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.

 

 

Standing guard

Ever vigilant, Bitor makes sure that nobody gets near his goslings.

On another goose note, Affie has been halfheartedly sitting on a beautiful nest she made and the remainder of Baby's eggs. I went in last night and took them all away. Good thing I did! I candled them all, just in case any were late lays and showed development. Yeah, no. Most were sloshy inside, and a couple had some evil streaks. Yeah, they all went carefully into the outside trash before they could explode on me. Lol. They were starting to stink. Ew. Ew ew ew! If Affie wants to be a mommy so badly, and Baby's babies aren't enough for her, perhaps I'll try and get her to accept the incubator babies when (if) they hatch next weekend. Would sure help me not get attached to them! Happy Friday, all!

Bitor.... is a studly gander

So, my big mean gander managed to do his part to fertilize some eggs!  Happy dance!

I had been collecting goose eggs, with the intention of putting them back in the nest once I got a good clutch together.  It had been really cold out, and rather than have the eggs freezing in the nest while the girls built up a clutch, I'd been bringing them in and storing them in the back bedroom where the temp stays around 55 deg or so.  I kept only the nice clean eggs, and after a week had 9.  Then, LJ decided to buy an incubator!  So, even though I read that goose eggs are a bit tricky, we decided to break in the new toy with my carefully collected 9.  We put them in on the 12th.  I weighed them all and wrote their weights on the eggs with a pencil, as well as marking one side of the egg with an X, and one with an O.  I've been turning them 3 times a day so that the x's and o's alternate each night as far as which side is up.  So, on Sunday, I candled the eggs (shining a nice bright light into the egg), and FOUR showed development!  Truthfully, I didn't really expect anything out of this experiment, so I'm super stoked.  When illuminated, each egg shows a dark spot with veins radiating out from it.  I tried to take a picture, but it just wasn't working.  So, if I manage to not kill these four goosey miracles, I may (knock on wood) end up with 4 goslings in a little over 3 weeks.  Woohoo!

During the week that these eggs were in the incubator, I continued to collect fresh eggs from the ladies.  They'd originally had two nests in the goose hut, and they finally ended up dismantling the nest on the left and all began sharing the one on the right.  On Sunday I put 5 eggs back in the nest, and crossed my fingers that number of eggs would be enough for one of the gals to start sitting.  Lo and behold, they've all been taking turns on the nest!  I didn't think they did that, but I've seen it.  So, provided they do a good job (fingers crossed!) we may get a naturally hatched batch too.  *knocking knocking knocking on wood*

Wish me luck, because this is my first time incubating!

It's Affie Girl's first time too

And she was such a CUTE baby!

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!