How to brood goslings (or ducklings)

Many people have asked me how to successfully brood goslings.  For the first week after hatching, my goslings live in an under the bed box on the kitchen counter.  The bin is about 6 inches tall and 3 ft long and 18 inches wide.  I have a heat lamp with a 100 W light bulb in it for heat.  I just clamp it to the side of the bin.  I provide food and water in short tupperware containers.  I also pick fine grass from the yard and cut it up in 1/2 inch pieces with scissors and add to their water bowl.  This keeps the grass from drying out under the heat lamp.  You can also give them lettuce. I fill their food and change their water daily or more often, if needed.  I use old towels for flooring.  I change them daily and wash them in the washer.  Here is a picture of my set-up:

At one week old, they get moved to the garage brooder, they get too active and big and can jump out of the bin on the kitchen counter.  I have made this brooder out of a child play pen, similar to a dog x-pen.  I split it in half with some plastic hardware cloth.  Each pen is 3' x 6'. I usually have about 4 goslings in each pen.  I use straw bedding here, I have had goslings eat shavings before and get sick.  I use a large rubbermaid bin lid to put the food and water on and it helps keep the mess a little cleaner.  I use a larger water bowl, one they can get into to bathe.  They also get a few large handfuls of picked grass.  I keep them supplied with it at all times.  A gooses diet should be 1/2 to 3/4 grass! I have a 100 W heat lamp about 1 ft off the ground. I fill food and change water 2 x a day and spot clean bedding daily.

At 2 weeks old, they go outside during the day in a dog x-pen (it is 4' x4'), as long as the weather isn't windy, cold or rainy.  I will warn you that ducklings will not enjoy being picked up 2x or more a day. The x-pen is covered with shade cloth so that aerial predators cannot hurt them.  I move the pen daily to fresh, clean grass.  They get a small cat litter box for a water bowl.  Then they come back into the garage brooder (the side with no heat) at night.  Here they have food, water and a huge armload of picked grass.  While they are out during the day I clean their pen.

At 3 weeks old, they go into a larger outside pen with a larger food and water bowl and stay the night in my greenhouse with a 100 W heat lamp on at night.  They stay out here 24/7 now.

When they are 4-6 weeks old I start to introduce them to the older geese, usually on the other side of a fence at first.  Then supervised visits, then they will live with them, if I am keeping them.

• For information on the food I feed goslings and ducklings see here; http://sherryscrazymenagerie.blogspot.com/2013/04/feeding-goslings.html

I have a Sebastopol goose setting on 6 eggs and they are due to hatch on Easter!!  So eggsciting!

THE GOSLINGS ARE HERE!!!  My geese usually start to lay around Valentine's Day, so about a month later, the goslings are hatching!  My first clutch is of 3 goslings, 2 are sebbie/toulouse crosses and 1 is a white sebbie.  They are so adorable, lovable and fun to play with!  They are like puppies!  Here is the first batch and they went to their new home yesterday.

Is this cuteness overload or what????  They cuddle up in the sunshine on my leg to nap!  AWWW!

It is definitely spring, the girls have started laying like crazy!!  We are getting like 30 dozen chicken eggs and about 12 dozen duck and about 10-12 goose eggs a week!  Woot, woot!

That is a lot of washing people!  Good thing I have child labor on my side.  te he
Anyone want to buy some farm fresh eggs?  I sell them for $3.50/dz for chicken, $5.00 for duck, and $1/per egg for goose.

Most of my birds are kept in the pasture part of our property, but once in a while you get a rogue that learns how to get out and roam in the yard.  Here are a few.

This is a buckeye hen that would come up on our back deck and perch on a stool outside my window and look in while I was on my computer!  Buckeyes are so curious!

During spring and fall my birds are busy molting.  When my ducks molt, they loose the wing feathers that I have clipped and get a full set of feathers.  Then they start to fly around and land on buildings.
Here are some funny pics of muscovies all over the place.

 This hen is on top of my hubby's shop.  The roof is at least 20 ft tall!

These two are on top of chicken coops.  They love to look down at you as you walk by, like "What are you doing down there?"  ha ha

Here is a fun pic that Shyanne and I set up for a photo contest last year on Face book.