Canada goose mix geese!

[Miss Lydia]

My gosh how precious is that.

Sorry about the eggs.

 

[brittanimck]

Well, an egg was broken in the nest early on and must've infected the others. Sad, but we were being optimistic to think they hadn't been infected. She has a fresh nest, extra protection, and 8 duck eggs to sit on again. She kicked out our two broody duck hens, who decided to share a nest, out to sit on their eggs! So we gave her the eggs we had been incubating for a couple weeks to please her. She gets grain, crumbles, forage, and plenty of water. She looks fantastic for having sat on eggs at all.

 

[brittanimck]

The other goslings are strong and very happy! Our cats are sufficiently afraid of them thanks only to their own actions. Haha

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well, an egg was broken in the nest early on and must've infected the others. Sad, but we were being optimistic to think they hadn't been infected. She has a fresh nest, extra protection, and 8 duck eggs to sit on again. She kicked out our two broody duck hens, who decided to share a nest, out to sit on their eggs! So we gave her the eggs we had been incubating for a couple weeks to please her. She gets grain, crumbles, forage, and plenty of water. She looks fantastic for having sat on eggs at all.

Oh good well she'll have some ducklings to watch over she'll love it, be sure to keep us updated when hatch begins and of course pics. What breed of ducks?

 

[brittanimck]

The ducks are a mix of Ancona and Swedish mostly. They will be gorgeous.

 

[Miss Lydia]

The ducks are a mix of Ancona and Swedish mostly. They will be gorgeous.

I think so too. look forward to seeing them.

 

[brittanimck]

Late, but here they are, all grown up.

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

 

[Miss Lydia]

Late, but here they are, all grown up.

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk

They are all beautiful thanks so much for sharing them.

 

[sourland]

Nine or ten years ago someone dumped a Toulouse goose at a local park. She paired up with a Canada gander, and they hatched and raised 3 goslings. The mother died the first winter, but two of the three goslings are still alive. They are very recognizable by their slightly larger size, pink feet, and dusky cheek patches. They are mules and have never raised goslings. They fly with the Canada geese and leave the park when the small lake freezes over.

 

[KAGU143]

I hope it's okay to resurrect this old thread because it seems like the perfect topic. I also find myself being the proud (?) owner of a gaggle of hybrid geese.

Brief background story: I didn't want geese; I've had them before, I like them, but I'm focusing on other kinds of birds for now.
In the summer of 2013 I inherited a young, severely angel-winged Canada goose that had been found and improperly raised by some kids in my neighborhood. I have a large, securely fenced area so I said sure, I don't care if it lives in there with my other birds, and if it manages to fly away, so be it. That was my mistake.

The poor thing was so lonely and miserable that I took pity on it and finally found another young goose to keep it company. The one I found was an American Buff goose. So, Lucy Goosie (Canada) is a girl and Clyde (Buff) is a boy. They have been pals ever since, but even though Lucy laid a clutch of eggs every year starting in 2014, I was relieved that they had all proven to be infertile. I thought I had dodged that bullet, but nope. This was the third year, and I guess that three was a charm.

This year - to my shock, because I hadn't even candled the eggs! - they produced 5 hybrid goslings. Even more interesting, because Clyde is a Buff, the goslings turned out to be auto-sexing: 3 girls and 2 boys.The girls are a lovely shade of golden-blonde and the boys are typical Canada hybrids, almost identical to Miss Lydia's. (Oops. Wrong name. They belonged to britanimck.) At this point, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but they're still babies and I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

This is when they were still very little. (Clyde was warning me to stay away.) I need to get more recent pictures, because the boys are already taller than their mom. Even here, you can already tell the boys and girls apart by color.