Chinese goose... Last new farm baby

So, of the three goose eggs in the incubator, only one made it. It's been alone this past week. I tried to foster it off on the geese, but it didn't work. The adult geese were interested and happy to include the baby into the family, but the juveniles attacked the baby mercilessly, and it came running to me each time they did, screaming to be picked up. *sigh* So, I went by Wilco to see if they had any waterfowl left. They're done ordering for this season, so I didn't have super high hopes. They had two. A huge male pekin duckling, and a male white chinese gosling. Of course, remembering how very very messy ducks are, I forked over a whopping 16 bucks for the goose. He's awfully sweet, loves to be held, and doesn't pick on mini-goose. I've decided to name him Jeffrey, because he reminds me of the gosling in Charlotte's Web (haven't heard him oink yet, though). I think we'll keep him, and he can live with Jiminy and the ducks. We may have a taker for mini-goose... One of LJ's coworkers. Fingers crossed!

Gonna be MIA for a bit. Work is crazy right now, and planning the wedding (only a month away!) is stressing me out something awful. Anyhoo, when I get back I'll have critter updates and hopefully a post on butchering the Cornish X icky chickies (what we did last weekend).

Have a nice June, everyone!

Jiminy's albatross imitation

Geese are so funny. When they're little, their wings are just little tabs, and seem way too small for their bodies. Then, seemingly overnight, their wings quadruple in size and are suddenly too big. They remind me of some sort of sea bird fledgling. Great big heavy wings that they can barely lift.

Internally pipped goose egg!

Ok, so I'm on my second round of goose egg incubation. The pic above is me in a dark tiny closet, holding a small maglite to an internally pipped egg. That little peak is the beak! Internal pipping is where the gosling/chick/keet/whathaveyou breaks through the membrane inside the egg, allowing access to the large air cell at the big end of the egg. Within a day or so, I should see an external pip, where the baby breaks through the shell so it can access outside air. Shortly after that, baby will "unzip" the egg, breaking the shell in a circular manner so it can get free of the egg.

In the pic above, I think something is wrong with the egg. See how there's a lighter area under the air cell, unlike the first pic? Perhaps a ruptured air cell? I dunno. In any case, the gosling is moving around in there, so hopefully it can proceed to external pip.

This is my last round of incubator eggs this season, and it has been an incredible experience! The geese are done laying, and our second and last round of chicks are due naturally-incubated under Jerky Pecking $&@#% Hen next week. (Not every hen can be as sweet as Bellina, you know). I'm hoping to foster these new goose babies (if they make it through hatching) with Affie. Sooooo much easier when the geese raise them, as I don't have to feed and water them separately, and I also don't get ATTACHED to meat birds... sigh... We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

The tastiest grass is that which I'm sitting on...

My, how the goslings have grown!

So, these are the goslings that I hatched in the incubator a few weeks ago. That's Jiminy in the front, Meat Goose behind, and their pet duck (Crusty) on the right. They're currently living in the recently vacated duck tractor. Every evening, I let them out for a walk and some socializing. They're way too much fun. I do love geese!

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!

Lap goose

The weather is halfway decent, so I brought Jiminy out to eat some grass and stretch his/her legs while I listened to some Diana Gabaldon on my iPod. Yeah, didn't work. Darn goose insisted on being in my lap, and would only eat grass if hand fed... I'm a sucker. This baby seems like a female to me, so I'm gonna start calling Jiminy a she, and we'll see next spring if I do or don't see eggs. :)

Sweet Jiminy

I adore this goose. It loves to snuggle, and screams to be picked up. I took the two goslings out for a walk on the lawn yesterday, so they could stretch their legs and have a bite of grass and clover. Jiminy didn't want anything to do with Meat Goose (what we call the one that isn't particularly friendly). Jiminy just wanted to run circles around me and eat, every so often looking up at me and chattering away like I could understand. :) Too cute.

Oh, and I checked on Baby last night, and she has 3 goslings. Will try and post pics and more info this weekend. Happy Friday all!!!

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!!!

Only the one fluffy baby so far

How cute is this little guy/gal?!

As for the others... One of the babies died late in the shell. It was turned the wrong way. 2nd hatched baby (hatched last night) passed this morning... Was pretty weak. Still have one working on unzipping its shell, so perhaps I'll be 2/4? We'll see. From what I've been reading on the goose section of the backyardchickens forum, this isn't exactly unheard of, and goose hatching is difficult. More than a little disheartening, but the one baby I do have is absolutely precious.

First baby hatched on the farm!!!!

Say hello to a noisy and very energetic new gosling. Little guy isn't even dry yet, and has been careening around the incubator and squealing for a good 45 minutes. Thought they were supposed to take a post hatch nap!?

Sweet Boy

So, we had decided that we didn't want a gander when we picked out our three girls. But, when I went by the feed store on Friday, the poor boy was the last goose (Toulouse), and he was in a rather dirty tub with wet bedding and a bunch of ducks. I couldn't leave him. Poor boy went all quiet when I picked him up, and snuggled down in my hands. I had to bring him home.

He rode home in my lap, happy as could be, and slept most of the way. He is awfully sweet and cuddly, and not as noisy as the girls. When we got home, I washed his poopy wet belly (which he didn't particularly enjoy) and toweled him off (which he seemed to enjoy immensely). I don't know if his name will remain Sweet Boy, but it suits him well for now.

Woohoo coop!

Oh yeah! The Golden Girls are finally OUT of the house and in the coop! Woohoo! We finished enclosing the run last night and lugged the brooder and the girls out to the backyard. Handfuls of outraged girls were plucked from the cozy brooder and set on the torture field ground, and we had 12 frozen golden chicken statues. It was hilarious. You could move their wings, their heads, and they'd freeze in place. Play dough chickens. After a few minutes, a couple of the girls got brave and started pecking around. The others soon followed. They were especially happy when we put them in the coop with deep sawdust bedding. Very very happy, scratch wood chips everywhere, bury themselves up to their necks girls.

The new babies finally got moved to the Henry resistant brooder, and seem quite happy. My little "Betty Barred Rock" aka Lucky, the sole survivor of Henry's attack on Friday night, is the least skittish of the babies and will walk right up to me. She's not a fan of being held, but is content to perch on my finger. I can't wait until they all get a little bigger. The Golden Girls weren't big fans of attention until about the 2.5 week mark. The Ewok Ameraucanas are the loudest of the bunch, and give me dirty looks when I pick them up. The Andalusian and the Wyandotte are meek and cuddly. The Rhodie is indifferent, as are the Jersey Giants. The Welsummer is sure that I'm a vicious chick eating monster. If this mix of chicks is anything like the Buffs, they will love me after their first taste of yogurt. :)

The goslings are very sweet, except for the one I saved (Stupid). She can't seem to decide whether to be nice or be a pinchy bitey little jerk. They want to mouth everything. Blankets, towels, clothing, buttons, fingers, hair, earlobes, and LJ's goatee. We held the three of them on the couch last night while we watched tv. If you rest your hand on their back, they will snuggle down and doze off, except for Stupid. Took her a while to get the idea and relax. The two Toulouse don't have names yet, but I'm sure they'll be more creative than "Stupid". Hers may even change. We'll see how their personalities develop. Hell, one of them (Stupid) may end up named "Dinner" if they become seriously unfriendly. It's still early in the game. We'll see, we'll see. I do know that at only a few days old, these little buggers can already really bite, and they're only biting to mouth stuff right now. I'm not looking forward to intentional pinches. I bruise beautifully. Should be fun.