Goslings of 2015 Hatch-a-Long

[psue]

Hello everyone.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi! New to posting here but have lurked often. I have American buff geese and am hoping they give me some eggs this year. They are only 10 months or so, so I know they won't be that successful, but I'm hoping for a few babies this year. They should start laying soon if they are going to right?

Kinda off topic, but are geese normally pretty mean with other babies? Last spring/summer, when my geese were still quite young, they would go after my ducklings. They got a hold of one and slammed it down and the poor thing didn't make it. I was kind of surprised to see them do that, and after that had to be much more careful then in the past.

Excited for hatching this year (I already have chicken eggs in the incubator!)

My Embden gander without any other geese was just like Papa goose to the Muscovy ducklings here but now that he has his own family I wouldn't trust them around any other babies.

My American Buff is 8 months but mating has been going on for sometime still waiting on eggs shouldn't be much longer.

 

[hlk82]

Wow, I never would have thought they would be so aggressive even when they didn't have young. We have swans, and the only time they bother with other babies is during the spring, while mating and sitting on eggs. Good thing I've figured out ways to separate everything out when we have little ones running around.

I haven't seen any mating yet, but I also haven't been watching overly close. Im also not totally sure on males/females yet. I figure I'll know when I find some eggs. I don't want to have to incubate though, so I'm hoping some of my Muscovies start going broody here soon so I can stick some under them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Wow, I never would have thought they would be so aggressive even when they didn't have young. We have swans, and the only time they bother with other babies is during the spring, while mating and sitting on eggs. Good thing I've figured out ways to separate everything out when we have little ones running around.

I haven't seen any mating yet, but I also haven't been watching overly close. Im also not totally sure on males/females yet. I figure I'll know when I find some eggs.

I don't want to have to incubate though, so I'm hoping some of my Muscovies start going broody here soon so I can stick some under them.

If you have Muscovy's you'll have brooders but your geese may want to do it themselves my goose her first year went broody and she was just 1yr old she didn't hatch anything but went broody it may be a while till you see a broody though depending on where you are in the world mine usually start laying in Feb but it's usually up into April before I have a goose go broody and my Muscovy's usually start around last of March . No mating from my Muscovy's yet.
My goslings last year came out of the egg with attitude they did not like the chickens or ducks right off the bat.

I always got the impression Swans were even worse than geese about being aggressive so when no in nest or breeding mode they are easy going?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hello everyone.

psue you keep coming and going, good to see you again.

How are you and your flock?

 

[hlk82]

If you have Muscovy's you'll have brooders but your geese may want to do it themselves my goose her first year went broody and she was just 1yr old she didn't hatch anything but went broody it may be a while till you see a broody though depending on where you are in the world mine usually start laying in Feb but it's usually up into April before I have a goose go broody and my Muscovy's usually start around last of March . No mating from my Muscovy's yet.
My goslings last year came out of the egg with attitude they did not like the chickens or ducks right off the bat. :/  

I always got the impression Swans were even worse than geese about being aggressive so when no in nest or breeding mode they are easy going?

We are in Ohio, so it might be a bit before things really get going, but my muscovys are already mating.

Yeah, our swans at least, are fine with everything we have on the pond, which is a lot of ducks and geese. Our experience so far has been that they are only aggressive towards other swans year round...and we have mutes, so they are supposed to be one of the worst offenders. Obviously nesting and breeding mode are different, although we have a 2.5 acre pond and they nest on the far side, where most of the birds don't go. I only saw our male get angry at some canada geese who infringed in his area and he went after a baby that got separated during that time. Of course, he also attacked our lawnmower when it got too close, but I feel that is all to be expected with swans. There are others though, who say they can't have anything on their ponds year round with swans. We may have lucked out with ours.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

All of mine seem to be on the same schedule as last year. I expect to see some breeding in a couple weeks and possibly see eggs by the end of February. Unless they hold off due to being spooked by me reducing their flock lol
I hope my ducks start laying soon as well, i want to see what i get from them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

All of mine seem to be on the same schedule as last year. I expect to see some breeding in a couple weeks and possibly see eggs by the end of February. Unless they hold off due to being spooked by me reducing their flock lol
I hope my ducks start laying soon as well, i want to see what i get from them.

So far no mating from Missy and Sam but Babe and Sam are giving Toots a work out. LOL Last year I believe Missy and Sam started mating first part of Feb and she laid her first egg end of Feb. since this is Toots first year I have no idea with her. I gave them a small tub to bathe in today and saw some pushing and shoving with Sam and Babe first time ever anything between them. 8 how do your ganders get along when breeding starts?

 

[Miss Lydia]

We are in Ohio, so it might be a bit before things really get going, but my muscovys are already mating.

Yeah, our swans at least, are fine with everything we have on the pond, which is a lot of ducks and geese. Our experience so far has been that they are only aggressive towards other swans year round...and we have mutes, so they are supposed to be one of the worst offenders. Obviously nesting and breeding mode are different, although we have a 2.5 acre pond and they nest on the far side, where most of the birds don't go. I only saw our male get angry at some canada geese who infringed in his area and he went after a baby that got separated during that time. Of course, he also attacked our lawnmower when it got too close, but I feel that is all to be expected with swans. There are others though, who say they can't have anything on their ponds year round with swans. We may have lucked out with ours.

I even saw someone post the other day their Muscovy's were laying eggs already and they were in Canada. LOL
Please post some pics of your swans I'd love to see them, this is what I know of Swans mainly nothing except the video on you tube showing the swan attacking a gosling and the parents attacking the swan have you seen that. Someone posted the link last year. So that is my mental image of swans. How many do you have?

 

[8GeeseALaying]

So far no mating from Missy and Sam but Babe and Sam are giving Toots a work out. LOL Last year I believe Missy and Sam started mating first part of Feb and she laid her first egg end of Feb. since this is Toots first year I have no idea with her. I gave them a small tub to bathe in today and saw some pushing and shoving with Sam and Babe first time ever anything between them. 8 how do your ganders get along when breeding starts?

Well Bill was the dominent Gander, even though he was smaller than Daddy Tufted & the white chinese. Tucker is timid so Bill was able to boss him as well without any fighting. I never had any fighting between the 4 ganders. It was always some of the girls pushing and shoving. Bill would stand in the kiddie pool, he was king of the pool, and wait for a girl to get in none of the other ganders would go near the pool.
All of them had "their" girls, the females that were loyal to them, Bill had mildred, Daddy Tufted was with maggie, tucker had tori & now ethel and the white chinese had Martha. The other girls were loosey goosey and would breed with any gander, mainly Bill, but only at the barn in the kiddie pool. When it came to the pond it was a free for all with the "easy" girls lol
I think having enough girls helped with the lack of fighting, a long with well behaved ganders, which i got by pure luck.

Having four different ganders made it easier for me to tell which gosling belonged to which gander, plus marking the eggs with the names of the girls helped with knowing who the mother was. Thats why i didnt do seperation after the first year. I just waited for hatch time then matched the gosling to its father going by its color & looks.
This year will be different. Tucker is my only gander, i think, not sure yet about his & Ethel's gosling. It will be interesting to see if Tucker will become the new leader & be a normal gander now that the other ganders are gone.