hour and a half later the egg was out. The shell was very thin which was why she had trouble passing it.
She sat for a further hour recovering and then 1/2 an hour before her bedtime she came out of her house honked at us and started eating grass :o)

Phew

Of course it could happen again on Saturday but we'll, well HRH will, be (I'm out ) watching her like a hawk.

I suppose this is where it pays to know your birds or any animals little ways. Just wish I'd have not put that niggle to bed quiet so easily this morning. But hey all's well that ends well ..............for now :o)

My blip was taken whilst standing waiting for the calcium to work. It's one of our friendly Roger Pheasants he had fetched Mrs Roger for a feed before bed bless him :o)

• FinePix HS20EXR:
• f/5:
• 1/170":
• 80.8mm:
• ISO 1600

• viewed 57 times :
• 9 comments

• about PurpleWrapper