Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[servpolice]

Wow that gonna have a odd colour haha never seen a gosling like that well done 8
I guess white with bits of brown

 

[RURU]

There's over 100 posts since yesterday morning..... such a chatty bunch! Sorry I'm not doing a marathon multi-quote to reply to everyone, but glad to see hatching season is a big success this year for most everyone. I finally have candling updates and very sad news to share. As a few of you know, I moved onto my current property 3 years ago and it came with a pair of male geese. Hubby and I thought it would be nice to hatch babies to give to them and on February 24, 2012, I hatched my very 1st four African goslings. Two were girls and after the ganders adopted and raised the 4-pack, each took a girl for a mate. Sometime in the early morning hours yesterday, a raccoon got one of my girls and her mate appears lost without her. She was so imprinted with me that as part of her daily routine, she would climb in my lap, nibble on my clothes and drive off any other geese that wanted to come near me. Losing her is a terrible blow and hubby and I are both pretty wrecked.

I believe the best thing we can do for our gander is to give him more babies to raise so we candled every broody's nest last night. In my deceased girl's sister's nest (which she shared), I have 4 eggs ranging from day 15-21. In Beignet's nest I have 4 eggs between day 15-21 and one is a strong swimming white African. In my buff dewlap's nest, to my great surprise I have 8 eggs between day 7-15, and in my incubator (which my neighbor's kid is using), I have 3 white African eggs on day 21. In all, I have 19 eggs developing and now I am impatient and anxious to get at least a few to hatch to give to my grieving boy.

J, I am so sorry for your loss and I pray you get goslings to give to your gander who lost his mate... Are you going to try and get the raccoon because once they come and get anything from you they keep coming back for more!!!

 

[ChickDancer]

My sister just had her very first experience penning the geese and ducks back up.

She is dog-sitting for her boss, and wanted to put the dog out in a screen arbor/tent that we have sitting out back. We weren't too sure about it, because a dog has to be raised around screen to know it's THERE, and they can't just run through it. First attempt, the dog lunged right at the screen in an attempt to run. It held her, but my sister wanted to pen the ducks and geese up just in case.

So she herded them towards the big pen that they share with chicks, opened the gate, and shoo'd them all inside. It took her less than 10 seconds. She was ecstatic!

Her only experience with that pen is trying to get chickens (who were previously free-range and not all that tamed) to go in there and stay in there. Clearly a total difference!

 

[flockman]

There's over 100 posts since yesterday morning..... such a chatty bunch!  Sorry I'm  not doing a marathon multi-quote to reply to everyone, but glad to see hatching season is a big success this year for most everyone.  I finally have candling updates and very sad news to share.  As a few of you know, I moved onto my current property 3 years ago and it came with a pair of male geese.  Hubby and I thought it would be nice to hatch babies to give to them and on February 24, 2012, I hatched my very 1st four African goslings.  Two were girls and after the ganders adopted and raised the 4-pack, each took a girl for a mate.  Sometime in the early morning hours yesterday, a raccoon got one of my girls and her mate appears lost without her. She was so imprinted with me that as part of her daily routine, she would climb in my lap, nibble on my clothes and drive off any other geese that wanted to come near me.  Losing her is a terrible blow and hubby and I are both pretty wrecked.

I believe the best thing we can do for our gander is to give him more babies to raise so we candled every broody's nest last night.  In my deceased girl's sister's nest (which she shared), I have 4 eggs ranging from day 15-21.  In Beignet's nest I have 4 eggs between day 15-21 and one is a strong swimming white African.  In my buff dewlap's nest, to my great surprise I have 8 eggs between day 7-15, and in my incubator (which my neighbor's kid is using), I have 3 white African eggs on day 21.  In all, I have 19 eggs developing and now I am impatient and anxious to get at least a few to hatch to give to my grieving boy.

So sorry to hear this.

 

[flockman]

Currently I have a goose on 8 eggs at about day 21. I have 5 eggs in the incubator on day 12. Now my second goose seems to be going broody on 7 eggs. So exciting! 20 possible goslings. I just hope for a few.

 

[AmericanMom]

So woke up this morning to the third chick mostly out.. Helped it the rest of the way, its foot was stuck to the egg?? Anyways, watched it for a bit, it seemed fine so I went ahead and went grocery shopping figuring I would let it stay in there and dry off.. Came home 2 hours later and it was dead!!! Just broke my heart

... Last egg was zipping tho so I didn't have much time to think about it, as soon as it was out I removed the dead chick.. All seemed fine, no bleeding , no marks.. Navel had some white stuff around it? I haven't noticed it in any of the other goslings...


Forth chick is almost ready to put with his mates and that will conclude my attempt at hatching geese... At least for this year..

Oh by the way, Wrong way is eating chick feed and grass, wont hardly let me put it down to what he isn't on me lol.. Chick #2 is followings his lead but more interested in playing in the water..I'll get pictures when they are all dry and everything settles down..

2nd incubator with Chicks and turkeys, chicks set to hatch tomorrow, Turkeys on Monday... Already got a pip in a chicken egg

 

[8GeeseALaying]

Wow that gonna have a odd colour haha never seen a gosling like that well done 8
I guess white with bits of brown

I thought it was odd too, even though i have a lighter one, this one has his spots in different places than the other. The other i would say will be a white gander thats what i got last year.

 

[psue]

So woke up this morning to the third chick mostly out.. Helped it the rest of the way, its foot was stuck to the egg?? Anyways, watched it for a bit, it seemed fine so I went ahead and went grocery shopping figuring I would let it stay in there and dry off.. Came home 2 hours later and it was dead!!! Just broke my heart

... Last egg was zipping tho so I didn't have much time to think about it, as soon as it was out I removed the dead chick.. All seemed fine, no bleeding , no marks.. Navel had some white stuff around it? I haven't noticed it in any of the other goslings...


Forth chick is almost ready to put with his mates and that will conclude my attempt at hatching geese... At least for this year..

Oh by the way, Wrong way is eating chick feed and grass, wont hardly let me put it down to what he isn't on me lol.. Chick #2 is followings his lead but more interested in playing in the water..I'll get pictures when they are all dry and everything settles down..

2nd incubator with Chicks and turkeys, chicks set to hatch tomorrow, Turkeys on Monday... Already got a pip in a chicken egg

unfortunately we lose some and we dont always know why. Glad the rest are doing well.


Sorry to hear about your goose J.

 

[Iain Utah]

I love you guys for being so understanding and supportive. Not everyone understands how hard a loss a goose can be. I look forward to happier times soon when we can give newly hatched goslings to our grieving gander.

As for trapping raccoons, I am hell bent on wiping out the current local population. I know where their path onto my property is and use cheap can food. We have trapped dozens of raccoons on our property this way. I was rather surprised to find my two traps empty this morning, but hubby and I patrolled the property every few hours last night. I will be shocked if they are empty again tomorrow.

 

[AmericanMom]

For some reason my phone wont allow me to quote ... I have hatched enough that I know not everyone survives and ave lost chicks, just lost 7 turkeys last week... but this little one bigger me!! they are so personable and it so funny when they see me and jump up and start vocalizing it was just hard ... but the other three are now together and doing fine. I was only going to keep two but since the other.died I wont let my brother just take the one and separate it unless they can find another gosling.