I've been a country boy locked in a city boy body for as long as I can remember. When the chance for retirement arose, I wound up in the hills of NC with majestic views of the eastern ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains...now what. I was alone with my two Brittanys and needed something else. What better than to have chickens. My original flock, fully free range, of 14 has been reduced over two years to two hens and that darn rooster as they seem to have wandered into fox territory. I have ten pullets coming in June.
So, why is this in the 'geese section" you ask? Because when winter comes, this old man gets into trouble and the trouble I got into started with protecting my chickens. Since an LGD wasn't in the cards, what better than a goose! My neighbor's house is in earshot of my rooster, so I began by researching "quiet goose." Who knew that the quiet goose also had to be rare and expensive? I speak of Sebastopol geese. I fell in love with them from all the pictures on Google and the videos on YouTube. I found that a goose and a gander gosling from my favorite mail-order hatchery would run about $250 with shipping.
I then came to realize that hatching eggs can be had from various sources and that four eggs and an incubator was a lot less money than the goslings from the hatchery. So, I ordered a highly rated, low cost incubator which I expected on a Saturday and the eggs which were expected the following Tuesday. Both arrived on Saturday and being so green behind the ears as it pertains to incubating eggs, I panicked and put the eggs in the incubator right away without testing it for 24 hours. And these eggs were not cheap.
A note about incubators: if you're doing anything other than chicken or quail eggs, I urge you to not get a cheap unit that requires a blanket wrapped around it in various configurations to maintain temps and humidity. Duck and goose eggs, I have learned, have specific humidity requirements and the cheap incubators don't even have an easy way to add water without lifting lids and wasting heat and disturbing the babies in the shell. If you're going to invest in rare breeds like I seem to be doing, why cut corners on the incubator? I digress.
I am now on day 27 and will be discontinuing turning the eggs tonight after I give them their last candling and cooling and misting down. While obviously not the same, it brings back memories of pacing in the hospital awaiting the birth of children. If children only laid eggs.
So, why is this in the 'geese section" you ask? Because when winter comes, this old man gets into trouble and the trouble I got into started with protecting my chickens. Since an LGD wasn't in the cards, what better than a goose! My neighbor's house is in earshot of my rooster, so I began by researching "quiet goose." Who knew that the quiet goose also had to be rare and expensive? I speak of Sebastopol geese. I fell in love with them from all the pictures on Google and the videos on YouTube. I found that a goose and a gander gosling from my favorite mail-order hatchery would run about $250 with shipping.
I then came to realize that hatching eggs can be had from various sources and that four eggs and an incubator was a lot less money than the goslings from the hatchery. So, I ordered a highly rated, low cost incubator which I expected on a Saturday and the eggs which were expected the following Tuesday. Both arrived on Saturday and being so green behind the ears as it pertains to incubating eggs, I panicked and put the eggs in the incubator right away without testing it for 24 hours. And these eggs were not cheap.
A note about incubators: if you're doing anything other than chicken or quail eggs, I urge you to not get a cheap unit that requires a blanket wrapped around it in various configurations to maintain temps and humidity. Duck and goose eggs, I have learned, have specific humidity requirements and the cheap incubators don't even have an easy way to add water without lifting lids and wasting heat and disturbing the babies in the shell. If you're going to invest in rare breeds like I seem to be doing, why cut corners on the incubator? I digress.
I am now on day 27 and will be discontinuing turning the eggs tonight after I give them their last candling and cooling and misting down. While obviously not the same, it brings back memories of pacing in the hospital awaiting the birth of children. If children only laid eggs.
