Spirit - the amazing grey dewlap toulouse gander!

[Tugger]

Lain, what an incredible story of Spirit. things like that always humble me.

 

[psue]

I just had an amazing call with Gary Overton, the top dewlap breeder authority and judge in the country. He said to put my adult buff with my two best grey adult girls and leave all the rest in one group and collect all eggs for eating. He said yearling ganders really cannot get the job done... And yearling geese will lay small eggs, produce small babies, many of which are not healthy. He said he would never breed his dewlaps until at least 2yo and they really don't get highly productive with sizable offspring until their 3rd year.
He offered to critique all my dewlaps, if I send him pics via snail mail, and then he will send me pics of his best dewlaps to give me an ideal to strive for. He said he would mentor me over time to make sure I breed and cross breed my flock for best long term results. He is such a sweet man!!!
Oh... And we talked briefly about hubby showing our white African gander. He said we should as they are quite rare and will do well at shows. He said if we do show him, to bring a flake of straw to put in crate for better bedding.

 

[psue]

J... was just out checking on the kids and it occured to me that Fred's eggs were about 70 grams lighter this spring as the ones she layed this fall. I know she's not a Toulouse but the % of babies we got from her eggs was not great either. Maybe all geese do better as they mature?

 

[Iain Utah]

Tugger, thank you for the kind words!!

Paulla, I believe that is the case. My african breeder friend said that some lines of africans will also not produce well as yearlings. I can ask her if yearling african geese will have smaller babies. Gary Overton said that the dewlaps are a more slowly maturing breed than others (which we all know well by now) and with the young layers and smaller eggs, their babies will also be smaller. Since he was striving to keep the size as large as possible, it did not make sense to him to breed yearlings.

Speaking of breeding.... I was very disturbed to see my dewlaps attempting breeding today. Even Gimpy and Blind Girl were going at it. Ewwww. Maybe I will go ahead and separate them out into small groups to encourage pair bonding between the right partners.

 

[psue]

I'm so glad I only have one pair of each to worry about

 

[Marty1876]

Ok, sebbies and africans good for breeding first year. Toulouse, wait until year 2 min. OK! Thanks for the helpful info.

I am finally feeling a bit better. I actually rarely got on the computer the last several days. Got sick Dec 27, and still sick Jan 7. I thought I was getting better in the middle, but the uck just moved from head to chest, which was no improvement.

NPIP came back ok for everyone, but I have to retest my chickens and turkeys for Avarian Influenza (AI) in another 2 weeks. Apparently waterfowl are natural carries of this, but it doesn't effect them. They will give it to other birds like turkeys and chickens though, if they share an area. So, we retest, and if needed, and non-goosed/ducked area will be where their pen is moved to. Or, I sell them once they are well. (it usually takes 3 weeks) Always an adventure.

The sebbies are hissing at me all the time now. I figure either they are still mad about the NPIP testing, or its getting close to whoppie time. I guess I'll just let all the toulouse hang out this year, and eat their eggs. DH will be very happy for the excuse I'm sure.

Iain, forward those pics when you get them would you?

 

[Iain Utah]

Paulla, don't blame you there. It is starting to become a circus here with everyone going through personality changes.

Marty, that is a long s*cky cold. Glad you are finally feeling better! I will do what I can to forward pics, but it may take a bit as I have to get pics sent off to him first.

 

[psue]

Ok, sebbies and africans good for breeding first year. Toulouse, wait until year 2 min. OK! Thanks for the helpful info.

I am finally feeling a bit better. I actually rarely got on the computer the last several days. Got sick Dec 27, and still sick Jan 7. I thought I was getting better in the middle, but the uck just moved from head to chest, which was no improvement.

NPIP came back ok for everyone, but I have to retest my chickens and turkeys for Avarian Influenza (AI) in another 2 weeks. Apparently waterfowl are natural carries of this, but it doesn't effect them. They will give it to other birds like turkeys and chickens though, if they share an area. So, we retest, and if needed, and non-goosed/ducked area will be where their pen is moved to. Or, I sell them once they are well. (it usually takes 3 weeks) Always an adventure.

The sebbies are hissing at me all the time now. I figure either they are still mad about the NPIP testing, or its getting close to whoppie time. I guess I'll just let all the toulouse hang out this year, and eat their eggs. DH will be very happy for the excuse I'm sure.

Iain, forward those pics when you get them would you?

Thanks for the heads up about AI. Originally I had the turkeys running with the waterfowl but they've been seperated since November. I'll try to remember to get my paperwork into the mail tomarrow. Had to think of a name to use for it,lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

Haven't had an update on Spirit in a few days, hows he doing?

 

[Marty1876]

How is everyone? Seems like I've discovered a lot of new nooks at BYC lately, but haven't been here as much. (Did you know a BYCer made their own pizza/bread wood fired oven, and posted step by step pics and directions? Can you say summer project? LOL)

I will try to get pics of the birds today. Well, Lucky and Baby anyway. The rest are little mud balls from the recent rains. Its a good thing some geese have knobs, some have curly feathers, and some are big, or else I couldn't tell them apart right now! It looks to me like they spend their time digging like ducks in the little collected pools in the pens. I wonder if they are digging for tasty nibbles, or trying to make a new "pool" addition.