Help with goose and babies

[IceHax]

Hi, so my 3 year old goose decided to hatch her own babies (she’s already done it successfully last year). They just hatched, there were 5 eggs and they all hatched but one died while still under his mama unfortunately. Last year I took her babies away because it was too dangerous for them to be in the pen I have the geese in (there were 5 males and a female). This year it’s just a male and a female and I was thinking I could try and have them raise the babies without having to keep them inside for 2 weeks before giving them back to her like I did last year. What do you think? I also have a gosling and 2 ducklings that were born in the incubator and are about 1 month old, could I maybe try to switch them as to not leave her without any babies?

 

[IceHax]

My main concern is there are some drainage holes in the wall that lead directly to the woods, in two weeks time they should already be big enough not to be able to pass through them...

 

[IceHax]

here’s a picture of them!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Plug the holes with hardware cloth and leave them with mom and dad. If they are safe from predators.
what a precious picture.

She may take the older gosling and duckling also since she is just hatched. Worth trying just stay close around in case it doesn't work.

 

[iturnknobs]

My main concern is there are some drainage holes in the wall that lead directly to the woods, in two weeks time they should already be big enough not to be able to pass through them...

I blocked every possible place around the perimeter of my yard to pen my goslings. It turned out to be a waste of time because they NEVER left my side due to imprinting. I'm not sure if all goslings are the same, but mine would sit near the backdoor crying until I came back out.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Who hatched these goslings @iturnknobs. If mama goose they imprint on her, if we hatch they imprint on us. I did manage to get 2 goslings I bought at 2 days old to imprint on my goose and gander after I raised them for 3 weeks . I took them outside alot of times during the day so they were around the geese and the other birds too. At 3 weeks I felt I could trust my gander not to step on them[ he never pays any attention to where he is going.]
Papa and mama goose took to these 2 gosling and the goslings took to them. It was sweet.

 

[iturnknobs]

Who hatched these goslings @iturnknobs. If mama goose they imprint on her, if we hatch they imprint on us. I did manage to get 2 goslings I bought at 2 days old to imprint on my goose and gander after I raised them for 3 weeks . I took them outside alot of times during the day so they were around the geese and the other birds too. At 3 weeks I felt I could trust my gander not to step on them[ he never pays any attention to where he is going.]
Papa and mama goose took to these 2 gosling and the goslings took to them. It was sweet.

I hatched my goslings and am a new-ish goose owner. Never introduced an outside gosling to adults. I assume(d) they would take to the adults quickly. I'm probably in for a "life lesson" the first time I actually do so.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Can we see some pictures of your babies?

 

[IceHax]

Plug the holes with hardware cloth and leave them with mom and dad. If they are safe from predators.
what a precious picture.

She may take the older gosling and duckling also since she is just hatched. Worth trying just stay close around in case it doesn't work.

That’s what I did in the end, they seem to not want to go too far from the parents so it’s been good so far. Here’s a picture from yesterday, when I let them roam the yard with the ducks, the turkeys and the chickens

 

[IceHax]

I hatched my goslings and am a new-ish goose owner. Never introduced an outside gosling to adults. I assume(d) they would take to the adults quickly. I'm probably in for a "life lesson" the first time I actually do so.

Yeah, unfortunately mine didn’t take kindly to the other babies I tried to introduce to them, the problem is mainly the male, he hurts them if they try to go near