Mods- please move to "Geese"?- Growing Goslings!

[crazedguinea]

yep, mine are getting the feather stuff under baby fluff now too. i give mine grass, and goodness it IS supposed to be nice up here tomorrow too and i was planning on putting them out in their playpen for fresh air and to PICK THEIR OWN GRASS. i will try to get nicer pictures tomorrow when they are out-i am just not as good with a camera as you are lisa! my pictures come out blurred or too dark etc. they ARE a bunch of fun and have such personalities! i am really enjoying these geese because they are so smart and sociable

top photo is l-r: deuce, debbie with a piece of bedding on her head, and dumpling's back
bottom photo is dumpling with cut off deuce and debbie.

 

[chickenlisa]

Prissy, Porsche, and Pandora have arrived! Woot!

but the downside is that they came with 7 (!

!) little male RIRs. I already have way too many roos here and am trying to rehome some of them, now this! What do I do with 7 baby boys? I don't want to cull them- I can't do that. But I don't want them to grow up into nasty boys either. If they could just be mistaken and be girls- that'd be great!
I"m going down to take pics now- be back soon with them.
Lisa

 

[chickenlisa]

Pic heavy...Prissy is the darkest, Porsche is the lightest, and Pandora is right in the middle. If they weren't vent sexed, I"d think maybe Porsche was a boy, since her bill and feet are both pink. Pandora's are too, just not quite as pink, more mottled looking on her bill. Prissy has a dark bill and dark feet. So adorable! Anyone wnat som eof those cute little red chicks?

Lisa

 

[crazedguinea]

Yay!! the girls have arrived safely! i got 9 rir's with my shipment too. i know your predicament well

, and i really did not need more roos either. i've got one re-homed once he is older, and i'm going to nicely offer the gentleman 2 if he's so inclined. i do think i will end up keeping one though away from my other established roos since the geese seem to like them. my rir's sleep and rest on the geese backs when the geese are resting, so the nicest one will stay i guess-maybe-probably. i was eager to get online and see if you posted photos, and am glad you did.

yep, it was warm enough for them to be outside in their playpen today, and they were safely and briefly introduced to the donkeys also(walked the donks over to the playpen to look in-went well!)
prissy is very dark, sort of like the photo of the female omni posted huh? very pretty, i wonder if she'll be the darkest female as an adult too?

 

[chickenlisa]

Oh yours are so cute! I can't believe how fast they grow! Yours and mine look just the same- more and more white showing up each time I look at them, it seems! I have to get mine outside soon. Its 56 degrees out. It should get up to 65 the weather guy said. Huh?
Well, It'll be a contest to see who is darker when grown; Prissy or Penelope. They both are the darkest of their little groups. Will I be able to merge the 2 groups of goslings in a few days? The newbies are separate now to stay on papertowels and recover from shipping. I'm wondering if next week sometime I can just take out the divider in that stock tank and let them be all together without the young ones getting hurt.
Any advice?

 

[crazedguinea]

i'm not sure when it will be ok to merge the age groups...???? maybe try it next week when you are around to watch them and separate them if need be; as you said they will be well recovered from their shipping experience, and see how it goes...i've done that with guinea fowl but heck, geese are a lot larger. anyone with more "geese experience' have any suggestions? i'm looking down the road of how it's going to go when i merge the geese into my smaller group of guinea fowl...that ought to be interesting! i'm surprised not only with how large the goslings have gotten, but how attatched they are to me, and other family members! (and how attatched we've become to them too)

 

[chickenlisa]

I know what you mean...if I walk down the basement steps and talk at all, they all perk up and run to that end of the brooder closest to the steps and look up and me and "talk" a lot! it is the cutest thing!
I caught the new babies sleeping in a pile with a few chicks up on the goslings' backs. That was cute too!

 

[TheDuckCrew]

ohh too cute!! i was out all day building things for my ducks. it was 60 and there was no way i was staying inside!!

 

[chickenlisa]

What should they drink from once they are too big for the chick waterers? Its almost funny to watch them now- they are so much taller than the red part where the water is, they slurp up some then reach way tall with their necks/heads and swallow it down. They are over 2 weeks old now, so should I switch to something else?

 

[crazedguinea]

i've been putting bricks under the waterers to raise them higher but not too high so the rhodies can reach the water too, and when they are out of the brooder, they will have a corner bucket so they can dunk their heads in it and i will keep one of the regular waterers for the guineas/smaller birds. i don't know what else to do because the regular waterers out there in the market seem all geared towards smaller poultry. i am hoping that they aren't too bad with splashing water out of the bucket onto the floor all over or else i'll have quite a smelly area in the one coop that i'll need to clean frequently. if not i will just have to try something else until i find what works out the best. i have a question, since you have ducks...how similar to ducks are geese(ducklings in comparison to goslings?). and do you keep them all together(guineas, chickens, and ducks)? i think ducks are cute too, and i'd probably choose to get indian runners if i was getting something next(when and if i find the room-ha ha).