Don’t you love little baby noises? I went to bed last night with two eggs in the incubator and woke up to chirps of two baby goslings. Babies are the best part of living on a hobby farm. These two little darlings will grow up to become beautiful African geese. If you click on the picture, the link will take you to a site with lots of African geese pics, including a number of gosling photos. (You can also click on my Flickr feed in the sidebar for more pics from our pond.)
Just over a month ago, my son’s friend (pictured with him here) was visiting, along with her best friend & sister. While wandering around our wildlife preserve (we have two acres fenced around our pond), the girls found two abandoned goose eggs. It’s hard to know if such left-behinds are fertile, rotten, or healthy, so we placed them in the incubator and waited.
The girls named the eggs (and I suppose now, the geese!) “Felipe” and “Snuggles.” The one who selected “Snuggles” has likely never been too close to an adult goose, but I’ll honor their choice of names and let her form her own opinion in a few months when she gets chased around the pond. Geese are hilarious, but are very territorial.
To incubate eggs, make sure you keep a bit of water in the troughs so the humidity level will be high. And turn the eggs several times each day. That’s about it. You can look up the temperature for specific breeds, but it’s usually around 99.5 F.
I’d begun to wonder about our little geese, as a month had passed. But yesterday afternoon, I heard little geesey noises coming from the incubator, and the eggs were rocking back and forth. By bedtime, one egg had a slight crack.
New birth is a blessing we’re allowed to witness often on the farm. God shows His presence often and in many ways. Even in the form of a baby goose.
Conference registration for the annual American Christian Fiction Writers conference opened this morning. If you’d like to know more about the ACFW conference, a blog tour is in progress that will give information from a variety of perspectives.
We’re going to have a party–a site-launching party–and you’re invited!
