Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[Miss Lydia]

Good idea. Sometimes when I hear the gander gloat I go out to see who´s mated with whom, but often I´m too late. However, I got to realise that the goose that´s still in the water having a bath is the one that´s just been mated. Surprising at such a young age, but it seems strange things are happening in the waterbird world.....

Problem is here as soon as it's over Missy gets in so by the time I get there all of the geese except Sam are in the pool. But we had a break in the rain so I went up and set up the game camera,

This morning both Toots and Babe were bathing so I couldn't tell by that.

 

[livininbrazil]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

The two 'normandy' geese have paired off with a couple of Pilgrim ganders, and they have 4 male and 4 female goslings between them. The ones that were suggested as being Lavenders aren´t, as far as I can see, they´re just normal auto-sexing gander babies.

The little Pilgrim gal with her own little one the furthest from the camera, and the others all adopted, as for various reasons they hatched out indoors under the desklamp, she´s doing a grand job looking after them. Pic shows 5 gozzies here with her on a little outing to the stream.

Here, the original Pil trio with their 4 gozzies between them. These 4 are actually all the gozzies from the goose with less white on her face. The other didn´t produce this year, as she produced some last year, so I just let her sit on half (4) of the eggs that the other one laid, and she hatched 3. The other one hatched out just 1. Actually, the one with the whiter face laid an extra egg in with the 4 eggs and that hatched out much later, and is now with the young goose with the adopted ones....


This pic shows the adoptive mum with three of her charges, eating the grass that´s already nice and short and ignoring the weeds...just so ones can see what geese like to eat...

And here shows a number of the geese pretending to be boats in a yard....

 

[livininbrazil]

Problem is here as soon as it's over Missy gets in so by the time I get there all of the geese except Sam are in the pool. But we had a break in the rain so I went up and set up the game camera,

This morning both Toots and Babe were bathing so I couldn't tell by that.

Ah, well that´s a great idea setting up a camera. You´ll soon know.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

The two 'normandy' geese have paired off with a couple of Pilgrim ganders, and they have 4 male and 4 female goslings between them. The ones that were suggested as being Lavenders aren´t, as far as I can see, they´re just normal auto-sexing gander babies.

The little Pilgrim gal with her own little one the furthest from the camera, and the others all adopted, as for various reasons they hatched out indoors under the desklamp, she´s doing a grand job looking after them. Pic shows 5 gozzies here with her on a little outing to the stream.

Here, the original Pil trio with their 4 gozzies between them. These 4 are actually all the gozzies from the goose with less white on her face. The other didn´t produce this year, as she produced some last year, so I just let her sit on half (4) of the eggs that the other one laid, and she hatched 3. The other one hatched out just 1. Actually, the one with the whiter face laid an extra egg in with the 4 eggs and that hatched out much later, and is now with the young goose with the adopted ones....


This pic shows the adoptive mum with three of her charges, eating the grass that´s already nice and short and ignoring the weeds...just so ones can see what geese like to eat...

And here shows a number of the geese pretending to be boats in a yard....

Great pics, I love to see geese with their babes they are so doting. Ya'll must have had alot of rain for the geese to be pretending to be boats in the yard. So pretty too.

 

[livininbrazil]

Great pics, I love to see geese with their babes they are so doting. Ya'll must have had alot of rain for the geese to be pretending to be boats in the yard. So pretty too.

Haha, no, I meant a boatyard., where they moor up. We´ve actually had very little rain. This is a pond that we dug out for them where a spring goes into the marsh. There are a few of them, and they all feed into the stream....keeps the geese happy even when there´s no rain....

 

[Miss Lydia]

Haha, no, I meant a boatyard., where they moor up. We´ve actually had very little rain. This is a pond that we dug out for them where a spring goes into the marsh. There are a few of them, and they all feed into the stream....keeps the geese happy even when there´s no rain....

Boy would I like to dig out a pond for mine,The pool I fill one day and by days end it is dirty but I put a couple caps of bleach in it so I can wait till following day to drain and refill. Don't want it to dry up the spring. This is our biggest pool then I fill another smaller one for the old ducks in the front yard.
We've had a good amount of rain this year but nothing like last year.
No action this afternoon but this morning is when the mating took place so the camera is in place for tomorrow, plus I get to go through the hundreds of pics that it took today.

Wonder where serv is?

 

[livininbrazil]

Boy would I like to dig out a pond for mine,The pool I fill one day and by days end it is dirty but I put a couple caps of bleach in it so I can wait till following day to drain and refill. Don't want it to dry up the spring. This is our biggest pool then I fill another smaller one for the old ducks in the front yard.
We've had a good amount of rain this year but nothing like last year.
No action this afternoon but this morning is when the mating took place so the camera is in place for tomorrow, plus I get to go through the hundreds of pics that it took today.

Wonder where serv is?

I´m so pleased we have pools and a stream or the birds...it´s hard enough work keeping the fenced-in goslings with their moms in clean water in their little pools, but keeping over 40 birds in still-water pools would be impossible! I get so relieved when the babies hit 2/3 weeks and they go off with mum and the rest.... then the next ones come along, and I´m back to carrying their water down for them. I carry the clean water from the well down the hill to give to the babies so it´s all really nice and clean. They certainly keep us busy, eh?
Oh, whoopy! loads of pics to go through! What do you reckon? They´ll get camera-shy and nothing will happen for a while now!

Serv´s probably getting himself ready for the cold weather.... brrrr

 

[andreacroyle]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

I love your pics!! I love how you have so much land and a stream! We have a 100x70ft lot that our house is on. It has been a good starter home and our neighbors are about as crazy as us so they dont seem to mind if Ollie honks when he is hungry =)

Boy would I like to dig out a pond for mine,The pool I fill one day and by days end it is dirty but I put a couple caps of bleach in it so I can wait till following day to drain and refill. Don't want it to dry up the spring. This is our biggest pool then I fill another smaller one for the old ducks in the front yard.
We've had a good amount of rain this year but nothing like last year.
No action this afternoon but this morning is when the mating took place so the camera is in place for tomorrow, plus I get to go through the hundreds of pics that it took today.

a couple of caps of bleach? how much would you use for a bath tub ? my husband had to redo a bathroom on one of his job and brought me home a old cast iron tub! right now it is in the middle of the yard because it is sooo heavy. but it will have a nice ramp and platform in their are soon! today Sair and I got sick of waiting so we took a bunch of stuff that wasnt being used and made a "makeshift" ramp! lol The water is okay for them to drink with bleach in it?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I love your pics!! I love how you have so much land and a stream! We have a 100x70ft lot that our house is on. It has been a good starter home and our neighbors are about as crazy as us so they dont seem to mind if Ollie honks when he is hungry =)

a couple of caps of bleach? how much would you use for a bath tub ? my husband had to redo a bathroom on one of his job and brought me home a old cast iron tub! right now it is in the middle of the yard because it is sooo heavy. but it will have a nice ramp and platform in their are soon! today Sair and I got sick of waiting so we took a bunch of stuff that wasnt being used and made a "makeshift" ramp! lol The water is okay for them to drink with bleach in it?

I put in 2 capfuls into my biggest kiddy pool and a capful into the small one the water is running so it is dispersed all though, it is fine to use a small amount to shock the water. I also use Oxine ah in their pools and 35% H2O2 not at the same time though. I just rotate. You can use bleach to kill bacteria in our drinking water too.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I´m so pleased we have pools and a stream or the birds...it´s hard enough work keeping the fenced-in goslings with their moms in clean water in their little pools, but keeping over 40 birds in still-water pools would be impossible! I get so relieved when the babies hit 2/3 weeks and they go off with mum and the rest.... then the next ones come along, and I´m back to carrying their water down for them. I carry the clean water from the well down the hill to give to the babies so it´s all really nice and clean. They certainly keep us busy, eh?
Oh, whoopy! loads of pics to go through! What do you reckon? They´ll get camera-shy and nothing will happen for a while now!

Serv´s probably getting himself ready for the cold weather.... brrrr

When I was putting the camera on the tree Sam was watching me like he knew exactly what I was doing, and that thought went through my head, but if mating is offered to him I don't think the camera will enter his mind

What may happen is Missy will walk up to the camera and spread her wings over the camera so nothing can be filmed, kinda like what happens in the pool stays in the pool lol
Today I was looking out the window and there is Sam standing on one foot sleeping up by the pool all of a sudden he wakes up looks around and realizes he is alone takes off looking for his family, This happens often the other 3 take off while he is resting and when he wakes up he'll holler till Missy hollers back to let him know where they are.

Last year my dh hooked up faucets in 3 different places so I can have a hose where the pools are just for using the spring water. That was a huge help.