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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2020 18:23:27 GMT -5
I miss the old place,. even though I know I could not keep it up If I had it. I liked the cattle, I kept chickens and ducks and geese and pigs and goats.
If I had favorites they were the cattle and geese. Geese are the cattle of the avian world. They eat grass, live in herds (or gaggles if you must) and generally tolerate no foolishness.
I like them too because they mate for life, are clean birds, live long and are generally pest free. They detest snakes and eat weeds---two endearing qualities.
So, yesterday a neighbor lady told me she was driving to Lebanon Mo to a hatchery to pick up some of the last of this year's hatch. A 250 mile round trip. I did not want to go, but told her to pick up four goslings for me. HOLY SMOKE, WHAT HAVE i DONE?
Well, now I have four goslings, two of which seem to be toulouse, two smaller, unidentified. Of course I had no goose pen, not even a cage, so they had to live in a box overnight. Naturally they scattered water from one end of that to the other, wet down six layers of newsprint and the box.
They are supposed to eat only plain food, no antibiotics, for the first several weeks, so I had to buy a sack of untreated starter feed. No pen or shed, so I had to buy a cage to keep them safe until they can fend for themselves. Then I have had to explain several times to my wife that no, they will not attack you as they did Pat (my deceased wife) unless you antagonize them.
The "Pat" story; She had a semi-circular bed of flowers out front of the house. I had two geese, my first at that place, about three quarters grown. They were raised on the back patio as I'd not yet built the barn. Pat was bent over working in her flower bed, I was in the living room reading the mail when I heard a scream and Pat came rushing inside and slammed the front door. "WHAT HAPPENED" as I started to the shelf where I kept my pistol. "YOUR GOOSE BIT ME!!!!".
Stunned, I said "Quick, put a chair against the door!" She did not appreciate that.
We'lI see how this turns out. Geese can live 20 years or more. With luck they might outlast me, but I've bit off a bit of work.
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Post by september on Jul 2, 2020 19:48:11 GMT -5
Oh I love geese! I've never had any but I would love to have a watch goose on my property. Too complicated to try to figure out decent winter housing for them, and no one to take care of them when we go on trips, so it will never happen for me. Love the story about your wife getting goosed!
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Post by paquebot on Jul 2, 2020 21:33:58 GMT -5
I was nodding my head in agreement when reading that story. When I was young, neighbor farm had some geese. One gander did not like many people and I wasn't one of them. I often fished for trout with my hands. Left me vulnerable to a "rear" attack. One time I was laying on the bank but with a stick in my hand. Just as he was ready to nip my rear, I rolled over and whacked him beside the head. I thought that I was going to have trouble explaining to Velma why her gander suddenly died. Then he got to his feet and wobbled off. Never came closer than 20 feet after that!
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jul 2, 2020 22:26:14 GMT -5
I was nodding my head in agreement when reading that story. When I was young, neighbor farm had some geese. One gander did not like many people and I wasn't one of them. I often fished for trout with my hands. Left me vulnerable to a "rear" attack. One time I was laying on the bank but with a stick in my hand. Just as he was ready to nip my rear, I rolled over and whacked him beside the head. I thought that I was going to have trouble explaining to Velma why her gander suddenly died. Then he got to his feet and wobbled off. Never came closer than 20 feet after that! Martin The truth is more important than the facts. It might be like when my uncle hit his grandads's cow with the pickup after a night of carousing. The next week at Sunday dinner my Great Grandad said " I don't know what's wrong with that cow. She's been limping and moaning all week."
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2020 10:18:47 GMT -5
LOL; such stories!!! I once whacked an aggressive banty rooster, all of a pound and a half or so, with a broom and thought I'd killed him until he wobbled to his feet and took off.
My uncle, about 16 or 17 years older than I, took a girl out on a hot date in his model T Ford. She lived far out on a ranch, dirt road, all mud. Taking her home he put the car in the ruts, set the throttle low and started attending to business. They were having a fine old time until the old Ford ran upon a bull sleeping on the road. He told me that the car rocked like a boat on rough water until that bull got up and left.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2020 20:49:06 GMT -5
Well, it has been a month now since my neighbor delivered my goose babies. They are now teenagers, feathering out and venturing farther afield. If I go out to the back garden (a hundred yards or so) they are with me every step of the way. If I sit down they sit at my feet.
Naturally one of them, the smallest, is an outlaw and tries to boss the others around. He demands first crack at the feeder, he jumps in the water bowl and swims---just being a brat in general. I put a top on the water bowl and cut 3 inch holes in it so they can drink but not swim. Two weigh probably 3 to 5 pounds, the others three fourths of that. All white, but I have no idea what breed they are. I suspect the two larger are Embden.
Wife was angry because they would follow me up on the patio and poop all over, causing me to have to shovel off the patio and then wash it down. I put up an electric string about six inches off the ground. The outlaw decided he would cross it, got straddle of it and had a fit trying to get loose. None have come closer than four feet of the patio since.
Unless something goes wrong they will outlast the old man. Ox
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Post by september on Aug 3, 2020 21:26:12 GMT -5
Oh that poor duck! I've forgotten my electric fence a couple of times, and it's a horrible thing! I'm now trained to automatically look back an extra time to make sure it's unplugged before I go into my back garden. Hope you and the wife don't trip on it! But I suppose the ducks may not test it again, so you won't need to keep the current on all the time.
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tallpines
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Post by tallpines on Aug 3, 2020 21:53:03 GMT -5
So many “goose memories”!
One of the most memorable ...... showing the 4-H members “how to sex a goose”.
The geese are NEVER willing participants during this task 🤪.
So .... @oxankle2, ..... Are your geese, boys or girls? Have you checked ?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2020 8:48:23 GMT -5
September; The wire is low enough that we can easily step over it---though we do have to remember it. Wife and I decided that we could live with that white "string"=-=the polywire. The charger is one of the Australian Zarebas that run off either dry cell or auto batts. I have it set on low because I figure that I will forget and touch the hot string.
Tallpines; I thought I would wait and give the boys time to develop real evidence. LOL, yes, learning that waterfowl are so equipped is amusing, but shocking to the ladies. Wife os still doubtful so I will have her present at the unveiling.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2020 20:58:00 GMT -5
LOL; the geese are now big teen-agers and follow me around everywhere I go on the place. They are almost too big now for the cage that is their nightly protection from varmnts, and I am having ashed made so that they will have their own quarters (and will have a better place for my tractor!)
The neighbors are amused---they call and tell me I have an escort.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2020 9:29:37 GMT -5
More Goose News. They have been pecking on wooden beams, treated beams, leading me to think they needed mineral. I got a chunk of mineral salt and put about a pound piece of it in their feeder. Locked them up for the night, next morning their salt was gone when I turned them out?
What kind of varmint steals salt?
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Post by september on Sept 19, 2020 14:59:15 GMT -5
Do you suppose they were really that salt hungry? Did they need extra water the next day?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2020 18:10:15 GMT -5
NO,it was a varmint of some kind. Later in the day I found most of the chunk about fifteen feet away in the grass.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 19, 2020 20:06:37 GMT -5
Deer are the only wild animals that I know of that will eat salt. That's why it is illegal in many places to bait with salt.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2020 10:37:14 GMT -5
Could have been deer, Martin. Packed hard ground, no visible tracts, but I suspect the brown bunny had his nibble or two. No way he could have moved it though.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2021 14:27:02 GMT -5
Latest on the Goose Saga: A couple of days ago I discovered that what I thought were two geese and a gander were in fact two ganders and a goose. Old Outlaw, the Chinese gander was supposed to have an Embden and a Chinese mate---Instead Outlaw is out in left field and the Embden is a gander and has taken the Chinese female for himself---in no uncertain manner. Poor old outlaw, the Chinese gander, does not know what hit him. I have been working outside all morning and the Outlaw has not left my side---the other two are gone about their own business. I will have to find the Outlaw a goose of some kind.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 28, 2021 11:36:18 GMT -5
Poor Outlaw! I don't know about the mating habits of geese - are they monogamous, or could the Embden try to steal the goose that you get for Outlaw, too?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2021 17:37:51 GMT -5
Laura; Geese are about like people--they normally mate for life and sometimes will not accept another mate if one dies or is killed. On the other hand----- Goose breeders who raise geese for meat sales generally keep one gander for two females, though nowadays artificial insemination is common and apparently as easy as with turkeys.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2021 9:09:08 GMT -5
THE ONGOING SAGA OF GOOSEY INSANITY:
I broke down and bought a big, pretty African goose for the outlaw and caged her next to the goose pen overnight. Turned her out the next day, the resident female attacked her and by the end of the day she was nowhere to be found. LOOKED HARD for her, could not find her, made arrangements to buy another.
Late yesterday evening the neighbor behind about 250 yards away separated by a chain link fence called. She thought she had seen the missing goose come out of THE ONLY BOXWOOD HEDGE PLANT ON MY PLACE!!!! Got up early this morning and sure'nuff, there was the goose eating from the feeder just outside the goose pen---I'd left it out purposely.
So---I did not have a lost or stolen or killed goose, just an evasive goose. Last I saw her she was following the other geese around, keeping a bit of distance, but with them. It they take her into the pond she's a resident.
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Post by september on Feb 4, 2021 11:11:17 GMT -5
Glad to hear she is back, I bet she will fit in with a few more days of acclimation of her place in the flock.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Feb 4, 2021 12:13:37 GMT -5
Probably when it get's breeding season Outlaw will decide that if he can't love the one that he wants he can love the one he's with.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2021 18:02:38 GMT -5
MGCGuy: You are right I think. Right now they are acting like teen-agers, a bit of monkey business here and a bit there. Two months and they will get down to business, I suspect. Best I recall from my Oklahoma days the ganders were pretty effective when the goose was willing. Like marines, they worked on land or sea. The new goose is an African, a nice heavy, big goose. One book says they can weigh 15 pounds when they are four months old. This one is supposed to be almost a year old. That book also said they mature early and lay more eggs than some other breeds of geese.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Feb 4, 2021 23:18:57 GMT -5
Goose egg omelettes!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Feb 5, 2021 9:05:02 GMT -5
How aggressively do geese protect their eggs? If they are serious about it, you might get some bruises and bloody pecks along with your goose eggs.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 5, 2021 23:22:23 GMT -5
There's often a pecking order among geese as is with chickens. New goose has now found her place and there should be no more trouble.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 9:02:25 GMT -5
LOL, Folks, update; This two-week arctic blast has been hard on the old man, but the geese do not like it either. I read that their feet can freeze when the temp is below 20F, and it has been below that almost every night lately, and several days as well. I have kept clean straw under them in the pen, so they can keep their feet warm at night, but during the day the fools go out in the snow and do their thing. I've seen them limping a time or two, but they find dry ground, sit on their feet and go right back.
Water freezes, but they keep a hole pecked open enough to drink--I have to carry the pail in at night and thaw it for the next day. Two inch rim of ice inside some days.
The young Chinese surprised herself with an egg last week---she of course had no idea what she was doing, but she'll learn quickly. The new African female is taking her time but definitely has found her place and seems as intelligent as any bird I've seen. She is now the leader when I tell them to go to the pen at night---In she goes with the others right behind. Geese come as close to cattle as anything I could keep on this little place. They understand electric fences, too.
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Post by september on Feb 18, 2021 11:30:44 GMT -5
@oxankle2 , I enjoy hearing about the geese, I hope the cold snap will soon be gone and their feet will warm up! What do you plan to do with all of them, just eggs, pets, sell chicks, or will you have roast goose? I like goose meat, but could not eat one that I had raised myself.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 12:31:29 GMT -5
Same here, September---I do not eat what has become friendly. I could take calves to market, sell bulls, send old cows to the sale but I could not and did not have one butchered for our own use. Had I a thousand it would have been different, but I knew every one of my animals, they fed from my hand at times and considered me a caretaker. Pigs, not at all personal, chickens I killed and ate.
Here, as is quite common, I am mistaken. I thought the little Chinese goose had laid her puberty egg in ignorance and would lay again later in the Spring. This morning I found that she had hollowed out a nest where I had stored straw for their pen, laid two more eggs in it and covered them over. Since I have read now that some strains of Chinese geese are bred as layers (up to 200 eggs per year) I have no idea what this one will do.
At any rate, not of these geese will go to a roasting pan during my lifetime. The goslings will go to other homes.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Feb 18, 2021 13:01:15 GMT -5
I could see Ox knitting wool socks for the geese to wear.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 17:31:15 GMT -5
LOL, MGCG: Not exactly. Being a warm weather flatlander from the Texas waterline I had no experience with ice and snow until I went to OK. We had one little spell of minus ten there, but I had only cattle and chickens then. (Did you ever see a calf squeeze in between round bales to keep warm?)
I found here that no matter how cold, the geese will get out in the snow. If they get too cold they sit on their feet, or go back under cover and get on dry ground (or the straw in their pen.) I think they are nuts, but they do not seem to care what I think. Today the temp climbed over the freezing mark and they are wandering around in the snow, exploring. This morning I had to get a sack of feed out of my truck (I had it lying on the back seat, raining when I bought it) so I fired up my ATV to save carrying that thing thru the snow. The exertion was a bit too much, and i had one of my "spells" of coughing---Blooming geese came running and yammered at me until I was functional again. Enough to keep an old man entertained.
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