Flipper is Growing!

I can't believe how fast a gosling grows. When compared to our turkeys, the turkeys look like they haven't grown at all!

Check out the before and after photos.

April 30th

May 22nd

We took him with us to my mom's house for the Memorial Day picnic and at first no one was very happy. You see, it was supposed to be a work day and they always think I do really crazy stuff so you can imagine. They were very surprised at how good he was.

They expected him to run all over and that we would have to try and catch him but that is the opposite of a goslings behavior. He never moved farther than 10 feet away at any time. If any one in the group walked away he would follow them crying because either he didn't want them to leave or he thought he should follow them. My cousin's 3 year old really loved him, it's great because he will go up to anyone and let them pet him.

During our picnic he just sat quietly on Kevin's lap while we ate, sleeping for a while and then waking up but really calm and quiet.

I got in touch with the "Goose Mother". She is the nicest lady and gave me all kinds of good advice for an indoor goose. She makes and sells diapers and harnesses for geese. There is a link to her website under the picture below. She takes her geese to Renaissance Fairs where she dresses up as Mother Goose. She also takes them to nursing homes to visit. She has one beautiful Sebastopol Goose named Maggie that actually hugs people with her neck (she wraps it around their neck and hugs tight), when she meets them.

http://www.thegoosesmother.com/index.html

This is a picture from her site, I hope she doesn't mind me posting it. How cute is this little baby with his diaper harness!

Kevin caught a really nice largemouth and a couple crappies but the pictures are really small. My sister sent them to me from her camera but I do not know how to make them bigger or even if I can. I hope you can see them. My Mom and Dad live on a really nice private lake. I was really lucky to have grown up there. We swam, fished with our cane poles and played in the woods all day. I never caught a fish like this though!

Flipper really enjoyed my Moms lake and went in swimming with the kids. All in all we had a great time and everyone loved Flipper and I ended up not have to wash windows!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Beth

He Swims!

I am not sure who was more scared, him or me. I think it was definitely me.

How to find the Energy................

I have about 15 million things to write about but I would have to write five pages to keep up with all the goings-on here. I have people calling like crazy for turkey poults but I am sold out until the 20th or so. It's so hard because I have to tell people that I will have poults after the 20th but like that old adage "Don't count your turkeys before they hatch" it's hard to believe they will hatch. It still is so exciting every time I see a pipped egg I can't tell you! It takes all my willpower to NOT help them out. I do cheat though and help a little.


I have Americanas hatching and the colors are amazing. Everyone is kinda different. I will go right now and take a picture so you all can see....(It's 7:48, I'll see how long it takes me, cause I have to use my cell phone, my camera died............OK, I'm back and it's 7:54, not bad considering all I have to go through to download them)



Let's see how the pictures turned out






Not too bad.

When this one in the bottom of the picture pipped I could see it's little beak and it was black! I could not wait to see it. It's the only black beaked one. Very cool.

The little one in the center hatched an hour ago, still not sure what color it will be, not quite fluffed up yet.

I love the little one with the eyeliner. When it hatched it eyes looked HUGE! It was the black eyeliner, it looked deformed it eyes looked so big.

We put the babies in with our second gosling. (not Flipper but this one has no name yet, trying very hard to not have him imprint on us!) They think he's mama and won't leave him alone. They freak him out though but he is getting used to them, letting them snuggle up when they sleep. We had originally put this gosling in with Flipper but Flipper was beating the tar out of him. He would grab the feathers on the baby's neck and jerk him all over so we separated them. Flipper is still with two turkeys and he lays with them and tries to groom them. I think they are starting to like it. Very strange to see a giant gosling nuzzling a little turkey. (Little refers only to size as the turkeys are older than Flipper.)

Of course, I had to include a picture of him. All he wants is for us to hold him. He is even bigger now than when this picture was taken, he can reach the top of his cage. with his little beak...or I guess I should say bill. I went in search of a bigger cage today but came up empty handed. I will keep looking because I think we will have him with us in the house for a while.

He has become very attached to us. No one told me that a gosling will imprint on you. While researching goose stuff I found out that a gosling will become so attached that they won't accept other geese or breed or anything. I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM! Although he does seem happy and kind of content with the turkeys maybe because he was in with the turkeys when he first came out of the incubator.

He is the cutest thing too! He has ten times more personality than the chickens or turkeys we have had. I will take more movies and try to capture his behaviors. So sweet.

See ya everyone, gotta go tuck kids in and turkeys and chicks and a goose!

Beth

Flipper

Here he is!



After deciding on a name, either Olivia if it's a girl or Oscar if it's a boy we found out that there is no way to know if it's a boy or girl for a long long time. We had to come up with a gender neutral name. After throwing out names like Pat, Chris and the like, one of the kids suggested we call him/her Flip Flop.

We shortened it down to Flipper and everyone is happy except me cause I have been singing the theme song to the TV show in my head nonstop for about five days now. "Flipper, Flipper, faster then liiightning, no one you seeeee......is smarter then heeeee". OMG! Can't stand it. Every time I walk past his/her pen I sing it. Sometimes I call him/her Happy Feet cause his (I'll just say his or he from now on)cute little webbed feet are so different than the turkeys. He has a lot more personality too. He tries to groom you when you hold him, nibbling on your shirt or fingers.
One of the remaining two goose eggs pipped yesterday and it is so frustrating having to wait for it to hatch on it's own. They tell you over and over again not to help but it's cute little bill is poked through and it is peeping very sadly. I just know it is saying "Help me help me." It's been about 20 hours since it pipped so I will wait some more.

I will update when it hatches.
Beth

A Baby Goose

As I sit here typing with one hand, (or is that one finger), I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with one adorable baby goose. Typing with one hand is the result of holding (wrapped up in my shirt), with the other hand said adorable goose. He/she is exactly what I do not want. And that is to get attached to a goose...and guess what, it's already too late, it's done. (I have to go and put him down, it's too hard to type)




Oh gosh, that's better. He's back under the heat lamp. His first 24 hours have been pretty rough. He could hardly hold his head up for awhile but now he is getting better. Every 10 minutes it seems I go in and check on him. Uh oh, I hear him peeping, I'm going to go look....he was on his back, poor little guy. He's all by himself cause he's pretty weak and I am afraid the turkeys would terrorize him. When he is stronger he will have to go in with them, he needs company.

We had five goose eggs but the four other eggs have not hatched yet and they may not. The gentleman that gave them to me said it was pretty cold out when he gathered them up so he was not sure of their hatchability. We have two additional ones that were gathered later when it was warmer but they are not set to hatch until the 11th of May.
I have never wanted geese, I thought they were all nasty, hissing, mean creatures. But how can you not love a fluffy little thing like this? The more I've read the more I've found out that lots of people have geese and they love them and they are not all mean. Plus we have a brand new pond that is practically yelling for something to swim on it. We will see where this adventure leads me.

Sorry that these pictures are not that good. The worst thing has happened, my camera has died again. I sent it back to Canon once to have it fixed but it has died again. These pictures are from my cell phone. It's a new one and a pretty good one too. It's a Razor V9, I guess the latest and greatest from Sprint. Our COD4 friend (thanks again Maverick!) sent it to us. Takes pretty good pictures, check out the one below of the rainbow over our pond. Pretty cool.

The only problem is that I have to take out the battery and then take out the little memory card thing and plug that into an adapter thing and then into my card reader. I'm not sure if we got a USB cord with it. If you read this Mav, let me know. I guess I should try to find the box or ask Kevin but I'm too lazy for that.

Next on our agenda, we have more geese hatching on the 11th (hopefully), Americanas and Phoenix chickens hatching on the 19th and more turkeys on the 26th and then vacation the first week of June.

And so it begins.

Beth

ps, We had some very nice people stop by and buy some turkeys and chickens. Thanks to everyone, I hope they bring you all as much pleasure as they do us.