Imprinting

Imprinting is a process that helps ducks and geese identify themselves. They will consider the first being they see as their mother, then the others as their siblings. If they are hatched from an incubator, and handled by humans, they will think they are humans, and will not mate with other geese. They will also seek human company.
IMPRINTING
To avoid this, I limited eye contact with the gosling, who is still in the brooder, on his third day now.
This morning while I was feeding the goats, the mother hen got out of the nest. I took advantage of this to take one of the eggs from the incubator and set it into the nest. There are now 5 eggs in the nest, and three in the incubator. I also ran a power cord from the barn to the geese shed. The next time the hen gets out, I will try to set a second brooder there, then I will set the gosling in there for a day or two, so that the hen will get used to his chirping. After that, I can try to set him in the nest, in hope she will recognize him.
The next weeks should be interesting as far as the geese.