silly birds

This year was to be the year the geese nested on their own. No incubator, no brooder box, no herding goslings in and out of the dog pen, no picking up gosling parts from the yard and burying them. Dottie and I put up a pen, and while I don't have the doors up yet, I do have the parts for it as well as the hooks for securing the bottom. Meanwhile, half the geese refuse to enter voluntarily. (They'll go in for the food, but that's it.)

Yesterday morning we realized one of the geese was nesting in the duck house, and the dogs were harassing her. So we discussed options, I gathered up boards, a hammer, and nails, and we blocked all the paths to the house except the ones the geese use from the water. Since then the mother goose has not returned to her two eggs. I told Bobby she's got two more days, and if she doesn't return to the nest by then I'll collect them and pull out the incubator.

Chirpie nested against the house again, and of course the dogs had her egg by morning.

After all this effort to help them hatch their own, you'd think they'd at least cooperate. Silly birds.

good news/bad news

Yesterday the dog people came (thanks for calling them again, Bobby!) and fixed the fence. Yeah! But it's still nesting season for the geese. OH NO! I scooped up the one remaining egg from the nest of the diligent goose and brought it inside. I was hoping maybe today I could find another egg (I like to put them into the incubator in groups of two or more.) This morning the dogs were still in the yard, but were going crazy at something down by the pond. Bobby went to investigate, and it turns out they were yelping at a nesting goose. The other geese finally came and pitched in, and held the dogs at bay...for a while. Before we had finished breakfast I see Lucy running around with her jaw almost dislocated. She's got an egg in her mouth. I figured it was a lost cause, but then realized she still had the thing in her mouth. She'd put it down, roll it, pick it back up again and run with it. So I headed outside. She didn't want to give it to me, but she finally conceded - AND THERE'S NOT A SCRATCH NOR PUNCTURE IN THE EGG! It's just slobbery wet. So while I feel bad for the poor goose that was trying so hard, I am thankful there's two more eggs to go into the incubator. I think it's too late to build the nesting pen I had planned, but I might still go ahead and put something up just in case these do hatch. I want them to move freely without the dogs chasing them.

To the left are the eggs from two years ago. I put the eggs in as I found them, and they hatched on different days. It was sad. The one lone gosling would peck at the other eggs and wouldn't get a response. Last year I was a little smarter and put them all in at the same time, and they all hatched within 24 hours. It was almost as if you could hear them encouraging each other on. And I'm hoping the dogs will keep the predators away this year!