Injured Gosling

[Yetti]

took this this afternoon. the 53lb beagle is "Porkchop". she is eyeing the goslings but knows not to mess with them.

this is a little heat hutch I built this afternoon. outside in the pen the sun warms it up and inside I have a 40 watt bulb in there and its about 65* inside. just so happened I collect a few odds & ends so I just so happened to have a cracked bin and a light fixture handy. made it easy to whip up.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Looks good for now, since they seem to want to be in the warm area.

. They will outgrow it quickly though.

I usually use the largest size kiddie pool I can find for brooding small batches of goslings or ducklings. And very quickly goslings need fencing of some sort to raise the sides. I find they usually don't make nearly as much use of supplemental heat as chicks do as they grow up, but if there is any chance of them getting wet in their water they should have a place to warm up.

Going to have to buy more pool-brooders from Wally world soon myself, just hope not TOO many (I'm hoping the geese will raise their own without a squabble).

 

[Yetti]

well went out at 2:45 am and it was 24* on the thermometer I have at floor level. the birds must be fairly active as they were all out of the heated box and piled up out side of it. I flipped on the bigger 250w lamb out side the box just for some extra heat if they wanted it. anyways I'm going back to bed...

 

[Yetti]

well I had a close call last night. at some point the light in the plastic hutch died. when I went out at 8:00 am they were all curled up under the second light.

right now they are out by the lilac bushes flipping through the leaves and grass. its still cold as heck here so I have the hutch out there so they can stay out of the wind.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Oh, good thing you added the second lamp!

I've heard of them getting slightly chilled and being ok. I've actually had to watch more that they didn't get too hot, but that was when they were a couple weeks old.

Glad yours are ok.

 

[Yetti]

well I figured I had better go back to the beginning with ideas for this extreme cold snap we've had. right now I have the heated hutch outside in the wind and the little guys are doing fine. someone here suggested a kiddie pool. I just happened to have a nice one for my dog. so its been cleaned up and brought in the basement and I built a pen from old screens to stand up in it to keep the birds in. they should be fine from here out having twice the room indoors now. once it gets back above 45-50 at night I won't have a hard time leaving them out side in the barn over night.

 

[Yetti]

well its warming up a little here now. the nights are still running cold though. today I built the temp fence around the converted bus stop house. the birds should love it.