Well, she didn't exactly reject them. She seemed very excited that there was a new clutch of eggs but it seemed she was more concerned about protecting them from me than sitting on them. She would sit for 15 minutes each time I got too close, but in the end she just wouldn't sit long enough to keep them warm. So the eggs are back in the incubator now.
I have a new plan though. The second batch of eggs I have -- up to 10 now -- will be used to lure her into going broody. These are safe to leave unattended for a week or three because they haven't yet started developing. If she falls for it, I'll swap in these 7 that are ready to hatch and then take back those 10 and put them into the incubator.
Eggs may hatch starting Friday. This had better work, or I'll have another batch of indoor geese to watch over!
2007/02/26
2007/02/23
goslings on the way
Last I wrote I had a collection of goose eggs that may or may not have been fertile. So I put them into the incubator to find out.
The lab results are in: within a week the goose eggs had a nice spider-web-like array of blood vessels growing throughout. They also made it past the critical 11-day stage where many embryos die for various reasons. Now, at 3 weeks, they are still healthy and growing. When I candle and turn the eggs, I can see the embryos doing somersaults.
This weekend I'll put them out into the coop for Foie to sit on. This is somewhat risky, because she might not identify them as her own. And I can't leave them out there for long without a mother keeping them warm or they will die. (Eggs can sit for several weeks without being sat on, but once you start, they can't be left alone for more than a few hours.) I have high hopes though, as last year when I brought the saved-up eggs to her, she went crazy, attacked me, and sat immediately. Cross your fingers.
I have another 8 eggs ready as a backup. If Foie can't hatch out the current batch, I'll hatch by hand with the incubator.
The lab results are in: within a week the goose eggs had a nice spider-web-like array of blood vessels growing throughout. They also made it past the critical 11-day stage where many embryos die for various reasons. Now, at 3 weeks, they are still healthy and growing. When I candle and turn the eggs, I can see the embryos doing somersaults.
This weekend I'll put them out into the coop for Foie to sit on. This is somewhat risky, because she might not identify them as her own. And I can't leave them out there for long without a mother keeping them warm or they will die. (Eggs can sit for several weeks without being sat on, but once you start, they can't be left alone for more than a few hours.) I have high hopes though, as last year when I brought the saved-up eggs to her, she went crazy, attacked me, and sat immediately. Cross your fingers.
I have another 8 eggs ready as a backup. If Foie can't hatch out the current batch, I'll hatch by hand with the incubator.
2007/02/01
Foie and Gras are ready for goslings
Last things first:
I need a guinea/duck/goose sitter from March 14 to March 18. I'll probably locate someone up here. Requires once-a-day (at minimum) watering duty, feed checking, and bobcat chasing.
On February 22 I will let Foie and Gras start setting on some eggs. That way they'll hatch the week after I return from places afar. Not yet sure what I will let them sit on, because...
I do not yet know whether Pate the gander has done his duty. Today I am starting a one week test to see if the 7 goose eggs I have collected these past two weeks are viable. If so, then for the next 3 weeks I'll collect Foie's and Gras' eggs for hatching. If not, I will eat them and buy some known-good eggs from a local hatchery. They'll be foster mothers at least.
I know that Foie and Gras are ready for motherhood, not only because of the eggs, but because Gras bit me nice and hard two days ago as I was searching the nest for eggs (I still have the bruise to prove it). She will be a good mother.
Sally the Muscovy is also showing signs of mothering -- she sat on a single egg, spread out thin like a pancake as though she were covering a whole nest full.
My plans are to have her hatch a new generation of Pekins, as I don't have a male Muscovy for her. Pekins, in case you don't realize, are domesticated to such an extent that they are not such good mothers. They lay well, but the setting instinct has also been bred out. You don't want egg layers to be good hatchers because setting on eggs causes egg laying to stop. Muscovies are still close to their wild ancestry, and so are great mothers. I recall picking up Sally and her broodmates a few years ago; the mother sprang up into the air and slapped her wings and raked her claws against the guy who was scooping them all up. That's the right reaction.
On the water front, all is normal again. The well is producing a pathetic sub-gallon per minute rate of flow. That is why there are storage tanks I guess.
I need a guinea/duck/goose sitter from March 14 to March 18. I'll probably locate someone up here. Requires once-a-day (at minimum) watering duty, feed checking, and bobcat chasing.
On February 22 I will let Foie and Gras start setting on some eggs. That way they'll hatch the week after I return from places afar. Not yet sure what I will let them sit on, because...
I do not yet know whether Pate the gander has done his duty. Today I am starting a one week test to see if the 7 goose eggs I have collected these past two weeks are viable. If so, then for the next 3 weeks I'll collect Foie's and Gras' eggs for hatching. If not, I will eat them and buy some known-good eggs from a local hatchery. They'll be foster mothers at least.
I know that Foie and Gras are ready for motherhood, not only because of the eggs, but because Gras bit me nice and hard two days ago as I was searching the nest for eggs (I still have the bruise to prove it). She will be a good mother.
Sally the Muscovy is also showing signs of mothering -- she sat on a single egg, spread out thin like a pancake as though she were covering a whole nest full.
My plans are to have her hatch a new generation of Pekins, as I don't have a male Muscovy for her. Pekins, in case you don't realize, are domesticated to such an extent that they are not such good mothers. They lay well, but the setting instinct has also been bred out. You don't want egg layers to be good hatchers because setting on eggs causes egg laying to stop. Muscovies are still close to their wild ancestry, and so are great mothers. I recall picking up Sally and her broodmates a few years ago; the mother sprang up into the air and slapped her wings and raked her claws against the guy who was scooping them all up. That's the right reaction.
On the water front, all is normal again. The well is producing a pathetic sub-gallon per minute rate of flow. That is why there are storage tanks I guess.
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