2 days to go to hatch and goose broke egg.

Look at all that grass, boy I bet they are some happy geese.
Well, it was a pasture and now there are no cows on it, so the grass grows. we´re slowly cutting it back and the grass is slowly changing to grass that the geese prefer, but they do eat this sort of grass when it´s freshly shooting. It´s well nibbled all along the stream. The geese like to go on safari in it, they never know when they might meet a muscovy!
As you can see from this pic the grass is changing where we´re cutting it back.
This is the family, I took the pic a week ago, consisting of the 6-wk-old gosling that was the first one that I brought up to the house after the other 2 had died, with the little 2-wk-old one that hatched from the nest that had the broken egg. Two singleton goslings that have become a family. This is the goose that hatched it, she´s now broken from her nest addiction and is doing a good job. And the younger gosling is now more attached to her than to me, very good. However the tiny one remains very easy to pick up, and it´s good and chunky too, and the parents don´t mind, whereas the other one is a just little wary, having been that bit older when I started to look after it. A week after taking this photo, and they´re doing well, growing fast. When I want to get them in, I go down there with lettuce, and the goslings leave the parents standing! So rewarding.
 
Well, it was a pasture and now there are no cows on it, so the grass grows. we´re slowly cutting it back and the grass is slowly changing to grass that the geese prefer, but they do eat this sort of grass when it´s freshly shooting. It´s well nibbled all along the stream. The geese like to go on safari in it, they never know when they might meet a muscovy!
As you can see from this pic the grass is changing where we´re cutting it back.
This is the family, I took the pic a week ago, consisting of the 6-wk-old gosling that was the first one that I brought up to the house after the other 2 had died, with the little 2-wk-old one that hatched from the nest that had the broken egg. Two singleton goslings that have become a family. This is the goose that hatched it, she´s now broken from her nest addiction and is doing a good job. And the younger gosling is now more attached to her than to me, very good. However the tiny one remains very easy to pick up, and it´s good and chunky too, and the parents don´t mind, whereas the other one is a just little wary, having been that bit older when I started to look after it. A week after taking this photo, and they´re doing well, growing fast. When I want to get them in, I go down there with lettuce, and the goslings leave the parents standing! So rewarding.
What a great story and a sweet pic, Such good news that your goose has now taken over role of mum, I look forward to gosling from my 2 one of these days. I bet they enjoy going on safari. Now the wild Muscovy's are they solid black except for white on wing tips?
 
What a great story and a sweet pic, Such good news that your goose has now taken over role of mum, I look forward to gosling from my 2 one of these days. I bet they enjoy going on safari. Now the wild Muscovy's are they solid black except for white on wing tips?
All the domestic muscovies here are the same as everywhere else. Mine are white, silver, barred, black-and-white.....but there are native ones in parks on the lakes. Here´s a pic.
 
Here´s a pic of the silver one with her ducklings in the water. Most of the water is this colour, it´s the colour of the soil!

And here she is braving it out with the geese! The white muscovy´s not too sure, but her youngsters don´t have any problem....
 
Here´s a pic of the silver one with her ducklings in the water. Most of the water is this colour, it´s the colour of the soil!

And here she is braving it out with the geese! The white muscovy´s not too sure, but her youngsters don´t have any problem....
Nice pics and your Scovy's are very pretty, love the pics of the ducklings swimming, Do the geese mind the ducks much, mine are much more tolerant of the ducklings than the ducks. My gander has been papa goose to many Muscovy ducklings. Looks like a really nice place for them all to hang out.
 
Being baby things, they tolerate the ducklings up to about 6 weeks old or so, then they start to shoo them away, like the ducks. Only a little distance, though, and only in the goose breeding season. The geese are inclined to be louts down there, but they do protect the ducklings from the hawks. We never get hawks arrive in our place. Even the guan are sent packing. We have 4 ponds, so there´s plenty of water for all. This one just happens to be the favourite. At this moment the gander has emptied the pond for his family to enjoy themselves. The goslings soon learn to be bullies too!!! Haha, so funny, these little tiny things trying to shoo the bigger ducklings away.
I only leave 3 - 6 eggs with the ducks, as I don´t want loads of ducks, and sometimes it gets difficult to sell them, so I get a neighbour to dispatch them for me. It´s hard, as I like most of them. Sometimes there´ll be a bad-tempered male, so they´re no problem to eat, but they´re mostly very sweet-natured, coming from a very mellow drake. A neighbour of mine already has this nice-tempered drake to breed with., and I now have mostly female ducklings. But I have these 4 lovely little males. This is the difficult bit for me about keeping muscovies. I love watching them when they´re only days old, stamping about in the stream with mom, trying to disturb the mud for bugs.
 
Being baby things, they tolerate the ducklings up to about 6 weeks old or so, then they start to shoo them away, like the ducks. Only a little distance, though, and only in the goose breeding season. The geese are inclined to be louts down there, but they do protect the ducklings from the hawks. We never get hawks arrive in our place. Even the guan are sent packing. We have 4 ponds, so there´s plenty of water for all. This one just happens to be the favourite. At this moment the gander has emptied the pond for his family to enjoy themselves. The goslings soon learn to be bullies too!!! Haha, so funny, these little tiny things trying to shoo the bigger ducklings away.
I only leave 3 - 6 eggs with the ducks, as I don´t want loads of ducks, and sometimes it gets difficult to sell them, so I get a neighbour to dispatch them for me. It´s hard, as I like most of them. Sometimes there´ll be a bad-tempered male, so they´re no problem to eat, but they´re mostly very sweet-natured, coming from a very mellow drake. A neighbour of mine already has this nice-tempered drake to breed with., and I now have mostly female ducklings. But I have these 4 lovely little males. This is the difficult bit for me about keeping muscovies. I love watching them when they´re only days old, stamping about in the stream with mom, trying to disturb the mud for bugs.

Well you are blessed to have a neighbor to help out but I know it would be difficult, that's why I have 4 drakes. Even my dh has a problem doing our ducks but he will take care of extra Roosters. Those ducks just have too much personality.
 
Thanks for the stories and pics. Very cute.
Quote: Ah, lol, don't let this one experience turn you off them... This is the first lamb I've ever had who was sick. All the rest, and all the goat kids, were fine, and I've raised many orphans who came from terrible and unhealthy backgrounds.

This little girl just had an exceptionally bad time with every odd stacked against her. She was rejected at birth then paralyzed by multiple paralysis ticks, so she couldn't even lift her head, when she was about a week old, and during that time she was left in an open structure in the middle of winter, lying in her own urine and faeces. Then she was fed contaminated and very diluted plain milk powder in massive quantities by the previous owner who wanted to harm her to get to me. She nearly died so many times. Her knees were locked in the folded position and she's been poisoned and infected with all manner of toxins and bacteria, the pulpy kidney was inevitable. She's doing great now though, thankfully. That's her in my profile picture.

Sheep and goats can be great pets, very full of character, with great senses of humor, and some are quite affectionate and devoted. Like poultry, don't believe the hype about them all being utterly brainless. Some are quite smart and trainable. My lamb knows to only pee in a certain place (since she comes indoors) and has all manner of tricks up her sleeve. She's a Damara mix and they're so much like goats it's amazing.

Anyway, best wishes with your flock. Some sheep or goats would probably help with the grass trimming. ;)
 
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Well, what a lovely ending to a sad story. Poor little thing. We weree thinking about a couple of female lambs, or a ewe and lamb, we thought they might make our work lighter! And I´ve read that sheep and geese work well together. Our main concern is that we´ve just planted about a hundred native saplings on our place, so we´re a bit worried about them having picnics! The fencing we have here is what they use for pigs, just to keep neighbours´dogs out of the property and the geese in. There´s a about an acre and a half for them, so I imagine the sheep (would be Santa Ana mix) wouldn´t be too desperate to get out. Other folks around here have them in fields with cattle and just 3 or 4 strands of barbed wire. But our main idea is just to get a couple of females to eat the grass so we don´t have to cut it so much, but we don´t want anything that´s going to give us even more work! Either that, or breed a huge number of geese! I´ve already posted on another thread for opinions on this.
 

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