Gone broody..

[DulcyDoll]

She's gone broody..and I can't say I'm overly excited about it.

My girl is sitting on 2 eggs, yes, 2 eggs. She started laying, I collected 6 as she layed them. first one was blown (yep..Im keepin' it lol) second was checked for fertility (it was good) and the last 4 went into the incubator. At 17 days, I gave up on them and cracked them to find nothing. She has been steady laying on these 2 since the 26th, I candled them today and have 1 that is looking awesome.

I have a few questions, as this is the first time having a broody goose.

My adults are friendly for the most part, but I'm worried the gosling will be skittish if I let them raise it. How do you feel about taking the egg just before hatching, or taking the gosling right after hatching? How upset will the parents be? Will they readily accept the gosling back after it has grown a bit under my care? Or is it just a bad idea all together? I really want my geese friendly, I just fear that lack of human socialization will make it scared of people.

Are there any extra foods/supplements that I should be giving her, she doesn't seem to be getting up to eat or drink. I have been going back 3 times a day to offer her food and water and she eats and drinks a little, but no where near what she was before she went broody.

Anything else, tips, experiences, whatever would be wonderful to hear!

 

[CoopCrazy]

Hoping someone can help....

 

[houndit]

I have never had a broody goose, but I have had broody Muscovies. I am sure it is a little different. I take their ducklings away right after they hatch because I want then to set more. They are sad for a while but they are O.K. When they are grown I put them back out with the flock. The mother does not know that they are hers but they get along O.K. Last year we had 6 adult geese. Than we got 8 young geese. They were free ranging in the yard with nearly 50 ducks. Our adult geese found out about them somehow. Even though they were not the parents they stayed there all day with the young geese. I would think it would be O.K. to take them away from your goose. She will grieve for a while but will get over it. She will probably except them when they are older without much trouble.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know geese. I can guess from chickens but I suspect there may be some differences.

If you take the goslings away from the parents, I would suspect you would have to brood them totally separately until they reached a size that you would normally introduce a new goose to your flock. I would expect the parent geese to be very upset and probably physically attack you if you try to take the gosling away. Probably the same thing if you try to take the egg away to finish hatching it, but maybe not so violently. Once you take the egg or gosling, the mama will be very upset for a day or two, then will get on with life, quite possibly go back to laying and try to hatch out another brood. Once you take it, they will not recognize it as one of their babies but will just see it as another goose or gosling.

If it is raised with the flock it will not be as friendly as if you raise it yourself. Mama will teach it to beware of dangers and you will be seen as a danger.

Do you have her locked up where she cannot forage or is she free to roam? If she is free to forage, she is taking care of herself. If you have her locked up where you are providing her the food, I'd just keep supplying her a balanced diet. She will decide what she needs to eat and drink.

As I said, I do not know geese. I do not know if the father takes his turn on the nest while the hen is out eating or not. That would be my biggest concern. If both parents normally take turns on the nest so the hen can eat and drink and you are preventing that, then you could have problems.

I don't know how much this helps. Good luck!!!

 

[DulcyDoll]

Thanks for the replies!..

They are not locked up, except at night, but since she started setting I don't see either of them out foraging like they used to. I do also provide feed for them. Its more of a she is setting, he is protecting thing right now. He doesn't like to leave the coop when she is in there. The most he does is hiss at me, if I walk into his space with her, he goes outside and waits till I leave. And she has no issue with me messing with her eggs, I took them out the other day to candle them and she was great about it. She lets me pet her, and will come up and tug on my pants leg for attention.

I think I will let her incubate it and I'll snatch it when it hatches and brood it myself.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I think you are going to produce exactly what you don't want, an unfriendly goose. If the parents are friendly why do you think they would teach the gosling not to trust or be unfriendly to you? On the other hand would you trust someone that snatched your baby even if they brought it back to you when it was 10 years old? Geese have long memories and are unlikely to forget the fight with you when you snatched their baby (and if the gosling makes one distress call while you are at it you will have both geese attacking you, been there done that!). The gosling is going to imprint on its mother right after it hatches, it may imprint on you later or it may consider you a big predator and try to avoid you as you brood it. If it does imprint on you, you won’t be half the mama that mother goose would be. Are you going to be with it ALL the time? Have you got soft warm feathers it can snuggle up to when it is sleepy? I don’t want to turn a goose into a human but if it is alone it is going to call to you when you have to leave it. Think about what you are going to do but let me tell you that the best days I ever had with my geese was when both parents brought their clutch of goslings over to me and allowed them to climb (and poop) on me when I got down on the ground to be on their level.
An Imprinted goose is going to want to fight with you when it comes time to get its proper place in the goose-human pecking order.
As for your questions about feed, Mama won't eat anywhere near as much as normal while srtting a nest. They aren't active and don't need as much. If the weather is cold they usually will jump off the nest and cover the eggs with some straw if the gander isn't there to jump on (yes ganders sometimes set the nest while the goose is off), run to the feed and water and gobble down what they need and dump a huge smelly poop well away from the nest. and get back on the nest before the eggs cool much. My Pilgrims used to lose 1-2 pounds while setting and since both parents molt while the goslings are growing they tend to eat a lot more then to replace the feathers and get back to good condition.