Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[Miss Lydia]

I did not have an issue with fertility this year. I had a goose hatch 8 out of 8 eggs. None of the 20+ eggs I put in the incubator hatched. THat I believe was handler error. The other goose had 8 fertile eggs until raccoons destroyed the nest. I lost all of my goslings this year. 2 goslings came up missing one day. 3 days later 4 more were gone. I started to lock geese in "Fort Knox" at night. One night we stayed at a friends house till about sunset and came home to a destroyed nest and the final 2 goslings gone.

We have been ridding our place of all kinds of vermin this year! This is not unlike the great chicken Massacre 2 years ago. I forgot to shut in chickens one night and lost 16 3 month old chickens. I really hate raccoons!

Next year I will not loose a gosling or any other animal to a raccoon!

I'm so sorry to hear you lost all those precious goslings flockman. how awful.

How did the adults fair during all of this?

 

[servpolice]

Nate if it pipped itself then you will have to wait and be calm and hope for the best

 

[livininbrazil]

All the Africans were purchased as females, I already think Cream is a gander or a she male. If Gertrude is the Sami have some questions for the hatchery I got them from, like if they know how to sex, or what in the world are they doing to produce 2 gender confused female Africans!? I will keep watching them, Cream has not started growing his/her knob yet, which if a gander he/she should have. I already know I have 2 pairs of Chinese, it's the Africans that are keeping me guessing with the strange behavior. I had been told and read that Africans were milder tempered than Chinese, but for me it's the other way around! If Gertrude keeps this behavior up, she could replace Noel as Christmas dinner. Noel is very sweet for a gander, never threatens anyone and is always up for scratches, it would be a shame to butcher him. But I get the feeling its because Snow is the dominant gander, if Snow wasn't here Noel would be just as obnoxious to strangers. I don't have proof, just a huntch.

That poor dog, I am glad you found her and are taking care of her. I hope her injuries are not too severe and she recovers.

Well, if the knobs are still quite small when they should have grown, then maybe you do have females. Just narky ones. At least Gertrude would make a meatier dinner, being bigger.
As for the dog, the vet went out to get her, and couldn´t find her. So I went back out today, and the little girl said the dog was right under her tree. so, I didn´t disturb her. I went home, phoned the vet, she went out there and...dog gone! I´ll try again tomorrow.

I did not have an issue with fertility this year. I had a goose hatch 8 out of 8 eggs. None of the 20+ eggs I put in the incubator hatched. THat I believe was handler error. The other goose had 8 fertile eggs until raccoons destroyed the nest. I lost all of my goslings this year. 2 goslings came up missing one day. 3 days later 4 more were gone. I started to lock geese in "Fort Knox" at night. One night we stayed at a friends house till about sunset and came home to a destroyed nest and the final 2 goslings gone.

We have been ridding our place of all kinds of vermin this year! This is not unlike the great chicken Massacre 2 years ago. I forgot to shut in chickens one night and lost 16 3 month old chickens. I really hate raccoons!

Next year I will not loose a gosling or any other animal to a raccoon!

That´s terrible, how disappointing for you. Poor geese, too, losing their babies.

 

[nate1the1great1]

im so upset right now ok so the egg pipped it zipped and right before it popped it open the mom accidentally broke the egg all the way open and it lived it came out of he egg was under her for about 10 minutes and died and it is the saddest thing ever i Waited for over a month and now this im so upset i dont know how it died but it was cleaning itself off fine and acting fine but im just so upset

 

[livininbrazil]

im so upset right now ok so the egg pipped it zipped and right before it popped it open the mom accidentally broke the egg all the way open and it lived it came out of he egg was under her for about 10 minutes and died and it is the saddest thing ever i Waited for over a month and now this im so upset i dont know how it died but it was cleaning itself off fine and acting fine but im just so upset

Oh, how sad, so sorry to hear about the disappointment. sounds like it may be a clumsy goose?

 

[ChickDancer]

I did not have an issue with fertility this year. I had a goose hatch 8 out of 8 eggs. None of the 20+ eggs I put in the incubator hatched. THat I believe was handler error. The other goose had 8 fertile eggs until raccoons destroyed the nest. I lost all of my goslings this year. 2 goslings came up missing one day. 3 days later 4 more were gone. I started to lock geese in "Fort Knox" at night. One night we stayed at a friends house till about sunset and came home to a destroyed nest and the final 2 goslings gone.

We have been ridding our place of all kinds of vermin this year! This is not unlike the great chicken Massacre 2 years ago. I forgot to shut in chickens one night and lost 16 3 month old chickens. I really hate raccoons!

Next year I will not loose a gosling or any other animal to a raccoon!

See, that has actually been my problem, and I'm wondering if this strange weather has been the cause as well. I've had HORRIBLE problems with predators this year! Normally, I get a few predators, and trapping them takes them out fairly easily. But this year there is something almost every night. Not necessarily a bird dying every night, but claw marks, scratches, patches of missing feathers... some kind of EVIDENCE of a predator every night!


And then humidity has been all kinds of crazy so maybe that's why incubators are acting up too. For the most part I get 100% hatch rates, but there was one point in April where I lost MOST of the eggs in the incubator.

 

[Starfire669]

Well, if the knobs are still quite small when they should have grown, then maybe you do have females.  Just narky ones.  At least Gertrude would make a meatier dinner, being bigger. 
As for the dog, the vet went out to get her, and couldn´t find her.  So I went back out today, and the little girl said the dog was right under her tree.  so, I didn´t disturb her.  I went home, phoned the vet, she went out there and...dog gone!  I´ll try again tomorrow.
That´s terrible, how disappointing for you.  Poor geese, too, losing their babies. 

I hope you find the dog. Poor thing.

I don't know what would be worse, more ganders or snotty females. Guess there are a few in the running to be dinner, lol.

 

[nate1the1great1]

Well it was her first time going broody but luckily i go to see what the goslings look like

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well it was her first time going broody but luckily i go to see what the goslings look like

So sorry nate, almost same happened here just about 3 weeks ago. only this one pipped internally but couldn't pip externally, anyway we lost our only gosling to hatch here this year. So very much know how heart breaking it is.

 

[livininbrazil]

Well it was her first time going broody but luckily i go to see what the goslings look like

Well, that´s a very positive outlook. Just sad for you. But first-timers often do have things go wrong one way or another. Hopefully next year she´ll be more aware. I´ve had a couple of new moms squash eggs as they were hatching, or nibble too much they damaged the gosling. Sadly, it happens.