potential Problem

[clmschke]

One of our young African geese hatched out two goslings. As usual, she has lost quite a bit of weight sitting on her nest for 30 days (she is a small goose to begin with) Now she is beginning to sit on another nest. Our African/Toulouse cross gander and his mate are caring for the goslings while she broods again. If we take her off the nest and bring her outside the goslings will stay with her. We are worried that she will waste away sitting another 30 days.

 

[Miss Lydia]

One of our young African geese hatched out two goslings. As usual, she has lost quite a bit of weight sitting on her nest for 30 days (she is a small goose to begin with) Now she is beginning to sit on another nest. Our African/Toulouse cross gander and his mate are caring for the goslings while she broods again. If we take her off the nest and bring her outside the goslings will stay with her. We are worried that she will waste away sitting another 30 days.

I wouldn't let her she is already run down let her take care of her little ones and keep her out of the other nest.

 

[clmschke]

Dave's wife here. I put her outside, put Carrie inside the nesting area this morning and the babies will go to Fred readily. I just let Carrie out since she wasn't on the nest anyways, and shut the door so neither can go in and set on the nest. I've got one gosling working on an internal pip in the incubator that I will put to Carrie to see if she can foster.

Now another slight problem has come up. With Fred being on the nest, she grew some long toenails. Somehow one got snagged on something, got to bleeding yesterday. She's walking tenderly on that foot, and I'm thinking that if I can clip those nails down a bit, it might keep the pressure off of that injury and lessen the pain.

So can I clip a goose's nail? And how much? I've clipped cat's nails and know about cutting too far.
Fred, with a baby hitching a ride.

 

[EvenLater]

Sure can clip em! Works the same as other critters. Just mind the quik and keep some corn starch, flour, or product called QuikStop handy just in case you accidentally knick too far and start a bleed. If you do, take a pinch of either of those and apply it to the cut/bleeding nail, apply some pressure until the bleeding stops. Then I usually dab on a bit more just to make sure, and keep an eye on them after setting them back down. To avoid this completely, I stop quite a bit above the quik just to be safe, and I'll just file nails that I either can't see the quik clearly enough or just don't feel safe clipping.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Dave's wife here. I put her outside, put Carrie inside the nesting area this morning and the babies will go to Fred readily. I just let Carrie out since she wasn't on the nest anyways, and shut the door so neither can go in and set on the nest. I've got one gosling working on an internal pip in the incubator that I will put to Carrie to see if she can foster.

Now another slight problem has come up. With Fred being on the nest, she grew some long toenails. Somehow one got snagged on something, got to bleeding yesterday. She's walking tenderly on that foot, and I'm thinking that if I can clip those nails down a bit, it might keep the pressure off of that injury and lessen the pain.

So can I clip a goose's nail? And how much? I've clipped cat's nails and know about cutting too far.
Fred, with a baby hitching a ride.

So your going to put the newly hatched gosling with Carrie who is back on the nest? are those eggs no good? won't that mean she'd have a little one to care for and may abandon the nest?
I've never cut my gooses toenails but I did one of my Muscovy's boy did I cut the quick I finally got it to stop bleeding but I thought she'd bleed to death first.

 

[clmschke]

If I put the little one with Carrie, she will abandon her nest to be sure. Since she's not attentive to it enough to brood it properly, it won't matter. Those eggs are bad anyways. I've got 4 nests in the pen with at least 15+ eggs in them an no one will even look at them. ~Shrugs~ Perhaps we need to re-think the nesting situation for next year.

I don't know how to get these girls to get broody on these nests of 15+ eggs. They'd rather lay an egg and go off. Fred and Gracie were the only two who went broody. Gracie screwed around long enough so hers weren't viable: She'd go off, then get broody for a few days, then go off the nest again. Fred, she laid 5 eggs and just went broody right away.

Once I saw Fred's toenails, I figured with enough free-ranging, they'd be whittled down in no time. I'm not sure what she snagged it on, but she's real careful about walking on it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It is hard to know why some are such good broody's and others aren't. I haven't ever read of many that didn't want to brood, maybe it's age? my Buff goose went broody first this year she will be 1 end of May, my Toulouse who is 3yrs old has gone broody 2 yrs straight but not this year. It's okay with me since we aren't hatching any gosling but does make you wonder. I think my 3yrs old Missy would probably have gone broody is my Buff hadn't first. So hopefully Carrie will be happy with her new gosling and you can get rid of the bad eggs. any more in the bator? maybe she'd take on a few more.

 

[clmschke]

There's 4 in the 'bator now that are viable other than that one pipping and will hatch within about a week and a half. We've got a few girls who foster really well: Mary, Carrie, and Luna are great foster Moms. I know Luna did brood last year, but she went all googly eyed for Elsa when I brought her out for Mary and abandoned her nest for Elsa. I ended up incubating what was left of her nest, which was Fred and George. Both are girls, btw, sometimes I get it right, this time it was totally wrong. I should've named them Padme and Pavarti instead, to keep with the Harry Potter tradition.

What is interesting is that Fred and George, the ones I hand-reared last year, show the most broody tendencies of all the gals. The others are wishy-washy about it. I picked up the nest to the left of Fred's to keep her from setting on it. Candling them, 12 were bad outright, one got tossed as a sulfur bomb towards the stand of trees, 15 have potential..meaning I'm not seeing any development nor any bad goo. I'm contemplating incubating them...contemplating.

It's hard to gauge what the gals will be doing a month from now. They might all of a sudden decide to start brooding and then I'll be up to my eyeballs with goslings.

 

[Miss Lydia]

There's 4 in the 'bator now that are viable other than that one pipping and will hatch within about a week and a half. We've got a few girls who foster really well: Mary, Carrie, and Luna are great foster Moms. I know Luna did brood last year, but she went all googly eyed for Elsa when I brought her out for Mary and abandoned her nest for Elsa. I ended up incubating what was left of her nest, which was Fred and George. Both are girls, btw, sometimes I get it right, this time it was totally wrong. I should've named them Padme and Pavarti instead, to keep with the Harry Potter tradition.

What is interesting is that Fred and George, the ones I hand-reared last year, show the most broody tendencies of all the gals. The others are wishy-washy about it. I picked up the nest to the left of Fred's to keep her from setting on it. Candling them, 12 were bad outright, one got tossed as a sulfur bomb towards the stand of trees, 15 have potential..meaning I'm not seeing any development nor any bad goo. I'm contemplating incubating them...contemplating.

It's hard to gauge what the gals will be doing a month from now. They might all of a sudden decide to start brooding and then I'll be up to my eyeballs with goslings.

I'm thinking egg laying is going to be coming to a close here by end of May. I'll be thankful they have been extremely hateful to the rest of the flock so much so they are in their own fencing during the day now. What do you do with all your goslings. Of course if we had our whole 5.5 acres fenced I could have more than 4 , but since my flock is only on 1/2 acre my ducks and chickens would probably tar and feather me if I added any more. Well it sounds like if those already in the bator hatch there will be plenty of parenting for them. Love to see more pics when you get time.