My adult breeders were all too happy to be turned out of their pens last Sunday.
Contact me if you are interested in getting a gosling, as I have a waiting list.
Kelly Farm Sebastopol Geese |
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Hatch A is almost complete. We have 5 goslings so far. Only two more eggs, which are still going. I ended up setting five hatches, the remaining hatches should each hatch the next four Mondays. The photo above shows four solid grays, two will be curly and two MAY be curly, and one solid buff that MAY be curly. The buff is already spoken for.
My adult breeders were all too happy to be turned out of their pens last Sunday. Contact me if you are interested in getting a gosling, as I have a waiting list.
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Hatch A is under way! I just set 35 eggs and my first incubator is full. The ones that make it to hatch should hatch around the end of April. I will update as they hatch! Stay tuned...!!
It looks like the weather will be nice for us to set up our pens this weekend. I have had three eggs so far and I'm only seeing gander on gander breeding. Ha! I'm glad they weren't early this year in laying eggs so I didn't have to deal with taking care of the pens in all the snow we just had. Hoping everyone is having a good breeding season! Good luck!
Well, I just checked and my remaining eggs have quit on me. Rats!!! Since we have had other things going on in our lives, I decided to reduce my hatches to only two this year, normally I would do around six or eight hatches. So I set twenty six eggs for my first hatch, eight were fertile, two hatched and one died. So I was left with a very robust gray gosling. I set fifteen eggs for my second hatch, six were fertile, two hatched and one died. I was left with a gray saddleback, full sibling to the week old gray gosling. Thankfully, they are very robust and doing well.
I'm not sure why I had such a bad hatching year but I suspect it may be environmental. Hoping that I can make some changes for next year's hatching season. I hope other breeders are dong well in their hatching. Good luck! My young dog who had been in with my poultry for 5 months went on a killing spree two weeks ago. I was heart broken. She killed three of my geese and mauled 6 others. Two geese are still being doctored as I write. I lost my beloved Brule'e who was the main breeder in my flock. I hatched him in my very first hatch eight years ago and he helped me to establish my breeding lines. I will miss him terribly. One of his daughters from last year's hatch was also killed. One of my other main breeders that was killed was my gander Helmut. I purchased him 5 years ago from Vicky Thompson of Cottage Rose. I wanted to introduce the higher neck curl into my line, which he did wonderfully. He was a sweet boy and he will also be terribly missed.
I finally got my breeding pens set up yesterday and today. I've waited to set them up until I got back from my two weeks of travel. I have three pens that will only produce buff and buff saddleback. Two pens can produce buff and gray. One pen can produce blue and gray. And the last pen can produce blue and lilac saddleback! Now we shall see how it goes!!!
I seem to have hatched an abundant amount of males this year... not ideal in my world. Thankfully, I've met some wonderful customers who wanted males for their flock or breeding program. I was amazed when I sold 9 of my juveniles to the same person. And he wanted mostly males!!!! Yeah!! So, if you are in need of a gander, take a look at my "For Sale" page and you may see what you want!!!
It took me a while to get my "Geese For Sale" page done with photos, but it is now ready for viewing. If you see a goose that you are interested in, let me know and I can send up to date photos and possibly some short videos.
2019 was a good hatching year for Kelly Farm. 39 goslings were hatched, 34 survived. I ended the season in April at Easter because I was done. My geese continued to lay eggs through May. I've been making a lot of goose egg quiche! Unfortunately, I hatched a lot more males than females which causes me to have to sell females with a male. It's inconvenient for customers but I can't be left with an abundance of males. Now to get these goslings/juveniles into their new homes!
Hatch C only produced two goslings. Unfortunately, I lost three goslings, one from each of the first three hatches. Hatch D gave me 10 new goslings. And today, Hatch E had 7 goslings. Currently, I have 30 goslings, 23 in my garage and 7 in the house. One more hatch with 9 eggs growing so far. Time to sell these babies!!!
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