Goose lovers – please help!!

[BernerBabe]

Thank you for the compliment and excellent news on your decision to get a gander!!! I am asking for $25 up front to cover the cost of the shipping box, but am waiting to collect payment for shipping when the weather is cooler and we are ready to send these babies to their new homes.

The horse analogy is perfect and I am also discovering that it takes as long to rehab a neglected goose as it does a neglected horse.

Yeah I speak in horse...Shown all my life(western pleasure, apps, belgians), family raises Standardbreds, Dad's an equine vet...so that analogy works for me. I was part of a rescue of 38 arabs a few years ago that were in the equivalent condition of these geese. Its A LOT of work and emotion but so worth it to see happy healthy animals in the end.

Do I send the $25 to your paypal? I also attached some info about my set up and the special needs boy on the adoptee form for you.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Our Africans will start laying in December and end in May. She laid just about daily this year, and once I knew her normal time to lay it was easy to go out and collect fromher nest.

The Sebastopols will start laying in January and end in May laying every other or every three days depending on the goose. Again as they start to gear up and you figure out the laying pattern it was easy to go out collect and label the eggs.


Our geese seem to be some of the very first to start laying. Everyone else were reporting first eggs in February for the northern areas, and January for the middle of the country.

 

[Iain Utah]

Pictures of the juvenile buffs/greys from today. They love watermelon and hope for those who are getting these birds that it will help you make friends with them when you get them home:

 

[LightningTFarm]

If I were to adopt two ganders, how old would they be? In one of her posts Celtic Farms said they need a small pasture - what size does that mean? An acre, 1/2 acre? Smaller? I have one fairly small pasture, but I can also subdivide it with electric fence if I need to. I am just trying to figure out what I will need to do between now and the time they would arrive.

 

[Iain Utah]

Lightning, I have 1.5 year old adult grey dewlap ganders and 4-6 month old brown african pairs. The africans enjoy having large spaces & pasture to freely roam about. They are also very good foragers. The dewlaps are on a 2+ acre pasture, but only use 3/4 acre and barely venture outside that area. I would think a 1/4 acre would feel like heaven to one pair.

Electric fences work great as an outside perimeter fence for security from predators, but geese LOVE to lay up against fences to sleep, so I would not recommend electric for any primary fencing. Hardware cloth is my 1st choice for fencing. Woven horse no climb is also great, but be mindful when catching to not let them run into or brush against the fence, as the edges of the woven wire are very sharp and can hurt them. Welded grape vine fencing is a nice alternative and safer for the geese, but will not hold up as well.

 

[LightningTFarm]

Okay, that gives me a better idea. I have my mom and daughter on board, now I have to get my dad into the idea. I don't really think it will be a problem, though. We already have a pump house we built years ago to go over our water pump, but my dad took it off the pump for some maintenance a few years ago and never put it back on. It's just sitting there, and I can easily rehab it into a very nice goose house. I can put it right across the fence from the ducks, under some trees for shade. We usually only put a horse in this pasture when it's hurt or sick and needs to be watched more carefully, since it's the smallest of our four upper pastures. I can get them their own pool. I'm really getting psyched about it!

Do you think it would be a good idea to get two female hatchlings in the spring and when they're big enough (which would be when?), I could pair them up with the ganders? That way there would be two pairs instead of two bachelors.

Just so you know, I have never been interested in getting on Facebook or anything like that. I am on the computer all day doing research for work,so I never really wanted to spend my free time on it, too. But I have become addicted to this site, and my daughter now calls it "Duckbook"!

 

[LightningTFarm]

Okay, my dad has given the goose venture a thumbs up. Yay!!! I have filled out the adoption form. I also went on PayPal and send you $25 to help feed all these beautiful creatures. Please let me know when you want me to send money for the box.

I'm gonna get geese!!!!

 

[psue]

Friends that are waiting for our rescues

 

[LightningTFarm]

What a cute group!!

 

[LightningTFarm]

My dad was helping me put a drain in the side of the duck pool, so it was out of their run for a couple of days. When I put it back in today and started filling it, they got so excited!









I'm excited, too, because now I can attach a hose and drain it instead of bailing it out with buckets!!!