Colorado

[jgoldy2]

It sure was a hot day today!!! I live in Cenntenial but spend most of my winter weekends in Fraser to ski at WP/MJ

 

[samsr]

I had a bit of a dilemma when I got home this evening. This has to do with the new male goose(gander) that I went and picked up yesterday afternoon.
It seems my daughter ran up the driveway after getting the mail. This apparently scared the new comer to no end. He took off ,( flying) towards the the creek which runs through my backyard. He came to rest right at my trail and bailed off into the thick brush and willows. This is Fountain creek. It is about 20 feet down from my trail. Straight down. my wife and two daughters kept the big guy from getting to the creek initially. Yup, you guessed it was just after dark. You really cant realize how hard it is to see a Toulouse goose in the dark. They stated that the male goose was somewhere along the bank in the weeds along the creek. after about 15 minutes of me trudging through the small trees and very thick weeds above him he came out. He came out on the sand bar in front of my wife and one of my daughters right next to the creek. They called for me and I then climbed back up the bank to my trail. I reached the sand bar where they were and almost caught him. I just missed that big neck of his and he took off, Flying, towards the creek straight through my wife.. It was pretty funny listening to my wife scream and getting out of the way of this 5 foot wing spanned gander. it was priceless. He had made it to the creek and thought he was home free. Yea, not so much. Being the spry 45 year old, and maybe not so bright guy that I am, I went bailing off into the creek after him. After all, I was fully prepared with my work clothes, cell phone and wallet. After chasing him around a bit down stream and then back up stream, I manage to catch him in the dark. I only fell down once. He is now back in the coop with my two females (geese) in time out. lol.
I do need to go check on his foot as I think he injured it while I was chasing him around.
The lessons learned here are as follows. Observations also listed.
1. Don't run up the driveway with a new goose around.
2. My wallet repels water pretty well, Thanks ducks unlimited.
3. The otter box on my iphone works pretty well. phone still works.
4. I do not repel water very well. LOL
5. A 45 year old man should not chase a gander into a creek after dark.
6. The water in fountain creek off my property is deep enough, in spots, to go over your waist and is VERY cold.
7. Don't be fooled. A Toulouse goose can and will fly if frightened. Who knew.

I just thought I would share.
On a good note. I got three chicken eggs today!!

 

[Double Kindness]

Hmmm. Still no hatching, I expected one of my ee eggs to hatch today. The girls are laying great!

Yeah, the bresse definitely are showing some inbreeding issues, which was why I got shipped eggs with unrelated white bresse roos over gff pullets/hens.

I haven't eaten any of my bresse yet either, I'm at least a month or two out before my excess roo Stalin is big enough to eat.

My other 2 wb roos Boris and Jean-Pierre went for crow reduction this afternoon. I hope they do well. The cemani are just so darn loud. Crowing all day long. Ohh the wind blew. Oh a snowflake. Oh a pullet in the other pen did an egg song. Oh chicken mama (me) opened the back door. You get the gist.

Cochix- awesome job on the waterer!

 

[21hens-incharge]

The lessons learned here are as follows. Observations also listed.
1. Don't run up the driveway with a new goose around.
2. My wallet repels water pretty well, Thanks ducks unlimited.
3. The otter box on my iphone works pretty well. phone still works.
4. I do not repel water very well. LOL
5. A 45 year old man should not chase a gander into a creek after dark.
6. The water in fountain creek off my property is deep enough, in spots, to go over your waist and is VERY cold.
7. Don't be fooled. A Toulouse goose can and will fly if frightened. Who knew.

I just thought I would share.
On a good note. I got three chicken eggs today!!

Congrats on the eggs.
I knew they can fly quite well! lol I used to have Toulouse geese. I rather liked them. Super good mothers. It was funny with fresh hatched littles when she would stand up there was not a baby to be seen then she would open her wings a bit and plop, plop, plop, out they would drop. My Gander would launch and be about 6 to 7 feet off the ground flying straight at me. Unnerving at first for sure. He would do it whenever I entered his territory, looking for treats and making sure I did not mess with the nest. Awesome geese IMO. If you had been in swim trunks he would have just stood there like "Hey man how's it goin"

I needed that laugh. Thank you.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Double Kindness,

It is a real bummer that the hatch failed and none of the others have pipped yet.
Hang in there.

 

[samsr]

It sure was funny watching that goose head straight for the water through my wife. I havent heard her make tose noises in a lot of years. My female geese havent done much flying. They generally just follow me around the yard.
You cant buy memories like that. Lol

 

[21hens-incharge]

Too funny Samsr. I bet it was something you wish you had on video.
My gander would land just out of arms reach and as long as I did not back away he would back down a bit. OH he would hiss and stomp at me but never even once did he make a serious or even half decent actual attempt at an attack.

 

[suncatcher]

DK, I think all American Breese in the US come from stock that GFF imported, so kinda hard to get away from their genetics..... have heard of others having problems too. Might be time to import some new genes or breed them with another chicken breed, and then go back to Bresse, not sure how one would accomplish this, but pretty sure has been done before! I have seen some blue Bresse for sale on line, not sure if they are from the same GFF stock or not, also, they are VERY pricey!!!

Yep, the night the gander flew into Fountain Creek will be a memory you will talk about for years to come! lol

My hens are picking up on laying, of course we have a cold front with snow coming through the end of the week, so that may change them back to not laying well!!

Nice you were able to get some skiing in, was a perfect day for it.

 

[maggiemo]

Yep, the night the gander flew into Fountain Creek will be a memory you will talk about for years to come! lol

 

[Double Kindness]

Oh my my my, I would have liked to see that.

The egg marked 1/3 started to pip just now. I'm very anxious, as my last hatch I threw out 14 eggs. 50 eggs in the bator, I gotta get at least a few chicks right?

Tonight I send my ac roo to freezer camp. My bf had to get up 5 times to put socks on their heads over and over. I told him a week ago we needed to process them. He "fixed" the problem by screwing up foam boarding. Now socks.

Anyone want any of my roos?