Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[Starfire669]

Your babies are gorgeous, I'd want to keep them all as well, but I don't have the yard for that many. The only reason I have as many as I do is because I feed them flock raiser. I don't have enough good grass to keep them on that only. But they do eat more grass than feed, and seem very healthy, so I am happy with the arrangement.

Can't wait till next season when I try my first Bator hatches. Since I wont hatch any eggs from my first year geese, I will be ordering African and Chinese goose eggs, as well as Cayuga duck eggs. After that, I will probably hatch some of my chicken eggs. Though someone told me to practice with my chickens this fall to get the hang of incubating. Not sure I want to mess with that in the fall/winter months. Besides, the chickens will slow down laying, and I won't use artificial lights on them. I don't want to burn my babies out. Any advice on that?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Your babies are gorgeous, I'd want to keep them all as well, but I don't have the yard for that many. The only reason I have as many as I do is because I feed them flock raiser. I don't have enough good grass to keep them on that only. But they do eat more grass than feed, and seem very healthy, so I am happy with the arrangement.

Can't wait till next season when I try my first Bator hatches. Since I wont hatch any eggs from my first year geese, I will be ordering African and Chinese goose eggs, as well as Cayuga duck eggs. After that, I will probably hatch some of my chicken eggs. Though someone told me to practice with my chickens this fall to get the hang of incubating. Not sure I want to mess with that in the fall/winter months. Besides, the chickens will slow down laying, and I won't use artificial lights on them. I don't want to burn my babies out. Any advice on that?

I don't think I'd want chicks in my house over winter. I'd wait till spring.

 

[Starfire669]

Is it normal for ducks and geese to try interbreeding? My sister was telling me that Howard the duck was chasing and trying to breed her female goose. Now I just caught Cream, my African she male, mounting Daisy duck. What is up with this?

 

[ChickDancer]

Is it normal for ducks and geese to try interbreeding? My sister was telling me that Howard the duck was chasing and trying to breed her female goose. Now I just caught Cream, my African she male, mounting Daisy duck. What is up with this?

Animals don't always see a difference in species when trying to breed OR show dominance. I had a full-grown large fowl rooster trying to breed with my geese.

Just ask yourself this though... Is it "normal" for a dog to hump a human's leg?

 

[Miss Lydia]

My gander lived with Muscovy ducks for 5yrs before I got him a goose for a mate, he mated with the ducks and they didn't mind at all.

 

[Starfire669]

Animals don't always see a difference in species when trying to breed OR show dominance. I had a full-grown large fowl rooster trying to breed with my geese.

Just ask yourself this though... Is it "normal" for a dog to hump a human's leg?

Good point. Guess since this is the first time I have seen their wackiness it surprised me. Hopefully with as many females as I have for both the ducks and geese, their interspecies affairs will not happen often, lol.

 

[livininbrazil]

I don't think I'd want chicks in my house over winter. I'd wait till spring.

Oooh! Stinky!!!!

 

[servpolice]

i used to have a sussex rooster mating with my first chinese geese :-C they didnt see it coming :-C

 

[Starfire669]

i used to have a sussex rooster mating with my first chinese geese :-C they didnt see it coming :-C

I had a cockerel try to mate with the African goslings when they were 5 weeks old. Same cockerel also blinded one of my BR pullets, so into the stew pot he went. He was tasty too! My current head rooster tries to garb the ladies behind the head (they are NOT impressed with his dancing yet), but he don't injure them and most times the ladies get away. At least he is only interested in chickens, he hasn't tried ducks or geese, thank goodness, lol.

Oooh!  Stinky!!!!

I agree. I think I will wait.

 

[Iain Utah]

Serv, I enjoyed all of the pics!!! Your babies look great. I'm with Miss Lydia. Your buff Africans are my favorites. But of course, I'm partial to buff.

My African is the 3/4 African, 1/4 Toulouse baby that you already knew about (the solo baby hatched by my favorite African goose). He/she is getting big and is spoiled rotten by the parents. I will try to get a decent pic in a little bit to post.

Starfire, it is not uncommon for drakes to go after geese. My hubby's drake is like that and it drives me nuts sometimes. I love it when he picks on the wrong gander's girl and gets his butt kicked, but the drake never learns. On the whole, my muscovy girls prefer to be with the geese than the domestic ducks. I also have a female Muscovy that I named Weirdo because she refuses to hang out with the muscovies and seems to have a thing for one of my buff dewlap ganders. However, she must have found one of my drakes (I'm guessing my Ancona) to fertilize her eggs as she is the one that hatched out a trio of hinny ducklings last month.