The sitting Hen

 At the moment we dont want any more chickens.

And we have a broody hen. 

And we have a goose that is laying eggs but at the moment isnt incubating them.

 

So 

 

Weve taken some eggs from the nest that the goose has made 

 

And introduced the hen to them .,And she is incubating them 

  Goose egg incubation time is about a month.  So wait and see what ( if anything ) comes of this.

The geese are coming

Well, hatching , actually

We've been rescuing goose eggs from the nest  and when we had collected a few, put them in the incubator.  And after a month, one of them has started to hatch

Google says it can take 3 days for a goose to exit the shell. So check back on thursday

More eggs

last year and Lily  laid and then sat on eggs.  Which unfortunately came to to nothing


 And she is laying again , in the same place

So far 5. If the chap has got the hang of things this year it will hopefully be  bit more productive than last year.


And its not just her.

The geese have continued to lay

 so we hope the female starts to sit and we will have geese in addition to whatever comes from the 9 eggs in the incubator.

One goose a-laying

I made a very nice goose-house last year . Its inaugural trip is here.  The geese ignored it where it was,  so we've relocated it, and we have placed is somewhere sheltered .

But the geese know better. Here's some  disturbed ground

And if we move the bracken and leaves

 In fact, she has been laying eggs for a while and we have been collecting them - always leaving one there as a reminder for her.

So when this lot hatch , we'll possibly use the incubator again and hatch some geese.
Geese arent the most fastidious of mothers around , so the chicks have a better hcance of survival from the incubator.

A sitting hen.

Someone local had  a broody hen   which was offered on loan  - perhaps thats easier  that trying to unbrood them , or putting up with pushing her off any eggs that are  laid.

As we've had limited luck with geese - because of the predators taking the eggs - the hen is sitting on some geese eggs.

Only a few - we started with 4 but on the first inspection , only 3 were under her so one was removed. Perhaps ot surprising as they are so much bigger

And the hen is in a broody box - its gives them the shade and privacy they need and means we need to be bothered a bit less about disurbances.

And the incubation period is 25-30 days .