Ducklings + Goslings

[chwychuro]

@chwychuro
  beautiful birds.. I had an Embden gander who thought he was a duck for 5 yrs till I brought him home a mate, then it still took him time to realize he wasn't a Muscovy.

Haha thank you! Yeah with Nemo , we actually have about 10 other ducks around.... He will chase them off if they get too close to the other geese or his food....

 

[Miss Lydia]

Haha thank you! Yeah with Nemo , we actually have about 10 other ducks around.... He will chase them off if they get too close to the other geese or his food....

Sometimes they need a couch to talk things out.

Poor things. Well as long as they are happy.

 

[Wild Hair]

I apologize for the long wait. I haven't been on here in ages. We lost one female to something unclear. The university said she had a bacteria in her splean which could have been a number of causes. There's also been quite a few changes to the run after a couple cases of bumblefoot. The girls starting laying as early as four months old which surprised me. They've laid strong, giving us 5-9 eggs a day all through the winter. Our goose started laying almost two months ago and has given us around ten or so. I collected them for a while and then decided to let her keep them. We put 25 duck eggs in an incubator Saturday. Then two days later our goose decided to set. She had five eggs to my knowledge but she also collected a couple duck eggs also. We're so excited and can hardly wait for the upcoming weeks.

Here's Gloria

 

[Wild Hair]

We added a goat as well!

 

[jake and pippa]

I have geese in NYS, and they have nor started to lay yet. They are starting to mate however. My Muscovy are laying.

I am interested in how your duckling/goslings do. Last year my Embden seemed pretty interested in brooding, eventually, but she and her sister only hatched three goslings from about 12 eggs, and then managed to kill two of those goslings within 2-3 days. I had better luck hatching their (earlier) eggs in an incubator and then bringing the goslings outside at about 2 weeks old. The adults did an excellent job of raising them. I did set the goslings in a wire pen for a few days to protect them from the adults. I have more adults this year, and will see what happens. In addition to their own eggs, I have bought a few goslings for them to raise from Metzer Farms.

I may try giving some goose eggs to one of my Muscovy hens to see if she will hatch them out.

 

[Wild Hair]

I will absolutely keep everyone posted. Our goose has been a pain lately and she's very irregular with when she wants to be setting. Some mornings our duck Janice will be setting on the nest. She's nowhere near big enough to cover all the eggs so I brought two home to put in the incubator (just in case). This is our first incubating attempt and our inexperience is showing. I've been having trouble keeping the humidity up without condensation building on the windows. I've read that you dont want that.

 

[Wild Hair]

We've got our first noticeable external pip. They've been on lockdown since day 26 and today marks the start of day 31. Being our first hatching run we just used eggs out of the fridge and we are down to 5 eggs in the Bator. Last time we candled the eggs in the goose nest we had three healthy goose eggs and two duck. It's coming down to crunch time and we're getting so anxious. We should've known all that watching on the 28th day would make them nervous and take a few extra days. I should mention, yesterday high winds knocked the power out but I was able to get them on a generator. Talk about stressful.

 

[Miss Lydia]

We've got our first noticeable external pip. They've been on lockdown since day 26 and today marks the start of day 31. Being our first hatching run we just used eggs out of the fridge and we are down to 5 eggs in the Bator. Last time we candled the eggs in the goose nest we had three healthy goose eggs and two duck. It's coming down to crunch time and we're getting so anxious. We should've known all that watching on the 28th day would make them nervous and take a few extra days. I should mention, yesterday high winds knocked the power out but I was able to get them on a generator. Talk about stressful.

Exciting

 

[Wild Hair]

First babe is out on the 33rd day! None of the others have pipped yet so I'm a little worried for them. Hopefully our goose hatches her babies soon so our little peeper will get a friend in the brooder!

Edit to add: It's a little black runner from the looks of it. Looks just like it's daddy

 

[Miss Lydia]

First babe is out on the 33rd day! None of the others have pipped yet so I'm a little worried for them. Hopefully our goose hatches her babies soon so our little peeper will get a friend in the brooder!

Edit to add: It's a little black runner from the looks of it. Looks just like it's daddy

Congrats!! Is your goose sitting on duck or goose eggs or both?