I propose that among my poultry and waterfowl, Geese reign supreme. My mother and wife are both from England, so the concept of having a Christmas Goose was always "the norm". However, now that I've started raising them myself (and breeding next year), why didn't I own geese sooner? My observations on geese:
1) No problems with coccidiosis.
2) I have lost 3 goslings to drowning, trampling and a great horned owl. All 3 are my fault.
3) We have raised 20 from day old goslings (2 crops of 10). They "imprinted" on my wife and I, so they follow us like dogs around the yard.
4) I raised 6 goslings under their moms and dads (a pair of Pilgrims and Tufted Romans). I wouldn't do this again. The goslings are way to wild and the parents are supremely defensive of the little ones. They'll nip at you and generally frighten guests to our house.
5) Geese make great "guard dogs". Whenever a car pulls up in the driveway, they let me know. They also recognize our neighbors and don't bother to get up when they arrive. If a stranger comes, though, they're all up there to investigate.
6) Geese are a little too inquisitive and mischevious. They've made off with several hand tools from my workshop. They also learned way too quickly that if they pull the strings off the feed bags, all the feed will spill out. When they break into the feed room, they leave a couple outside standing guard. If they see me leave the house, the "sentries" make a big noise and they all walk out like they weren't into anything.
So, currently we have:
20 embdems
6 tufted romans
4 pilgrims
I can't wait to breed next year. I've sold 16 as Christmas geese... so that leaves me a pair of tufted, pilgrim and 3 pairs embdems to breed.
Finally, Olive. She's the leader of the oldest Embdem crop. She loves to come up to me on the porch (we have a glass window in the front door, they have a bad habit of coming up to watch what we're doing in the kitchen) and have a stroke and snuggle each night. She typically ruins it by crapping all over my lap... but, I usually wait until I'm already dirty to have "Olive Time".
1) No problems with coccidiosis.
2) I have lost 3 goslings to drowning, trampling and a great horned owl. All 3 are my fault.
3) We have raised 20 from day old goslings (2 crops of 10). They "imprinted" on my wife and I, so they follow us like dogs around the yard.
4) I raised 6 goslings under their moms and dads (a pair of Pilgrims and Tufted Romans). I wouldn't do this again. The goslings are way to wild and the parents are supremely defensive of the little ones. They'll nip at you and generally frighten guests to our house.
5) Geese make great "guard dogs". Whenever a car pulls up in the driveway, they let me know. They also recognize our neighbors and don't bother to get up when they arrive. If a stranger comes, though, they're all up there to investigate.
6) Geese are a little too inquisitive and mischevious. They've made off with several hand tools from my workshop. They also learned way too quickly that if they pull the strings off the feed bags, all the feed will spill out. When they break into the feed room, they leave a couple outside standing guard. If they see me leave the house, the "sentries" make a big noise and they all walk out like they weren't into anything.
So, currently we have:
20 embdems
6 tufted romans
4 pilgrims
I can't wait to breed next year. I've sold 16 as Christmas geese... so that leaves me a pair of tufted, pilgrim and 3 pairs embdems to breed.
Finally, Olive. She's the leader of the oldest Embdem crop. She loves to come up to me on the porch (we have a glass window in the front door, they have a bad habit of coming up to watch what we're doing in the kitchen) and have a stroke and snuggle each night. She typically ruins it by crapping all over my lap... but, I usually wait until I'm already dirty to have "Olive Time".
