2018 Hatchalong

[Serb]

Flock are molting early this year. First time Ireland has a 3 week heatwave with temps in the mid to high 20s so I'm guessing thats why molting is a month early. Loving the weather though!

 

[Serb]

Used an old car for my baby turkeys and guinea keet.
They love it

 

[Iain Utah]

You have excellent taste in duck breeds. I hope you get more eggs! Speaking of ducks, our latest round of babies are hatching today. So far 11 are out, with more eggs under momma. They are mutt breeds (pekin, crested blue, ancona), but super cute and colorful.

As for eggs in bator, yes there is a chance of buff but expecting grey. Most of the eggs are from a grey with buff gene male/grey female (which give me a 25% chance for buff girl), and there are a couple of eggs from a buff pair. Of course, I did not mark the ones getting close to hatching, so those will be a mystery color.

I really hope to hatch a couple dewlaps. One of my all-time favorite dewlaps (my blind goose) passed away suddenly yesterday (natural causes). It really hits home how many of my dewlaps are getting up there in years and unfortunately it is too commonplace to find one just dropping dead when perfectly fine shortly beforehand.

 

[Serb]

You have excellent taste in duck breeds. I hope you get more eggs! Speaking of ducks, our latest round of babies are hatching today. So far 11 are out, with more eggs under momma. They are mutt breeds (pekin, crested blue, ancona), but super cute and colorful.

As for eggs in bator, yes there is a chance of buff but expecting grey. Most of the eggs are from a grey with buff gene male/grey female (which give me a 25% chance for buff girl), and there are a couple of eggs from a buff pair. Of course, I did not mark the ones getting close to hatching, so those will be a mystery color.

I really hope to hatch a couple dewlaps. One of my all-time favorite dewlaps (my blind goose) passed away suddenly yesterday (natural causes). It really hits home how many of my dewlaps are getting up there in years and unfortunately it is too commonplace to find one just dropping dead when perfectly fine shortly beforehand.

I never seen Cayuga ducks for sale before in fact i wasn't expecting a cayuga duck regardless of how black it was. Once the green feathers showed i knew straight away oh it's that green duck breed! (didn't know the name of the breed at that time haha).

I love suprises and when ever you wait for the pip from the suprise eggs you always want a buff haha. Once you see a black beak you're like "oh ok, it's a brown gosling". Even though you don't mind a brown gosling but you really just want to see a buff haha.

I know the feeling Iain! Last year my buff african gander big Joe died at the age of 17 nearly 18 and his mate died early this year. I bought them really old but they are the reason I've all my buff african geese today. All i care about is that they lived a happy life here
My oldest now is 7 years and the oldest after that is 2 years so my flock is very young.

Sold many goslings this year so hopefully the African goose population will rise here in Ireland
Thanks to Brown ganders carrying the buff gene we can get new blood buff africans to increase the population.

 

[Serb]

Locked up all the Animals last night not knowing two of my turkey toms were still in the field and unfortunately after i heard the turkey scream i knew i lost a tom.

It was 11:30 pm when it happened and at this time of year in Ireland it's still bright enough to graze so that's why they were still in the field.

 

[Serb]

I knew it wasn't the foxes with the babies so my dog and i waited for the fox to get his meal. Once he got close enough my dog got a hold of him and they fought. I stopped my dog since I'm against dogs mauling animals and i grabbed the fox behind the neck. It played dead so it wasn't hard to pick the little critter up. I tied his mouth before he stopped playing dead and here he is.

He's only a year old and i seen him wander every now and then.
Relocating him to a forest up the mountain 40 minutes from my place.

This is the 8th fox my dog caught in her 6 years. I leave the adult foxes in my area because they dealt with my dog 3 years back so they know the real deal.

Juveniles are inexperienced and have no mates so i relocate them if i manage to catch them somehow. This little guy was set free early this morning. He won't bother the turkeys anymore.

My other turkey who was with the one that died has learned his lesson not be in the field late haha. The female turkeys are much smarter!

 

[Sarkchick]

Hello all. I have a goose hatching question
I have a young goose (13-14 months)who started brooding while I was on vacation. 2 of her eggs as of this morning are chirping. So they internal pip during the night. So I guess they have internal pips.

My question is: when should there be a external pip?
And if there is not a external pip by afternoon, should I put a safety hole?

Thanks for any help, advise
Linda

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Serb
@Iain Utah
@Pyxis

 

[Iain Utah]

If your goose has been sitting on these eggs the entire time, I would trust her to let them hatch under her without human interference. Best of luck!

 

[Sarkchick]

If your goose has been sitting on these eggs the entire time, I would trust her to let them hatch under her without human interference. Best of luck!

Thank you. I'm sure you are right.
I was just worried because she is so young.
Linda