One thing about living on a small farm is, whenever anybody has some animal they no longer want (for whatever reason), they immediately think of giving it to me. Now, that’s not really a problem when they take the time to ask; I like having animals around, and it gives the place character. But sometimes they don’t bother to ask; they just find the nearest farm, ranch, or whatever and dump the animal there (which was how we ended up with Orville here and several dogs in Oklahoma). This time, it was a goose and I was asked; last week Yellowbird texted to ask whether we could take it because the owners couldn’t protect it from coyotes which had started coming around. So I said “sure”, and here she is. So far she’s mostly just waddling around; she can duck under the gates (no pun intended) and spends most of her time either in the paddock or the west side of the house, hunting bugs in the grass (at least, I think that’s what she’s doing). She seems cautious of the other animals right now, so she’s mostly keeping to herself, but yesterday I saw her pretty close to Jonathan so I guess she’s getting used to them. Now if I can only figure out how to get her to consistently take a little poultry feed every evening, it’ll be nice to occasionally have a goose egg rather than chicken eggs with my bacon; I had one Friday and it was the size of three large hen eggs by itself, with a slightly richer flavor.
Diary #669
April 26, 2023 by Maggie McNeill
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She is beautiful, such a graceful goose no doubt. Does she have a name? Have you seen the video in youtube of the goose that goes bonkers in joy went the aunt of the family comes to visit? Its such a heartwarming scene. 🙂
The people who asked us to take her called her Gabby, but I don’t intend to get attached until she demonstrates that she intends to stick around; she’s showing no signs of warming up to the other animals or staying inside the fences, so I’m doubtful this arrangement will last long.
“she’s showing no signs of warming up to the other animals or staying inside the fences…”
I think she is establishing territory. Domestic geese are very territorial. About the most one can expect from a goose is that it does not attack other domestic animals for being in its territory.
To convince her to take some poultry feed, put some feed in the same place every day, in an area where you have seen her hunting bugs in the grass. Put it on a plate or other flat surface, in the same place every day.
Leave the plate or flat surface on the ground, and put feed in it every day.
Once she discovers it is a reliable place to find food she will come back to it.
She may attack, or at least make aggressive displays against any other animals that approach it.
My grandfather had a goose that tolerated the various domestic dogs, cats and people that it came to know, but would become aggressive against any that it did not know.
Geese have been used as guard animals (better than guard dogs) for thousands of years.
Their aggressive territoriality is the primary reason for that.
There is a wikipedia article on that. It will likely provide you some insight in how to proceed with your goose.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_goose
Well i hope she stays she is so beautiful and by the picture seems like a calm goose. If she gets unruly you can name her temporarily “Cobra chicken” thats what we call the wild geese up here cuz they hiss even when there is no gozzlings around them. 😉