General Chat

After hand rearing two beautiful goslings last year (They were only a week old when I adopted them) - I named them Sooty and Sweep, and when they were old enough I placed them with there adoptive dad Jacko - He was so gentle with them it was incredible (as geese are not often sociable). Sweep started to sit on eggs at the end of March and after a run in with Freddie Fox a week last Friday I managed to save her and she retuned to the nest - i'm so pleased to say that she has hatched five beautiful goslings. I'm so happy about this I just had to share it with you all. Tracy

Tracey Congratulations on becoming a mum! Whose the father of the 5 little ones? Hope there's no incest going on in that family tree! lol Jeanette

Thats a lovely little story to read, I would love to have five little baby Goslings. such pretty funny little things. I get excited when I spot Frogs. simple pleasures, but they do lift us away from all the nastiness in the world.

Well done you for giving this family a helping hand. I am waiting to find out the results of a patient sit-in in my old greenhouse. A duck flew in each morning and laid an egg. I counted 7 one day but she visited for at least a couple of days more before settling to stay with the eggs virtually fulltime since about Easter Sunday. Is this the normal pattern of events? Will the older eggs hatch? I know nothing about ducks but want to help if she needs any. The dad is a mallard, she is white, - an escapee, or 2nd generation perhaps. We have a manmade but countrylike canal about 200 yards away.What she hasn't thought about is that ducklings can't fly and we have a high fence! Any advice?

tracey i know exactly how you are feeling for hubbys 30th birthday(16yrs ago)shhhh...lol,father in law gave him an aylesbury duck. i was smitten ,so hubby went and bought 2 more from the local farm eventually we had 4 new additions!!! sadly one of them was born deformed,but as it was feeding well we trotted off to the vet with this baby in a shoe box lol they said there was nothing they could do for jemima(that was her name)but i wasnt going to let her be put to sleep so when we got home hubby made a splint out of a lolly stick and strapped it to her leg...lol it eventually worked due to a lot of tlc!! although she had a limp and her neck lent to one side,jemima went on to live for another 5years i hope you get as much pleasure with your new babies as we did with ours jemima was one of the family.because she spent so much time being nursed and cuddled as a baby she was almost human she used to tap at the door with her beak until we let her in. she would then sit on the floor by our feet and go to sleep she was also fully house trained...lol susie

Tracy: We had doves raise their young in our yard, using my older son's nesting box that he built in Scouts. I know the feeling; great, isn't it? Gwyneth: From the moment our doves laid their eggs, one of the adults was sitting on it at all times (funny watching them switch places). Don't know anything about ducks -- just that I've been told not to feed them bread as it swells in their stomachs; someone told me cracked corn was ok. Oh, when our baby doves were old enough to leave the nest, they were ushered under greenery in our yard (blackberry bush). They stayed in that area until they were able to fly.

Gwynneth, just to reply to your query, a duck egg takes 28 days to hatch. Ducks are notoriously awful mothers so yours may not have sat 'tight' properly if they don't hatch. As far as flying is concerned, I'm sure your duck hasn't thought about it at all! We have a duck who hatches on the garage roof then tosses her babies out onto the driveway. We have another who nests up a tree then, when they have fallen into the pond, abandons them when they can't get out so we are forever fishing them out and drying them off under the grill before returning them to their useless mother. Generally, out of 12 or 13 eggs, left to mother nature we are lucky to have 3 or 4 who survive their mothers.

Tracy - what a lovely story, like Terri l would love to have some and/or ducklings and ferrets,cockertiels,budgies,horses,sheep,cows - in fact you name it l'd like it - but don't think hubby would approve,nor do we have the space - ohhhh:o(( Good luck with them. Jude

Hi Tracy, What a lovely story to put on the site, well done looking after them. It makes my heart jump with joy when I hear of things like this. Take care June.

Hi Tracy Congratulations on the babies and also for saving Sweep from what could have been disaster!! What a wonderful end to the story. Lynda

I was so pleased for you Tracy that you were able to help towards a happy outcome. It makes you feel really good to see her with the little ones, I bet. Thank you to those who have given advice re. ducks. I hope we have some happy news too someday, but accept that the duck who's adopted us may not have got it quite sorted when it comes to parenthood. Will let you know!

Gwenyth I also had a Trio of Muscovie ducks but thanks to Freddie Fox I now only have one - The mummy duck funnily enough named mima hatched 4 babies last year in August so that gave us 7 - yes you've guessed Freddie killed 6 including the runt duck named Pudding I was so upset - anyway back to the eggs they do take approx 4 weeks and a bit to hatch - well mine did anyway and they are lousy mothers if this is there first batch - we kept checking her when we knew she was about due and took the babies off her and kept them in a fish tank (without the lid - I hasten to add) - we fed them initially on crumbled weetabix and then bought some chick crumbs from the pet shop and fed them twice a day - they need a shallow dish ( a lasagne dish is fine ) with the minimum of water in - just enough to let them paddle and drink - I STRESS if you take the babies off mum you must make them drink. Anyway after about two weeks we returned them to mum and what a beautiful sight after the first night we left them with her - they were all snuggled up with her in the morning. Good luck with your duck they do make lovely pets but make sure they are secure at night so Freddie can't have access to them for dinner as the Dog Fox hunts all the time now as the Vixen is with cubs and believe me they will eventually find you. It took my Freddie Fox three years but yes he has appeared. Hope this helps Love Tracy

Gwyneth Did you get my e-mail? Love Tracy

Tracy, just a quick visit so will reply to your helpful e mail in the morning, Thank you for writing.