How about a Thread for Embdens?

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: My only thought is to separate the gander a week or so. Once he is back with the geese he will likely "wake up" as well as the goose hens.

 

[313759]

Yeah it didn't work...

 

[313759]

Yeah it didn't work...

 

[313759]

Yeah it didn't work...

 

[horsekeeper]

For all of you who gave me advice when I was hatching goose eggs for the first time:



And then I did it again and again

I only have a pair of embdens and Lucy is sitting on a nest full of stinkers for the third year in a row. Buster trails his kids around and guards them while she is setting. When she comes out to stretch her legs she doesn't like them very much.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

For all of you who gave me advice when I was hatching goose eggs for the first time:



And then I did it again and again

I only have a pair of embdens and Lucy is sitting on a nest full of stinkers for the third year in a row. Buster trails his kids around and guards them while she is setting. When she comes out to stretch her legs she doesn't like them very much.

Oh my goodness you have a lot! Lovely Geese! Yes, momma will treat adult goslings like she doesn't know them if incubated. My Embden do not like new geese added in the flock at all. We added American Buff last year and they still act aggressively towards the pair. If they are brooded geese I am surprised tho that she isn't tolerating them more. She is acting on instinct to protect the nest is my guess. My Embden haven't been good moms so far. My chinese have brooded gosling as well as the Buffs.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Yeah it didn't work...

There is one of 2 things happening. Either there is no gander, or he is infertile. Can you post pictures of your birds? Maybe we can figure it out. With Embden, I look at the belly. Goose have 2 lobes of skin hanging, Gander has one, or none. Ganders voice is a high shriek sound, goose have a lower tone. Gander have a longer neck, thicker leg and larger body than a goose also.

 

[capper2013]

Hi all, it's been a while since my last post. top pic is of Ronnie hatching last year, the bottom one is her giving me some goosey love last week.
the two girls, Ronnie and Constance have laid well this year. unfortunately a fox took about 9 eggs as they had laid them in the field. i was waiting for one of them to start sitting before moving them into their night house but foxy got there first.
i started collecting their eggs and saved 10 of them. Constance started to sit 2 eggs in a new nest so i scooped them up this evening along with as much of her nest as i could and put them in their night house along with the other eggs.
she went absolutely ballistic when i took her nest away. even the boys got involved, shouting and charging me.
i felt so mean, looking at her little face as she surveyed the remains of her nest in the field.
after setting her nest up in their house i came out and collected Constance and put her in there with the nest. i showed her the eggs, to which i got the head down and charge treatment, but as she got to the nest she had a look, then a sniff, then started arranging the eggs.
she started to call out to the others, so i went and brought them to her.
this was a few hours ago now, i just went out to see if they were still happy; she seems to have accepted thee nest move and is now sitting a large clutch.
hopefully she will remain with them.
we were going to incubate them ourselves, however upon setting the bator up, the circuit board blew and finished that idea.
the company that makes them refused to sell a new board and said we had to buy a new one. suffice to say i phoned brinsea and they said if i had one of theirs then they would supply parts once the warranty is out, so next year we will be getting one of their models.
the boys are doing well, Mr Nebbercracker is huge and the overall boss goosey. his goosey face is just visible in the bottom of the bottom picture. Reggie had a problem with his eye earlier this year, seems he probably scratched it somehow. a course of eyedrops from the vet and he seems ok now.
Mr Nebbercracker stood on a blackthorn thorn January time, it went right through his webbing. it took 2 of us to get it out. we ended up snapping the thorn as close as we could to his foot, then pulled it out. i think he seemed to enjoy the pampering he got afterward. his foot took a while to completely heal over, but now it's impossible to see where the hole was.

they are brilliant guards and eat any strangers heading up the long driveway, many delivery drivers will not come in, they tend to sound their horn and wait for us to turn up to meet them.

we are in the process of preparing one of the fields to have an electric fence. after 30 years of neglect there is an awful lot of clearing to do. our overall plan is to put an electric fence around the whole property so that the geese can have free roam everywhere, however cost and time factors means one field at a time. it has taken a month of toil so far and we are nowhere near ready to install yet. none the less, it must be done before winter sets in, then our gooseys will be free to roam 24/7. we are also upgrading their house to a shed big enough for 15 geese, eventually it will be big enough for 250, but that will take a couple of years given the amount of work on the land.
ok, enough of this novel, hope everyone elses embdens are doing well, they are the most beautiful creatures i have ever known!