There is Life at the end of tunnel.

[Klala]

Congrats on getting your geese to do the sitting!

I have 2 American Buffs, and when Gussie started laying eggs, she and Golly were intensely protective of the nest. I was SURE Golly was a gander because of the fierce way Golly protected Gussie's eggs. Nope. Two girls.

This year, they have decided to lay up next to the house foundation, and I sometimes find both their eggs and a runner duck egg in the nest. Since I have runner drakes, you have almost made me consider seeing if my geese would hatch the eggs.

Then, I force myself to remember I HAVE TOO MANY BIRDS.

Best wishes on your hatch. Would love to see how it progresses!

Never too many!! I do have to give props to my other half he hasn't said that yet. I think you should try letting your girls hatch a couple ducks. Just exchange a couple for theirs and collect a couple on the side to cycle in for any that don't make it. That's how I'm doing it. It'll give the girls something to do.. I checked the eggs yesterday and by the looks of it all 14 have life in one stage or another. Now the hard part is to not be a helicopter lol. Henrietta is soo protective I have to check periodically to make sure she(he?) hasn't eggnapped all Harriet's eggs. All I have to say is all the reading I've done with the comments of Tolunouse Geese, young ones at that, don't make good brooders..I can prove that wrong haha.

 

[Callender Girl]

Before I realized both of my Buffs were girls, I was all excited about the prospect of goslings. Until I stopped to wonder where on earth I would house the little buggers.

Much as I would have loved fuzzy babies, I quickly got over my disappointment when I thought about how much square footage I would have needed for the 18 eggs laid.

Maybe next year I'll consider letting the geese become "foster moms." I would need to expand the duck shelter if I had more than a very few hatchlings. Last year, I built a new coop for the chickens; this year, I would like to work on some projects for MY house!

 

[Klala]

Before I realized both of my Buffs were girls, I was all excited about the prospect of goslings. Until I stopped to wonder where on earth I would house the little buggers.

Much as I would have loved fuzzy babies, I quickly got over my disappointment when I thought about how much square footage I would have needed for the 18 eggs laid.

Maybe next year I'll consider letting the geese become "foster moms." I would need to expand the duck shelter if I had more than a very few hatchlings. Last year, I built a new coop for the chickens; this year, I would like to work on some projects for MY house!

I too am wondering where I'm going to house 16 poop monsters.. that's lovingly said of course, I call my chickens fat when they send their 10lb spokes-chicken to sing to me the song of their people..that's another story in its self.
You sound like me, with multiple projects pertaining around the human world that have been set aside until a later time because, well we can wait but the birds can't. I knew I wasn't the only one haha. I'm working on convincing my other half that his shed is exactly the correct size and location for the poop coop and all he needs to do is provide me with a location to move his 10+ years of accumulated stuff to. Mind you he has a big Man Cave/shop and he hasn't seen half the stuff for years that's stored in the future coop. I also explained how the current poop hut, a lean to off of future poop coop, I commandeered last year, would really make a better storage for food, bedding and water heater come winter.. He's not too keen on giving up his storage but he will come around, especially when he's tired of the nursery our back porch will become and remain until I'm provided with a location for his stuff or I am provided with a better location to build a better dwelling to house everyone. I believe there needs to be an equal give and take when in a relationship but sometimes I also believe in tipping the scales a little lol....I just had a thought.. I need to remind my other half that a new built coop I would be larger than the shed Im trying to obtain from him and the only other logical safe place to build it would be right where the winter wood pile sits and we wouldn't want to move the wood pile... Oh hunny have you figured out where your stuff is going yet??

 

[Callender Girl]

Good luck with your powers of persuasion! Sounds like you have plenty of Really Good Points lined up to use in your favor. And, all is fair in love, war and poultry!

Today. I realized how much Gussie would like to be a mom. Not only is she setting on the nest in the shelter AFTER I took her egg, but she has pulled chest feathers out to feather it with. I'm nearly tempted to give her a few runner eggs.

Then, I remember that my runner boys are stupidly battling each other for the girls' attentions to the point of bleeding; that my Bantam rooster is being Overly Romantic with the hens who sleep in his coop and needs to have a coop-within-a-coop before all three girls are bald; and that with human company coming, there is some housework that simply can't wait. I'm afraid poor Gussie will just have to deal with disappointment -- at least for now.

I have to keep repeating to myself: "I don't need more birds. I don't need more birds." No matter how adorable they are.