And subdivided!
I told you the other day about the goose, young Chi, that I found to be broody when I came home from Poland.
Well a few days ago I found the other Chinese goose, young Tai, who I used to think was a gander (!), was trying to share Chi’s nest. Two geese on two eggs was just not working: either one had both eggs and the other was unhappy, or both eggs got left on the edge and became cool, or the jostling for an egg was looking decidedly dangerous for the survival of either egg.
Three days ago I shut the door on Chi,
and let Tai sit just outside on the hay, close beside her, but not on any egg.
Tai put up with this with a lot of gruntling, but by this morning she just would not stop shrieking and shouting. Did I ever mention how vocal Chinese Geese are?
So I put her outside wondering if she had had enough of sitting on no egg and now wanted to be out with the others in the field.
Oh no, that was not what she was trying to tell me. She just carried on shouting and complaining until we could stand it no more: I took a goose egg out of the bottom of the fridge and went outside and showed it to her, from about 25 yards.
It took a couple of seconds and then she realised what I was holding: she came running at full speed and followed me into the run. It was very touching actually.
So I put the egg in some extra hay in the run and shut the run door. Tai spent a happy half hour making a nest, and is now sitting tight.
She is in the run, outside the box with Chi in.
Semi-detached brooding.
But then the calling began again: only this time not from either Chinese goose. It was Gandalf and Debra who were upset that the flock was divided. They are hanging about on the step wanting to come in and sit with the others.
Honestly, there is never any peace around here:)
For some reason although I know that this is bound to be a silly question I’m going yo ask it anyway, Couldn’t they have an egg each?
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🙂 This is not at all a silly question! It seems much the most logical thing to do. But my thinking was this: a goose ‘sits’ for 28-32 days depending on breed. One goose began to sit ten days before the other so her eggs will be ten days already into their incubation period. Would the goose which began sitting later want to continue sitting even if the egg she was sitting on hatched before she was ready to leave the nest and the gosling needed looking after?
And what if only one egg hatches, and it is the one I have taken from the first broody goose: then she would be left childless while her sister has ‘her’ chick!!
Pobably stupid considerations but those were the thoughts ricocheting round my brain.
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That’s all more complicated than I had imagined!
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It may be me making it so but I do tend to overthink things sometimes:)
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