My favorite female goose, Smidget, was killed two days ago by one of our dogs. I have no idea why. But because she is the third adult female that I lost this breeding season, I have decided to keep my remaining goslings and raise them to see how they mature. I will decide in the fall if I want to sell any of the juveniles. Thanks to all of my customers for making nice homes for my babies!
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I had 5 goslings hatch in Hatch G. There are two gray saddlebacks, one light gray saddleback (that will probably feather out white), one solid light gray (may feather out to be a splash or stay dilute gray), and a buff female. The buff is out of a smooth breasted gray female that was in my "non collecting eggs pen", but I decided to go ahead and incubate this egg. The male is a gray, split for buff and saddleback, so this buff should be a female. Since the male and female happen to be full siblings, I decided to keep this gosling to see how she feathers out.
Once I vent sex these goslings in about a week, I will make my decision as to which one I want to keep and how to sell the others. I will try to pair up any males with a female to create a breeding pair, if I can. I will not sell off all of my females and leave me with males. Yesterday, while I was at my barn, I heard a very loud quacking and I had to take a double take when I realized that my Black East Indie female was alive and well. I thought she was killed, along with the male (I found his remains). She followed me into my barn while I went to get her food. Even with the geese pecking at her and the dogs all around her, she didn't care and continued to eat Mazuri Waterfowl feed out of the bucket I was holding. Once she had her fill, she went back to the pond. Today she came back out of hiding, possibly nest setting, and ate some more food as I tossed it into the pond. I am so happy she is alive!
My family comes to our farm the day before Easter to celebrate with us. On this particular Saturday, I asked my nephew if he could climb under our dock to collect the duck eggs laid there. You see we had three ducks, a 7 year old Black East Indie male, a 6 year old Black East Indie female and a 4 year old Pencil Runner female (brown and white). The two females would lay eggs under the dock and hatch them themselves. When we would see ducklings in the pond, it was "all hands on deck"! My husband and I, and any of our kids who were there at the time, would get out our kayaks to catch the ducklings. If we didn't, the fish would eat them. And, of course, the ducklings were imprinted on mom so they were terrified of us.
So my nephew collected 31 eggs and I put them in my incubator. 25 were fertile and, as of yesterday, I hatched 22. These babies are imprinting on me. The Black East Indie ducklings have all black bills, while the Black East Indie x Pencil Runner are also black but have black and yellow bills. I'm extremely grateful that we collected the eggs because 4 days ago, a predator got both of my Black East Indie ducks. Hatch F was complete today with three goslings hatched. All needed help getting out of their shell. I believe it is because I used my forced air incubator to not only incubate, but to hatch. The air seems to dry the membrane before they hatch, even with 68% humidity. Usually, I move the externally pipped eggs to my still air incubator....but it was being used by my ducklings. The first two goslings were, once again, full siblings. However, when they finally escaped the egg shell, they both had curled feet. The gray one still had not opened up it's feet to walk after a few hours so I "sandwiched" both feet between a stiff cardboard and vet wrap. Right now when it walks, it looks like it is walking on high heels. Hopefully, by tomorrow it will be better. The second gosling, a gray saddleback, started using it's feet correctly after a few hours. The last gosling, a gray saddleback from a different pen, has spraddle leg and I wrapped them together so that tomorrow it should be fine. This is the first hatch this season where I had to intervene and I do believe it is the incubator. Next week is my last hatch of the season and I have 9 eggs. I will definitely be putting all the externally pipped eggs into my "hatching" still air incubator. 5/14/17 Took off the foot "sandwich" and the spraddle fix and everything looks great! I ended up with only one egg hatching from this hatch. It is from my Bond/Creme pen and thankfully it is a buff saddleback. I'm hoping it is a male but I'm keeping it either way. I'm so excited that it ended up being a buff saddleback! It is also the first egg ever that I have hatched from this pair. The female is my favorite buff saddleback female and I have not hatched too many from her over the years. If this is a male, next year I am pairing him up with my Helmut/Inge female (Anneli) that I hatched and am keeping, and my Helmut/Amber daughter, Smidget, that is two. I do have a few more eggs still going from Bond/Creme. May 13, 2017 I vent sexed it as a female. I will re check later this week. May 16, 2017 I checked my buff saddleback again and I do believe I have a male!!! WooHoo!! Now to name him!
I ended up hatching 5 goslings in D Hatch, one buff from a different pen, two solid grays and two gray saddlebacks, all full siblings. I'm waiting a couple more days before attempting to vent sex them. The buff is already spoken for.
I have 18 more eggs due in the next three hatches. Three eggs due to hatch later this week. Two are from a pen that no egg has made it to hatch. I'm hoping for a buff saddleback male. The last egg is from my very productive pen, Amber and Helmut. |
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