Recent content by Iain Utah

It takes at least 12-24 hours to get their legs under them under a normal hatch. Hard hatches can take 2-3 days. Perfectly normal to not eat or drink for at least 24 hours. I usually do not offer food/water in the first 24 hours.

The two eggs made it to lockdown. Sadly, one turned wrong and never was able to pip, but I did get one perfect buff dewlap baby last night. She internally pipped on Tuesday late morning, external pipped Wednesday early morning and finished hatching at 11:30pm Thursday night. I named her...

Dewlaps are especially hard to hatch. If aircells were detached and not propped up during incubation, then the goslings often cannot turn into proper hatching position at the end. It is so very hard to assist hatching them if they cannot break shell, like the one that pipped on the small end. If...

No, my geese are all mated or part of a small group and do not bother themselves with chickens or ducks. I had a rooster that raped a domestic duck, injuring her, and a muscovy drake that attempted to rape a goose. They were both gone that day to never rape again. I had a small domestic drake...

There are times when a juvenile/yearling rooster may raise chest and try to start a fight, but when ganders respond, the rooster will eventually run away. Fortunately, my animals have plenty of space to retreat.

All of my birds free-range together. I have lots of ganders, and usually have 1-2 roosters (currently have 3). My roosters usually do not challenge ganders, but I am very particular about who gets to come onto my property, and those who get to stay here permanently. I have occasionally had an...

Very interesting! While I have had chickens raise ducks and ducks raise chickens and geese, I've not had a goose raise a duck or chicken. They usually reject the non-goose species in a few days once they leave nest and rejoin group. I also have four cats that have been raised with my birds, and...

From the video, I'd say both boys. Super cute!

Well, I'd bet money the buff is a gander, but cannot be sure about the grey. The grey's neck appears shorter and the topline is flatter, which usually is female, but it could just be the posture in that single image. And I do have a grey gander that looks a lot like the one in your picture. I am...

Oh... and to better answer your question... dewlaps will start laying as early as 10 months old, but typically their eggs will not be able to be fertilized (despite yearling ganders being able to fertilize) until they are in their second laying season.

Beautiful! Congrats on the rare find! It looks like the buff is a gander and the grey is a goose. To be sure, if you could post a video with them making noise, I will be able to confirm. If so, how lucky of you to have found a buff/grey pair. My greys have started laying as early as beginning...

Learned a new trick this morning on how to power foam forced air incubator during power outage... with a jackery! I woke up to a winter storm caused outage and my husband got the idea to use our jackery. It worked great until power was restored. Hope my 2 eggs will be ok. They were without power...

Yes, buff is recessive and carried by grey ganders. I've had fun playing color genetics with my buff and grey dewlap flock. Here is a pic of buff dewlap goslings (out of buff parents).

A mauve colored beak with goldish down means he/she will be a buff colored adult and beak will go orange.

Each goose is different. Some of mine will sit until every last egg explodes. Others have an internal timer that goes off after 5-6 weeks and they just leave nest.