Gosling Update

It seems as if I have a strange gosling. The gentleman that gave me the egg said that they were mostly Ebden, a little bit something else but they would look like an Ebden. Ebdens are all white. Well Flipper is all Ebden looking but the second one is definitly not. The first difference that I noticed was that he seeemed darker, Flipper's newly growing down is snow white but the younger one is darker. Then I noticed some definite dark tail feathers. Very grey, some white but mostly grey. And then it was strange because the baby feathers on top of his head in one spot were alwalys messed up. Well look at him now.

How funny is his head! I guess he must be a tufted variety. Below is a picture of some tufted geese that I found on the web...(sorry if they are copyrighted, believe me I'm not making any profit from these and I would be glad to give you credit if I knew where I found them)...His head looks just like theirs.

You can really see his little fluffy bump in this next picture.

Here he is next to Flipper and you can see how much darker he is. I am so glad they are going to be different. I can't wait til they get bigger and grow all their feathers.

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

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.