Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[8GeeseALaying]

Lain im so sorry for your loss!!!

 

[8GeeseALaying]

Number 10 hatched this morning. A little dark one from Stormy's last egg that i had set.

 

[Starfire669]

There's over 100 posts since yesterday morning..... such a chatty bunch!  Sorry I'm  not doing a marathon multi-quote to reply to everyone, but glad to see hatching season is a big success this year for most everyone.  I finally have candling updates and very sad news to share.  As a few of you know, I moved onto my current property 3 years ago and it came with a pair of male geese.  Hubby and I thought it would be nice to hatch babies to give to them and on February 24, 2012, I hatched my very 1st four African goslings.  Two were girls and after the ganders adopted and raised the 4-pack, each took a girl for a mate.  Sometime in the early morning hours yesterday, a raccoon got one of my girls and her mate appears lost without her. She was so imprinted with me that as part of her daily routine, she would climb in my lap, nibble on my clothes and drive off any other geese that wanted to come near me.  Losing her is a terrible blow and hubby and I are both pretty wrecked.

I believe the best thing we can do for our gander is to give him more babies to raise so we candled every broody's nest last night.  In my deceased girl's sister's nest (which she shared), I have 4 eggs ranging from day 15-21.  In Beignet's nest I have 4 eggs between day 15-21 and one is a strong swimming white African.  In my buff dewlap's nest, to my great surprise I have 8 eggs between day 7-15, and in my incubator (which my neighbor's kid is using), I have 3 white African eggs on day 21.  In all, I have 19 eggs developing and now I am impatient and anxious to get at least a few to hatch to give to my grieving boy.

I am so sorry for your loss. I have only had mine 9 weeks but if something happened to Jas I would be devastated. You must be more so, having had her longer. I hope that you get a good hatch and that you and your grieving gander can overcome this terrible loss.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so sorry J for your loss, I know Sam would be lost with out Missy and it's only been about a year and a half, your poor gander I look forward to seeing him with his new babies soon.

 

[Iain Utah]

Thank you, ladies.

My gander is very depressed, but at least he has his brother to hang out with and share guarding duties over my deceased girl's sister. Hopefully we will have happy times in 9 days, once babies start hatching.

We have two traps set and I went out this morning with the gun was dead set to dispose of my first raccoon (I always make my hubby do it). Unfortunately, both traps are empty. So help me, we will catch the murdering raccoon as well as any others with evil intent to mess with our birds. Needless to say, we are on a warpath!

 

[Starfire669]

Thank you, ladies.

My gander is very depressed, but at least he has his brother to hang out with and share guarding duties over my deceased girl's sister.  Hopefully we will have happy times in 9 days, once babies start hatching.

We have two traps set and I went out this morning with the gun was dead set to dispose of my first raccoon (I always make my hubby do it).  Unfortunately, both traps are empty.  So help me, we will catch the murdering raccoon as well as any others with evil intent to mess with our birds.  Needless to say, we are on a warpath!

I hope you get them soon. Try baiting the traps. I think you can get coon musk of females to use as a lure. That might bring them in.

 

[servpolice]

Im sorry Iain hopefully he will get used to it soom

 

[servpolice]

Soon*

 

[Starfire669]

Hey LB remember when you said I was in trouble because Snow bit my pants leg after picking up Jas? Well I just watched Snow chase the old man that is staying in our apartment because his house burned down! He walked through my front yard close to the geese and Snow put his head down and charged 3 times! He wasn't quite brave enough to bite, yet. But I can see it is only a matter of time. That baby gander is going to be a handful when he is fully mature!

 

[8GeeseALaying]

Color? Anyone care to guess? This is Number 8 all fluffed he is much darker than the one i thought was saddleback.