What happened to my goose babies

Bobcat. 

Gone are Affie, Baby Girl, and my big bitey jerky gander Bitor. I really loved him, for all that he was a bitey jerk. He had one hell of a personality. Sweet Girl passed a couple months ago, and we couldn't find a mark on her.  We figured there must have just been something wrong with her, but perhaps that had been a bobcat too.

Took precautions, weren't good enough. Damn cat came within 30 yards of our house. Don't know why it went after the geese instead of the ducks.  We ended up moving what fowl were left (the 3 ducks) to the pen next to the house.

Hubby went out and bought a furtaker's license and a bobcat card.  We'd determined it was a bobcat due to pics on game cams we'd set out.  Over the first weekend he had it, he got not one... but TWO freaking bobcats.  Both females.  @$#%@#$%#$  A friend of ours is a rather good hobby taxidermist, and we're gonna get his help to cure the pelts. 

I've decided that I won't have any more farm critters that are "pets".  We can't make our critter areas absolutely impenetrable.  Don't ask why or berate that I don't.  It's just not currently feasible, and I'll leave it at that. 


RIP my little goose babies.

 

 

Another new mommy on the farm!

Baby Girl's goslings started hatching yesterday! See the little gosling by her side?

LJ went out to change the goose water, and all the girls were in the hut and hissing at him. Strange, as the ladies don't hiss at us... Just at strangers. Then, he started to hear peeping. :) When I got home from work, I had him distract Bitor so I could snap a quick pic. All the geese are excited and hanging out around Baby. Bitor diligently guards the goose hut, Sweet Girl snuggles down a couple feet from Baby, and Affie has been smack in the middle of things, nestled right next to Baby and helping her incubate the eggs. Can't wait to get home this afternoon and check on the progress!!!

More patient than I am, by far

Baby is still sitting her nest. She has at least 15 under there. On the rare occasion that she gets up, Bitor hovers near the nest to protect it, and often Sweet Girl will go sit on the nest til Baby gets back. Affie, of course, doesn't sit. As far as she's concerned, the other two ladies make perfectly servicable nursemaids, and this way Affie keeps her lovely figure. :)

Me, though... I. Can't. Wait. To. GO HOME! When I left this morning, the two pipped eggs hadn't made any more progress from last night, though both eggs peeped and rocked when I directed the light through the incubator window. According to LJ, a couple hours later before he left the house, both were rocking away, and one had started to unzip the shell (he said it had broken off a large chunk!). I hope the other two non-pipped eggs have also progressed since this morning. One had finally pipped internally (I could hear the clicking breaths), but nothing yet from the other (just some faint movement at the top edge of the air cell). Fingers crossed for some more shell pips, and maybe a couple newly hatched goslings when I get home!

Goose eggs in our future?

Ya know, I was talking to LJ the other day about goose eggs... The kind that you'd get as a kid, ie a great big knot on your noggin because you cracked your head on something. I haven't gotten one of those since I was a kid, though I've definitely hit my head a number of times as an adult (curtain rod, branches, cupboard door...). Wonder why that is? Do only kids get the spectacular lump that my grandma called a goose egg? One of life's great mysteries, I suppose.

Anyhoo, what I actually wanted to talk about is eggs (the edible kind) from our geese. Bitor the biter started getting his mojo on with the ladies for the first time a couple weeks ago, and has been merciless lately. It's gotten to where the goosey gals don't seem to want to get in their trough for a bath, because that is Bitor's favorite place to ambush them. My Affie girl has been starving (that goose is ALWAYS hungry) and extra affectionate, and Bitor has been extra aggressive, which means that it's about time for a round of giving him attention. Every couple weeks I need to catch the big jerk, hold him in my lap and pet the crap out of him while baby-talking what a pretty pretty boy he is. After a round of "pretty bird", he isn't so keen on coming near me. Usually lasts a couple weeks, and he soooo needs some attention, because he has been trying to bite me through the fence daily. And I swear that goose weighs 30+lbs. He is a BIG boy, and I surely don't need a pissed off gander attempting to goose me when I'm in the pen. Big sneaky jerk. :)

The big fat jerk...

I've been waiting for a sign that we might get eggs soon. The geese are close to a year old, and from what I've read, they lay in the spring. I've also read that the larger breed ganders (Bitor is a Toulouse) aren't particularly fertile in their first year, so we're just looking for eggs this year, not goslings.

My Affie girl

So, as I was out doing the critter rounds this morning before work, I pointed the spotlight in the direction of the goose pen and only counted three geese. Should be four geese. As my heart did a freaky little stutter-jump, I walked over for a closer look. I spotted Affie, Bitor, and Sweet Girl, but no Baby Girl. Wth? All 3 were hunkered down in their fav corner of the pen, under the trees, and jumped up to run over to me in the dark, begging for some grain (Bitor tried to bite me through the fence). No Baby Girl, though. Crap crap crap. With a sinking heart, I started looking for feathers, scanning the pen, until my eyes caught a flicker of movement... In the goose hut, which the geese rarely use, I saw a grey goose tail and a bit of fluffy petticoat peeking over the straw, which was followed by a fat little Baby Girl goose face that lifted up and beep beeped at me. That little rotund rascal was nearly buried in the straw, and was giving me the stink eye for shining a light in her face. I shone the offending light a little better into the hut at the back of the pen, and could see that she has been making a really big nest in there. Stinkin thing is probably 6-8 inches deep. Since I'd already woken her up, Baby got to work on her nest again. Woohoo! Eggs soon?! Needing to get to work, I didn't get to gander long. LJ took a look when he got home from work, but nothing yet.  Hopefully, eggs soon!