Duck, Duck, Goose

We have 17 ducks right now.  I gave a broody hen 8 duck eggs to sit on but the few I looked at yesterday did not look like they had anything growing in them and it has been at least ten days.  I may have to take them all and candle them in the house to tell for sure. I just need to set up an incubator in case she stops sitting.  We have to many male ducks and need to thin the population down some, maybe by four drakes.  We have four females in a pen recovering from over mating now, we need a higher female to male ratio.

I think we have two of our female geese laying now!  Yesterday I went out and one of the geese was in the dewberry patch and her head was laying on the ground, most of the time they tuck their head back and lay it on their back or tuck it under a wing.  I won't lie...it scared me to death!  I was afraid a predator gotten to her and she was dead.  I went over to her and her neck was stretched out and under a few strands of vines...I touched her back and she didn't move, there was no blood or any sign of wounds though. So I touched the top of her head, she still didn't move and her eyes were closed.  I actually lifted the vines and picked her head up...it took a few seconds until she opened her eyes and decided to get up and waddle away.  After she got up, there was not one egg...but two!  So we have two geese laying now.

I am going to try and clean and sanitize all three of my incubators today and hopefully get one set up and warming up to try and hatch goose eggs.  We have no desire to eat them and I want to make sure my two males are fertile and doing their job.  If any do hatch, they should be old enough by next spring to start laying, since these females are only a bit over five months old.  If we get males, I can always sell them...but we won't be able to tell for several months...unless we learn how to vent sex them.  I need to read up on that...I remember something about protrusions and the shape, but that's it.  It would be nice to know ahead of time on all our poultry which ones are males.  It is easier to sell females.