Goslings of 2014 Hatch-a-long

[livininbrazil]

I sure will be pleased if Babe is female. I tell ya these 2 have surprised me especially Toots. lol.. What's funny is at night when I put them to bed babe still makes gozzies noise just like he/she has done from beginning but this gesture from Sam yesterday really surprised me. We shall see I don't think it will be much longer before we'll know for sure. Babe is larger than Missy but Missy is small for a Toulouse goose.

I think Babe is normal, Toots is a bit of a hussy!

I was out all day today, got back home just before dark so had time to quickly feed everyone down there, and one of my geese has a new gosling. It´s the goose that had a fright last year when the gosling started to hatch, so I took the eggs away and hatched them indoors, then gave them back. so, she´s done it on her own this time. I left her only two eggs, as I know what she produces, and there´s another gosling in the other egg, so hopefully that´ll hatch in the next couple of days. She produced 4 females last year, so I´m hoping she´s got 2 females there again.
There are 5 more eggs due to hatch next week, 2 of which I´ve checked and are growing well, then that should be it for a while....

 

[andreacroyle]

I think Babe is normal, Toots is a bit of a hussy!

I was out all day today, got back home just before dark so had time to quickly feed everyone down there, and one of my geese has a new gosling. It´s the goose that had a fright last year when the gosling started to hatch, so I took the eggs away and hatched them indoors, then gave them back. so, she´s done it on her own this time. I left her only two eggs, as I know what she produces, and there´s another gosling in the other egg, so hopefully that´ll hatch in the next couple of days. She produced 4 females last year, so I´m hoping she´s got 2 females there again.
There are 5 more eggs due to hatch next week, 2 of which I´ve checked and are growing well, then that should be it for a while....

Wow!! that is exciting!! im glad she did better this year and you got a nice little surprise of a new gosie! take pics.

Does anyone own chickens? I think I am going to get rid of this silkie rooster (Bruce for Bruce Lee) i got this past weekend. He tried to beat up my pilgrim gander. I didnt know they would do that?? He already beat up Forest. I have read nothing but good things about silkie chickens, I dont know why he doesnt fit the mold of being a docile chicken. anyone have some advice for me? Why didnt Ollie fight back is it because he is only about 6 months old?? He screamed and ran away??

Will geese try to mate with muscovy ducks? I also brought home a new duck and all the boys seem to like her including Ollie the pilgrim?? They do this thing where they are preening her and then follow her around.
I might have too many boys in the flock. I have Ollie the gander, a young muscovy drake, a welsh harlequin mix drake and a cayuga that is just now growing his tail curl (Violet was suppose to a girl duck)
So, I have 1 gander, 3 drakes, 5 muscovy ducks and Forest if she ever excepts that she is a bird.

What do I need to do to make my ratio right?

 

[jtn42248]

Wow!! that is exciting!! im glad she did better this year and you got a nice little surprise of a new gosie! take pics.

Does anyone own chickens? I think I am going to get rid of this silkie rooster (Bruce for Bruce Lee) i got this past weekend. He tried to beat up my pilgrim gander. I didnt know they would do that?? He already beat up Forest. I have read nothing but good things about silkie chickens, I dont know why he doesnt fit the mold of being a docile chicken. anyone have some advice for me? Why didnt Ollie fight back is it because he is only about 6 months old?? He screamed and ran away??

Will geese try to mate with muscovy ducks? I also brought home a new duck and all the boys seem to like her including Ollie the pilgrim?? They do this thing where they are preening her and then follow her around.
I might have too many boys in the flock. I have Ollie the gander, a young muscovy drake, a welsh harlequin mix drake and a cayuga that is just now growing his tail curl (Violet was suppose to a girl duck)
So, I have 1 gander, 3 drakes, 5 muscovy ducks and Forest if she ever excepts that she is a bird.

What do I need to do to make my ratio right?

You may have to divide up your flocks. The rooster may just be trying to establish himself in the flock but roosters are strange animals.

My chickens number 23 now. I had more but that included two roosters. One of them became very aggressive and even tried to kill the other rooster leaving him gimpy and very emotionally broken. I got rid of the aggressive rooster and everything is fine now.

I have chickens, ducks and geese and for a brief time they were all together and worked fine but as everyone began to mature I had to start splitting them up. I had to put the geese (who are normally very sweet) alone in their own coop/run/range because my gander has decided that he has to attack the male ducks. He will even fly over the fence in the range to try to get at them.

Then I had to split my ducks up into a group of 5 adults (2 drakes and 3 females) and my 16 Cayugas are now in their own coop/run/range. This was because my Khaki Campbell drake is intent on killing the Cayuga drakes and taking over their females.

So I now have 5 adult ducks with the 23 chickens and that works pretty well. The Khaki drake occasionally makes a move toward one of the hens but she just pecks him away and that is that. My Cayugas are alone together and they are happy and will be 18 weeks old soon. They will be a breeding group. And the three Toulouse are together in their little world.

So, you may find that to keep the birds you have you have to create separate universes for them in order to keep peace in the family.

 

[livininbrazil]

Wow!! that is exciting!! im glad she did better this year and you got a nice little surprise of a new gosie! take pics.

Does anyone own chickens? I think I am going to get rid of this silkie rooster (Bruce for Bruce Lee) i got this past weekend. He tried to beat up my pilgrim gander. I didnt know they would do that?? He already beat up Forest. I have read nothing but good things about silkie chickens, I dont know why he doesnt fit the mold of being a docile chicken. anyone have some advice for me? Why didnt Ollie fight back is it because he is only about 6 months old?? He screamed and ran away??

Will geese try to mate with muscovy ducks? I also brought home a new duck and all the boys seem to like her including Ollie the pilgrim?? They do this thing where they are preening her and then follow her around.
I might have too many boys in the flock. I have Ollie the gander, a young muscovy drake, a welsh harlequin mix drake and a cayuga that is just now growing his tail curl (Violet was suppose to a girl duck)
So, I have 1 gander, 3 drakes, 5 muscovy ducks and Forest if she ever excepts that she is a bird.

What do I need to do to make my ratio right?

Mine are all together and are fine. The geese shoo others off, but otherwise keep themselves to themselves, the muscovies do their thing, the chickens theirs. The only trouble, if you can call it that, is at feeding time if a duck pecks a gosling, then the geese rally
.
Ollie´s just a baby yet. He´ll hang around for now with the ducks for company, while Forest is still getting used to him.
If you want peace, you´re better off with just one of your drakes. You probably know that muscovy females bred to non-muscovy drakes produce infertile offspring, so that´s great if you don´t want generations of ducks around, and they also make good dinners, just in case you´re interested. If you want peace, keep the drake that´s the calmest with other birds. And I´d get shot of the grotty silkie. You always get one or two that let the side down in any breed.

Just my thoughts, of course....

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think Babe is normal, Toots is a bit of a hussy!

I was out all day today, got back home just before dark so had time to quickly feed everyone down there, and one of my geese has a new gosling. It´s the goose that had a fright last year when the gosling started to hatch, so I took the eggs away and hatched them indoors, then gave them back. so, she´s done it on her own this time. I left her only two eggs, as I know what she produces, and there´s another gosling in the other egg, so hopefully that´ll hatch in the next couple of days. She produced 4 females last year, so I´m hoping she´s got 2 females there again.
There are 5 more eggs due to hatch next week, 2 of which I´ve checked and are growing well, then that should be it for a while....

Aww I'm so glad to hear this goose is doing well this year, I know your relieved also, Look forward to seeing these gozzies.

Now for Toots, well i haven't seen her throw herself on Sam the way Missy did, usually what happens is they are in the pool and Sam starts to nibble on Toots, she gets out then back in then he nibbles some more and she gets out then back in usually after 3rd of 4th time she lets him, Missy who was 9 months old man she would literally attack Sam to start the mating. Maybe that comes with age. lol, Now I have seen Sammy nibbling on Babe some yesterday and even though he half hearted tried to mount her he didn't really have his heart in it could it be he realizes she isn't ready. I wonder how they know? He knew with Missy of course but haven't seen this with these 2 youngins.

Andrea your gander will eventually want to mate with your Scovy girls mine did and mated with them for over 5 yrs before I got another goose, he never injured one of them. I have 4 drakes 8 ducks did have 11 ducks but in the last year lost 1 to old age and 2 to egg laying problems, but anyway now the boys actually have 2 ducks apiece and they know who theirs are and the girls know who their drake is, except during biggest part of mating season the dominant drake gets to mate with who ever he wants too. It can be very frustrating having that many drakes though they want to fight is the biggest issue. I usuaaly let them work it out between them but I do have to keep my old guy separate from the younger drakes.

I have seen my lil game bantam rooster try to start stuff with my drakes and even the gander but as they mature the roo gets backed down. He can only bully my old drake now.

 

[jtn42248]

Missy who was 9 months old man she would literally attack Sam to start the mating. Maybe that comes with age.

What's the matter with kids these days. I remember when you could depend on a girl-goose behaving like a lady. Our social structure is just collapsing around us.

 

[Miss Lydia]

What's the matter with kids these days. I remember when you could depend on a girl-goose behaving like a lady. Our social structure is just collapsing around us.

It sure is, shocking isn't it. for us old timers

 

[jtn42248]

It sure is, shocking isn't it. for us old timers

Why do I have this urge to say something stupid that begins with..."Why, when I was a boy I had to..."?

 

[andreacroyle]

You may have to divide up your flocks. The rooster may just be trying to establish himself in the flock but roosters are strange animals.

My chickens number 23 now. I had more but that included two roosters. One of them became very aggressive and even tried to kill the other rooster leaving him gimpy and very emotionally broken. I got rid of the aggressive rooster and everything is fine now.

I have chickens, ducks and geese and for a brief time they were all together and worked fine but as everyone began to mature I had to start splitting them up. I had to put the geese (who are normally very sweet) alone in their own coop/run/range because my gander has decided that he has to attack the male ducks. He will even fly over the fence in the range to try to get at them.

Then I had to split my ducks up into a group of 5 adults (2 drakes and 3 females) and my 16 Cayugas are now in their own coop/run/range. This was because my Khaki Campbell drake is intent on killing the Cayuga drakes and taking over their females.

So I now have 5 adult ducks with the 23 chickens and that works pretty well. The Khaki drake occasionally makes a move toward one of the hens but she just pecks him away and that is that. My Cayugas are alone together and they are happy and will be 18 weeks old soon. They will be a breeding group. And the three Toulouse are together in their little world.

So, you may find that to keep the birds you have you have to create separate universes for them in order to keep peace in the family.

do you have more than one drake in with the cayugas? i dont know a thing about cayugas. are they docile enough to keep the ratio 2m/1f or will they hurt the duck the way muscovies will? i dont really have the room to split up the ducks and geese. making a separate tractor for some small chickens is one thing, but two separate duck houses isnt something i can so and still have a yard. thanks for giving me your advice.

And I´d get shot of the grotty silkie.

I love that saying! i have never heard it.

They're all so young that im not sure who is going to end up being nice after hormones kick in. my original plan was to keep only two boys, my gander and my one scovie drake

its always crappy when you think your getting girls and they end up being boys. i agree with you on the rooster. i have a home lined up for him. i got three silkies, two ended up sneezing and are in the garage by themselves. i hope i didnt pass anything to anyone else. i have all the chickens on antibiotics and am praying that no one else shows signs of illness.i have learned with this last batch of birds i bought that i should never go to another farm auction. i got caught up in the moment, bought animals that i knew nothing about and dont know where they came from. i was lucky enough to meet the breeder of the sneezing silkies and get her number. she is going to take them back along with the rooster. I might trade the cayuga's for a new batch of GIRLS and stick with muscovies, other ducks are too loud. I have enjoyed having a rooster in my house crowing every morning, but if i cant ever get him to be nice then its not fair to him to be stuck inside in a cage by himself.

We also got 3 old english bantam hens. They are ADORABLE! they climb all over my son and peep like finches. i have kept them away from everyone else and dont plan on mixing them into the flock because of their size. they will eventually have their own tractor. I am wondering.....

does anyone know if i could breed the silkie rooster with the old english hens? i am going to research that

bringing in the new batch of birds and ending up having two sneezing is scary, i am thinking about taking Forest to the vet and getting her vaccinated. she is not just a bird and would be a huge emotional loss to our family if she got sick and passed away.

sometimes, it is crappy that life makes us gain wisdom by our mistakes.

Took this of Forest yesterday.She likes to lay in bed with my son in the mornings.lighting is weird. not her coloring.

 

[livininbrazil]

Aww I'm so glad to hear this goose is doing well this year, I know your relieved also, Look forward to seeing these gozzies.

Now for Toots, well i haven't seen her throw herself on Sam the way Missy did, usually what happens is they are in the pool and Sam starts to nibble on Toots, she gets out then back in then he nibbles some more and she gets out then back in usually after 3rd of 4th time she lets him, Missy who was 9 months old man she would literally attack Sam to start the mating. Maybe that comes with age. lol, Now I have seen Sammy nibbling on Babe some yesterday and even though he half hearted tried to mount her he didn't really have his heart in it could it be he realizes she isn't ready. I wonder how they know? He knew with Missy of course but haven't seen this with these 2 youngins.

I´ve never had any of my geese behave like Missy, they usually follow the gander into the pool if they´re ready. If they´re already in the pool and the gander goes in, but they don´t want to mate, they´re out in a jiffy! Does Toots flatten her back for Sam? Do you see that at all with Babe?

Well, after saying about the little gos, I went down this morning to check, and there it was, out of the nest area, dead. Going stiff, neck limp, eyes glazed. The remaining egg was still warm under the goose, so I took the little body and carried it off to chuck it into the undergrowth where the ants and other critters dispose of it in no time. I was wondering whatever could have caused it. It took me a couple of minutes to carry the little body to the undergrowth.
Just as it left my hand I thought I felt it move, so I looked hard at the little thing led there in the weeds and grass, and its little beak opened! I had to climb over the 4' tall barbed wire fence to get it, and now after 2 hours it´s making little noises and it´s had a little to drink. I´m so amazed. It was all but dead. Its little eyes are still a bit dry, so I keep putting water on them, but it can see, and is getting stronger byu the minute. Later I went back to check the egg, and no sound coming from inside. Yesterday morning it was moving. I opened the egg, and there, a beautiful little pied, not pipped yet, but quite dead, so I can only imagine that something made the goose leave the nest during the night, then she must have gone back early this morning, enough to warm the egg, but of course it had already died. Why she stayed off her nest so long I have no idea.
If this little miracle one gets good and strong, I´ll let it go back down with her. So disappointing about the little pied, it was so much like the mother goose in its markings. Well, the ups and downs....
So, now there is one yearling goose sat on one egg which she laid, goodness knows if that´s passed the date..I have no idea. I´ll chek it later. And there are 5 more eggs (also will check later) to hatch next week which should be pieds, so...... we´ll see how that goes!