How, you might well ask, can a farm without geese end up with accidental goslings? It's not like they were born here to a sneaky broody goose. The answer to that question is the same as the answer to another.Question: What happens when you send your husband to the feed store to pick up some grain with the offhand remark, "While you're there why don't you see if it's possible to order geese through them."
Answer: Your husband orders geese. What kind? He doesn't know. How many? Two. Why? Refer to 'what kind'.
Then, a couple weeks later the feed store calls to tell you your goslings have arrived. (Presumably by stork.) And voila! Accidental goslings ordered by your husband who didn't realize he was actually ordering goslings but has a vague remembrance of the conversation going something like, "While you're at the feed store why don't you order geese if you want some." And why did he pick what turned out to be White Chinese Weeder Geese? Because they sounded exotic.
So now we have two exotic White Chinese Weeder Geese. Because we have no idea what the sexes are and have a 50/50 chance of getting it right we called one Cyrus and one Petunia (after the delightful, silly goose who was one of my favorite childhood characters.)
I have to say, goslings are a riot! They are nosy, boisterous, curious, hysterical, and quite the little characters. But they don't like to swim. At least not yet. They do love to follow people around and they are good at getting underfoot. Mostly they sleep and eat and dunk their heads under water. When they aren't pooping. And geese poop a LOT. About three times a day when we change their bedding (because they poop a LOT) we let them run around on the lawn where they follow whoever's moving. Cyrus is stronger and keeps up really well but poor Petunia always seems to take the hardest route. Today she tried to follow us and instead of going around the path like Cy she made a beeline through the wilderness of mint plants in the flower bed and nearly tumbled off the small rock wall at the end because she was so relieved she'd caught up that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. (Though I have to say geese seem to feel they are invincible and would walk over the side of a cliff without a second thought.)
The day after the goslings got here the chicks arrived. So now there are goslings in the kitchen and chicks in the bathroom (and bunnies in the basement.) Ah, farm life. Can't beat it.
Goslings are so awesome! I am so in love with ours, although they are not following us around at this point...we are waiting until they are less vulnerable to predators before we let them roam completely free. Right now we keep them in some movable fencing. I think our cat would probably be the biggest threat until they have wings big enough to beat him over the head. :)
ReplyDeleteAren't they great???? I haven't had this much fun since we had the baby bunnies!! We only have two so it's much easier to keep track of them if we let them run around. They spend most of their time now outside in the bunny hoppy pen so they can eat grass. The cat was only interested in them until he realized they were ours and now he could care less. Max isn't sure about them but thinks they have herding potential. LOL!! I don't know how you keep up with the 25 or so you got! Ours are v. demanding and poop ALL THE TIME!! They are only in their box inside overnight and it STINKS by morning. Foul fowl, lol!!! Saw a youtube vid about a goose that lives in a condo and wears a diaper! Too funny! But I can totally see it. They are SO social.
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