"Look out the window," I whispered to Spouse, "Maggie's eating the cayenne-filled egg!"The goose egg (one of two) was the cumulative effort of over an hour of huffing and puffing to blow out the eggs, and then trying several different ways to fill the eggs with the rusty red spice per Chance's suggestion. Perhaps I should have also asked Chance for details on how she did it first. After trying (and failing) to fill the eggs with home-made funnels and straws before finally punching a hole big enough for a real funnel, much sneezing happened, and then I rubbed my eyes before washing my hands... d'oh! You can guess what happened, but no permanent damage was done to my eyes - just to the confidence in my supposed intelligence. I then partially hid the finished eggs in one of the empty goose kennels.
Back to Maggie: I watched her lick the tape off the hole where I had filled the egg, crunch into the shell... then an expression of confusion and horror covered her face. Spouse went outside as Maggie was backing away from the egg. Spouse grabbed the egg and held it up to Maggie's face... she continued backing away, looking in revulsion at what was once a tasty ill-gained treat. We're hoping she's learned her lesson. Thing is, did it take one or two eggs to teach her? We still haven't found the second egg.
Maybe the second egg hatched into a pepper plant???LOL , enjoyed the post.
ReplyDeleteChance slaps forehead - tarnation!
ReplyDeleteI was irresponsible in not giving you better instructions cause filling eggs with pepper is a total pain if you don't have a system. Sorry for causing you grief. But I am really glad it worked. Breaking the yolk before you blow is a Really Good Idea.
Here's an wikiHow on blowing eggs (okay, I do giggle when I write "blowing eggs"...I can't help it, I have a sick mind)
http://www.wikihow.com/Blow-Out-Eggs
and someone's blog post: http://risashome.blogspot.com/2007/11/sweet-sort-of-goose.html
I just use my mouth to blow, but both postings suggest alternate ways, bicycle pumps etc if you are doing a batch of them. Also, a dremel drill is great for drilling the holes.
To fill, just use the smallest funnel you have. In my case, we had a little perfume funnel that worked well but it can just be a regular small funnel and use a bigger piece of tape. Even tho I think it is dorky, I always wear gloves for cayenne handling because invariably I need to adjust glasses or wipe face and then, pepper in the eye! The drill is: Gloves on, fill egg, strip gloves, adjust glasses. No hands above the waist until gloves stripped or hands washed.
Finally, you should make a few more cayenne eggs cause dogs need differential reinforcement to make the message stick. Salt in an egg or two a week on random days in different places, in the middle of the porch, in the nests, in the tall grass for the next few weeks and see what happens. I don't think it will take much more though from your description.
Your second egg? I'm betting varmints. Somewhere out there is a very, very surprised snake or skunk. Snakes love eggs so make sure there are no snake holes near the goose nests and eggs.
Anyway, hope these tardy tips help and good luck.
@MEB - welcome to the blog!
ReplyDelete@Chance - LOL! Not your fault at all, I should have asked. No problem blowing out the eggs, had done it before, just was doing it with a small hole as if it were to be a pysanky egg. Won't bother with the next round :-). Good advice WRT doing more than one round of eggs, thank you!
So sorry to hear that my little girl was acting up. We should have known that she was going to do something like that when we caught her with her head in the coop that one day. You know that I really liked your dogs, Maggie and Bandit. I just wish they hadn't liked me back so much. I would have liked to have taken them for a walk or something. Give them a pat on the head for me.
ReplyDelete*ROFL*
ReplyDeleteNow THAT'S negative reinforcement!
Yeah...every bit of that is funny! Glad your eyes are in tact, even if your ego took a bit of a hit
ReplyDeleteI do, like, thirty goose eggs at a time, to sell for psanki, that's why the bike pump ... hey, good luck w/t orchard!
ReplyDeleterisa b
@risa - what a brilliant idea, using a bike pump! I'm going to try that, and thanks!
ReplyDelete