So I have a beautiful pair of American Buff Geese that have decided they would like to start a family. There are just over a year old and have been with me for a couple of months. When they first came to live with me they were wonderful and got along with the Silver-laced Orpingtons I'd gotten a few months before. The pen they are in now is something like 40 ft. x 24 ft. if I remember the depth correctly. Each day before work I turned them out into the fenced in yard to graze.
Fast forward to Georgia, the goose, beginning to lay. Golly the Gander became really aggressive with everyone but me and the SLO rooster, Sterling. He harassed Duchess the SLO hen relentlessly. About the same time Sterling slipped while breeding and I had to separate them for her back to heal. After that there were no issues between Golly and Sterling.
I picked up a quad of unrelated younger SLO and integrated them with Duchess in a smaller holding/hospital pen inside the main pen for a couple of weeks. I only let the younger birds out when Golly had access to the whole yard in order to keep him from harassing them or Duchess. After a few days I found the young SLO cockerel dead in front of the gate from the yard to the birds' pen. He had no marks on him other than his face was a bit bloody. I put everyone else to bed. A week goes by (I lost one of the SLO pullets one night when we got over four inches of rain and she literally drowned best I could tell and the roommate accidentally lets the dogs out into the yard where one of my poodles "caught" another SLO pullet who was fine but declined overnight and was dead the following morning) and the roommate calls to tell me she had to rescue Duchess as Golly had pinned her in a corner and was mercilessly attacking her. I get home to find bite wounds all over her head and face and her eyes so swollen she couldn't open them.
Beyond frustrated I took the old trampoline frame that we inherited with the rental property and wrapped in in wire. Which is where Golly now lives until a more permanent enclosure can be built for the pair to move into. Throughout this time frame Georgia has sat faithfully on her nest, but not necessarily her clutch. She's nesting in a jumbo cat litter pan (in order to keep the nest dry during the exceptionally wet spring we've had) with pine shavings on the bottom and about a quarter of a square bale of hay. Several times I've gone out and found eggs missing from the nest that she's rolled out and buried in the hay along the base of the litter pan. I've returned them to her each day I find any there. She has cracked one egg moving them like that and I did investigate enough to see it was fertile.
Now this week she seems to be more bothered by Golly not being in the pen with her. For the first two weeks of incubation I never saw her off the nest. Now she's off for a bit in the morning and usually again in the evening when I get home. I keep debating just pulling the eggs and incubating them myself, but I'm terrified of doing it. I've never incubated geese eggs in a LG incubator and I don't think they'll fit much less turn in my smaller Rcom.
What would you all do? Continue to let her brood and see what happens or pull the eggs? I can't see well enough to candle them because of the mud she's tracked onto them. They aren't like super filthy, but combine mud with developing goslings and being outdoors and you understand why it is hard to see what's going on. What are the chances she'll abandon the nest entirely or partially if she does successfully hatch a couple out and I have to incubate anyway? She started April 23rd best I can tell which would put me about on the 24th day of incubation.
This page claims goslings can appear as early as 27 days and as late as 30:
http://www.moosemanorfarms.com/about-american-geese.html
Fast forward to Georgia, the goose, beginning to lay. Golly the Gander became really aggressive with everyone but me and the SLO rooster, Sterling. He harassed Duchess the SLO hen relentlessly. About the same time Sterling slipped while breeding and I had to separate them for her back to heal. After that there were no issues between Golly and Sterling.
I picked up a quad of unrelated younger SLO and integrated them with Duchess in a smaller holding/hospital pen inside the main pen for a couple of weeks. I only let the younger birds out when Golly had access to the whole yard in order to keep him from harassing them or Duchess. After a few days I found the young SLO cockerel dead in front of the gate from the yard to the birds' pen. He had no marks on him other than his face was a bit bloody. I put everyone else to bed. A week goes by (I lost one of the SLO pullets one night when we got over four inches of rain and she literally drowned best I could tell and the roommate accidentally lets the dogs out into the yard where one of my poodles "caught" another SLO pullet who was fine but declined overnight and was dead the following morning) and the roommate calls to tell me she had to rescue Duchess as Golly had pinned her in a corner and was mercilessly attacking her. I get home to find bite wounds all over her head and face and her eyes so swollen she couldn't open them.
Beyond frustrated I took the old trampoline frame that we inherited with the rental property and wrapped in in wire. Which is where Golly now lives until a more permanent enclosure can be built for the pair to move into. Throughout this time frame Georgia has sat faithfully on her nest, but not necessarily her clutch. She's nesting in a jumbo cat litter pan (in order to keep the nest dry during the exceptionally wet spring we've had) with pine shavings on the bottom and about a quarter of a square bale of hay. Several times I've gone out and found eggs missing from the nest that she's rolled out and buried in the hay along the base of the litter pan. I've returned them to her each day I find any there. She has cracked one egg moving them like that and I did investigate enough to see it was fertile.
Now this week she seems to be more bothered by Golly not being in the pen with her. For the first two weeks of incubation I never saw her off the nest. Now she's off for a bit in the morning and usually again in the evening when I get home. I keep debating just pulling the eggs and incubating them myself, but I'm terrified of doing it. I've never incubated geese eggs in a LG incubator and I don't think they'll fit much less turn in my smaller Rcom.
What would you all do? Continue to let her brood and see what happens or pull the eggs? I can't see well enough to candle them because of the mud she's tracked onto them. They aren't like super filthy, but combine mud with developing goslings and being outdoors and you understand why it is hard to see what's going on. What are the chances she'll abandon the nest entirely or partially if she does successfully hatch a couple out and I have to incubate anyway? She started April 23rd best I can tell which would put me about on the 24th day of incubation.
This page claims goslings can appear as early as 27 days and as late as 30:
http://www.moosemanorfarms.com/about-american-geese.html
