My goose is setting

[Rosebud 18]

My toulouse goose Bella started setting today. She looks like she is in a daze. She is just setting there with a glazed look on her face. Friday is the last day that I counted her eggs and there was 17 in the nest. She has broke 1 and I took the first 2 out. I'm sure she laid some more since friday. I just want to see her hatch a few. I don't expect all of the eggs to hatch. The daddy is Mikey my pilgrim gander but he is not staying with her he is staying with the other (toulouse hen) Iris until Mo (the toulouse gander) gets to close then he will start yelling and chases him away. The poor girl is all alone on her nest.

 

[larkflying]

Oh, how exciting that she is sitting! I have to drag one of my yearling geese off of her nest and make her eat and drink . . . she is completely out of it, unless there's someone trying to get to her. Then she wakes up to protect those eggs.

I have 3 geese sitting, and the ganders seem pretty uninterested in them too -- so much for my visions of devoted fathers protecting their helpless mates on the eggs (although anything that bites like a goose, and sounds like a giant snake, isn't totally helpless) . . .

Good luck on the goslings! Be sure to write down the day when she started . . . I forgot to do that with my goose, and now I'm trying to figure out when I should be thinking about taking the eggs away if they don't hatch . ..

 

[squirrelbug]

Hi...this is my first time posting, but I have been reading and lurking for months,

Bonnie, my pilgrim goose has just began to sit as well. Last I counted (over the weekend), she had 10 eggs....I had removed several before we finally got them moved to their own space and have allowed her to keep them since getting them settled. Her and Clyde were in with 2 male alpacas and it was getting a bit dangerous in there for them all. Clyde kept attacking and the boys would kick him...not fun.

Anyway...this is my first mating season, as well as theirs so I am really hoping that she will manage to get a couple of goslings

Clyde has stayed fairly close to Bonnie, just going to his pool once in a while. He looks quite lonely without her out there with him...poor guy

It will be fun to have others sitting at the same time

Joanne

 

[squirrelbug]

It says I have posted before....so I was wrong in that being my first post, hehe!!

Joanne

 

[larkflying]

Yes it is fun having someone else to talk to about geese sitting. I'm afraid my extended family seems sort of doubtful about the geese sitting, except for my 6 year old niece, who loves babies, all kinds of babies : )

It is just as well the eggs aren't in an incubator -- I'd be staring at them all day . . . but at least I'd know when they were supposed to hatch! Poor Momma geese have seen me a lot lately . . .

 

[squirrelbug]

Well, my pretty girl is still sitting on her nest...I gave her some lettuce this morning and then again tonight, and she did eat it. She was so sweet as she chattered with me I am so very excited

I really hope that she can at least get a couple for all her efforts ;}

Joanne

Oh, and Clyde is not quite the terror he was 2 days ago....He's more like he was before all this started....but I do still keep an eye on him and my plastic rake with me, lol.

 

[larkflying]

In February I thought the ganders were bad, but they have gotten worse . . . .sigh. We've had several dominance discussions, and now they mostly back off . . . but they have lots to say about how unfair it all is.

It is nasty rain rain rain here, so I'm kind of hoping the eggs don't hatch until the weather gets a bit better. I am really going to have to decide soon about whether to move them into shelter or not . . . the one stall in the barn has a broody banty hen in it, and I doubt she would do well with an enormous goose plus babies. I wouldn't worry about it as much, because I imagine the geese will all take care of the babies, but the ravens have been stealing eggs . . . don't want them to steal a gosling! That would be tragic!

Here I am wondering what to do with goslings when I don't have any yet . . . sigh. It is hard to wait though!

 

[Rosebud 18]

I wrote the day she started setting on my calendar, so I would know when to start lookig for babies. I haven't seen her off the nest since she started setting. I put food and water close to her nest but she doesn't seem to want it. How long should I wait before I run her off her nest to eat and drink. This my first year hatching goslings so I don't know to much about it. I just want her to hatch at least 2.

 

[squirrelbug]

I can't answer that as this is my first year too.

I came home this afternoon and Bonnie was off the nest and wandering around a little bit....I was so very disappointed thinking that she wasn't going to do what was necessary to hatch them out. I turned back around and she was back in there just chattering away like she never left....<sigh>....

I put some lettuce dipped in water on her nest where she can reach it and she seems to gobble it up. She must of just needed to stretch her legs. Clyde stayed right with her and stood by her in her nest after she got back on it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she makes it happen....I don't even know if they are fertile, but they were pretty consistent with their mating. He just about made her completely bald...poor girl!!

I also wrote on the calendar

Joanne

 

[larkflying]

I assume geese are like broody hens -- I think they can get off the nest at least once a day for a few minutes without hurting them. They are actually supposed to get off and take baths so the eggs get enough moisture. Somewhere I read about geese dying because they don't get up to eat or drink so I've been dragging my goose off every other day or so . . . she's doing better now, but at first she was pretty weak and staggered around - her feet are this nasty pale color so I know she went too long on the eggs before getting up.

Next year, I will remember to write down the date! Would have been much happier with that . . .