Goose Shenanigans

[ColtHandorf]

He was dry yesterday evening when I got home from work and was on the perch by himself, like got up there on his own. I don't imagine he left the house at all, but hopefully he was eating. I think he's just very tired. I doctored him some more which he did not enjoy. None of the chickens or the turkey were out and about this morning and the entire yard and back pasture is covered under running water so I wasn't slogging out there in 40 degree weather to check on anyone. The geese are still in the tractor and were actually bathing in the amount of water that was running through that corner of the chicken pen.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Those water fowl take advantage of any water don't they? Sounds great hope he'll continue to heal and learn a lesson. My geese are such bullies because they are big an know it. lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

Mine really only act like this when it's breeding season. The rest of the time they leave everyone alone, unless they are new to the flock. Then its a matter of hissing and chasing them away.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yep during no breeding season they really are more mellow but still like to hog the pools and feeders.

 

[arkiechick lady]

This morning our crew decided that going to the pond was just pure nonsense. Looking out the windows we noticed they would stop eating, find a puddle, then step one foot in at a time to clean themselves, then splash their heads in it and toss their bodies around and flap like they’d just had a full bath!
I know it’s been raining forever kids but goodness sake, the pond is only 200 yards away!
The kids are all grown and now we have a farm full of teenagers called geese

 

[Goosebaby]

This morning our crew decided that going to the pond was just pure nonsense. Looking out the windows we noticed they would stop eating, find a puddle, then step one foot in at a time to clean themselves, then splash their heads in it and toss their bodies around and flap like they’d just had a full bath!
I know it’s been raining forever kids but goodness sake, the pond is only 200 yards away!
The kids are all grown and now we have a farm full of teenagers called geese

They really are forever children!

 

[BBHF1775]

Something in the duck forums just reminded me of this story so I’m going to leave it here before I forget again, it’s about geese, but mainly about ducks.
Disclaimer: this one is raunchy.

Two of my ducks went through what I would delicately call a “heightened state of promiscuity.” Henry my Pekin hen and Olaf my Pekin drake aparently came to the conclusion one day that their love life would be much more exciting with witnesses. So for a whole summer no one could leave the house, come to the house, walk around the house without being forced into becoming unintended witnesses their acts of debauchery.

They weren’t like this all the time, if you were lucky to catch sight of them from a window without their knowing, you would see normal every day duckiness, weedling in the grass and bushes for all sorts of insect goodness, splashing in their baby pool, lounging on the lawn, nothing at all remotely “untoward.”
However all it would take was a movement to catch their eye and they would crane their necks up to ascertain if they had any kind of audience and then it would start.

It was easier in the beginning to dismiss their behavior, ducks are ducks and they’re just being ducks, but it started out small and as time went by their acts became more frequent, sordid, and prolonged and so more distasteful as the weeks past.
At first it was just the human variety that put them in the mood.
Me bringing them food or getting spotted anywhere in the yard, BOOM surprise duck porn! Mom sighted walking out to the car, suddenly duck porn! My brother dropping by to pick up or drop off his dog, more duck porn! Surprise visitors dropping by at the most inopportune times trying to convert us to their belief systems, you guessed it, duck porn right in the front yard!
There was one time UPS came and he had to walk around them to deliver a package because they were at it in the middle of the driveway. Have you ever been in a situation so akward that you ty to avoid eye contact?

Then they broadened their target audiences to include the dogs, “Bailey always had this mortified look on her face when they targeted her,” then the cat “who somehow seemed to remain neutral and unaffected by it all,” and then the geese and that’s where their fun came to an end.

At this time Henry and Olaf were living at night with two of my ganderlings “Parsnip and Thor” in a children’s play house we’d converted into a bird cottage. It had two rooms joined by a 4 ft doorway which had been boarded up except for a small opening at the very top following an incident with another female duck who had an issue with starting fights with Leo “one of my other ganders.” My ganderlings actually had a great relationship with Henry and Olaf normally but after the drama with Astrid it was safer for the ducks in my opinion to have the barrier between them and the geese.

A rift began to form between the ganders and the ducks who had been wonderful neighbors previously. Henry and Olaf now considered their presence as fuel for their torrid affair and Parsnip and especially Thor were not having ANY OF IT.

The ganders tried to contain their annoyance at first. Every night when I’d put everybody to bed and Henry and Olaf would begin their profane exhibitions, the ganders would voice their displeasure politely at first with only a few annoyed hisses but as the duck’s romance ensued becoming more extravagant and unorthodox by the night Parsnip and Thor’s inner prudishness would rear more and more until the polite hissing became enraged cackling yells and webbed clawing at the barrier until the freak show next door would die down.
I genuinely didn’t think there was an issue because they were separated with no way to get at each other and they were all fine once they had settled down for the night. What I didn’t know was that Henry and Olaf’s “episodes” were likely starting up again either some time in the night or in the wee hours of dawn. I only became aware of this when Thor decided to put an end to it once and for all.
After about four nights of being forced to put up with the duck’s behavior Thor had clearly had it and somehow managed to launch himself up and through the narrow opening at the top of the barrier into the duck’s room. I still don’t know how he managed to accomplish this.
The following morning when I came and opened the door to the gander’s side of the house I was horrified to see only Parsnip, Thor was no where to be seen. Thoughts of Thor being birdnapped by a demented neighbor shot through my mind as I called out his name hoping he was still somehow somewhere nearby.
To my surprise I heard his familiar soft “whoo” answer from the duck’s room. Flipping open the duck’s door there I found him, beak raised in bristling indignation, planted firmly between both ducks who were stuffed into the furthest corners away from each other with a few freshly plucked white feathers scattered about here and there like rage confetti.

I boarded up the last bit of the barrier that day but it turned out to be unnecessary. Henry and Olaf were completly fine despite the few plucked feathers but they got the point and dramatically reduced their “activities.”
Unfortunately the incident led to the bird cottage being referred to as “the house of ill repute” for awhile.

Crying over how funny this is. I hope you are writing a book....

 

[Goosebaby]

Crying over how funny this is. I hope you are writing a book....

I should! I’ve known a lot of great animals besides the birds that have had some interesting adventures too!

 

[ColtHandorf]

If I didn't update here, Suede is in the house as of Saturday afternoon/evening. Golly really did a number on him and I think the other males sensing weakness just annoyed him (I never saw any fighting) until he'd just given up. He's standing shakily now for a few minutes, versus being unable to stand at all when I brought him inside. So fingers crossed he pulls through.

Anyway...

After setting up the barn over the last two nights, the geese now have the entire original pen to themselves and seem inordinately pleased. I did get tickled last night when after removing all the chickens I set up an area for her to nest in the hen house. They both wandered past the door to the hen house and saw the pile of hay and both stopped and looked at it and then at each other and then carefully extended their heads over the doorway and started mumbling to each other like, "Did you do this?", "No, did you?" lol It was quite funny.

They've been breeding a whole lot and Golly actually rushed me yesterday multiple times before I locked them out of the pen while I was moving feeders, waterers and chickens, so I'm hoping with me building her a nest she'll get down to business so they can hatch some babies and we can be done with this nonsense. He only pinched me once last year and that was when I was actually interfering with her nest. Going after me multiple times and trying to kill birds does not please me. lol

 

[Goosebaby]

@ColtHandorf I’m sorry for your poor Roo, I really hope he pulls through, from my own expierience with hormonal ganders I can say truthfully the flap is worse than the bite so I hope his internal injuries aren’t to extensive.

I wish their hormonal rages weren’t as intense as they are, but I guess they can’t help it, it’s a survival tool that must have kept them alive when they had to be on the ground in breeding season long before they were domesticated.

I do like how you described their reaction to the house. Every alteration must be carefully examined and gobbled about!