They had been living in a little backyard pen with a baby bath for water. It was the best fun I’ve had in ages, watching ducks discover water. The dived and fluffed and preened and splashed and put on several R rated shows. You have never seen an animal so happy!
With geese (there are eleven of them now, fully grown, and unfortunately all named – so much for goose dinner, at least this year!) and chooks we now have quite a collection of poultry. We have had ducks before and found them rather too vulnerable to goannas, foxes and wild dogs. These muscovies are a bit bigger though, and with two drakes and a floating island in the middle of the dam to escape to, I’m hoping they will survive.
I’m dreaming duck eggs this time: they already have names (Sir Francis, Sir Walter, Daphne and Simone) so I think they’re already off the duck dinner agenda. And though the geese managed to successfully raise a clutch of goslings, I’m not too hopeful about raising ducklings. Just too tasty for the wildlife.
If you were after a grazing animal that grows at a phenomenal rate, the goslings have gone from this to this in just six weeks.
We lost one of the six at about four days old, found floating in the dam with a huge tick. Since then, we’ve had to check them twice a day for ticks, finding one or two most days. But apart from ticks, they’ve been pretty self-sufficient and resilient. The adults are fantastic parents. The whole five adults take on parenting duties, forming a defensive ring around the goslings at the least sign of danger and letting them have first pick at any food.
We haven’t named them, but I really don’t think I’m going to be able to eat them. So much for me and meat animals! Lets hope I do better with the chickens.
Last night we had a ferocious storm. Lost a fully grown jackfruit tree, a big macadamia tree, and the roof off the goose house. Jackie sat stoically on her eggs lashed with horizontal rain. Four goslings were out and she wasn’t leaving. Another two hatched after the storm. This morning we had the best fun in ages, eating breakfast on the verandah, watching all five adults urge and demonstrate and encourage the babies to take their first swim. It takes a gaggle to raise a gosling, or six.
Jackie is sitting on 9 eggs. At least we think there are nine. Patrick and Trevor get very upset if we try to go near her. Geese are supposed to be monogamous (or at least “in an open relationship”) for life, but maybe because we have two girls and three boys, both Patrick and Trevor [...]
This is the latest in our attempt to keep chooks again strategy – guard geese. The idea is that the geese will chase off some of the daytime predators, so the chooks can be allowed to free range in the daytime. Our newly lined front dam means we have a place for them, and the [...]
