Love my Toulouse pair!

[gryeyes]

Angus and Kate are such fun additions to my flock of chickens.

I bought a pair (sexed) from Ideal Poultry, from their last hatch of the season. Named 'em William and Kate, but, sadly, William died within a couple of weeks. Ideal refunded his cost, because they were done hatching geese.

I looked for Toulouse geese on Craigs List, locally, and found another gosling, reportedly a male. He was a few weeks older than Kate, so I didn't put them together for a few weeks. His name is Angus (or "Ang-goose") as my friends say.

Once Angus joined Kate, they decided they really like each other. My worry is that I might have misidentified Kate as the surviving gosling, and I have two ganders. They look so much alike! I think Kate may grow larger than Angus, too. Her neck is slightly larger, around, than his....

Anyway, they are so pretty, and while they don't need to be immediately next to each other, they do roam together, mostly, and sleep side by side. Their conversations at each greeting, if they've been off exploring more than 15 feet apart, are adorable. Kate snores in her sleep, which is a silly sound indeed.

They break up chicken squabbles and do NOT like the roosters mounting the hens at all. Neither honks much at all, although one or the other will honk an alert when someone or something comes onto the property (small neighbor dogs, so far).

When they get the Zoomies it cracks me up. Two big ol' geese, wings outstretched, running at high speed, feet slapping against the ground.

Gosh, I hope they are a pair, because I can't decide what versions of "Kate" and "Angus" would suffice, should I need to rename them. They do know their names.

They seem to like hanging out with my largest roosters, which are Jersey Giants. And the "packing peanut" cockerels which were shipped with Kate are allowed to snuggle with her when she naps. (They thought she was their mom when they were all babies, and would get on her back... She doesn't let them do THAT any more.)

Please keep your fingers crossed for me that Kate is a goose and Angus is a gander!

 

[Rosebud 18]

Your lucky that Ideal refunded your money after 2 weeks. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and hopefully you have a pair. I have a male and 2 female toulouse and they are the sweetest things.

 

[crj]

I hope they are a pair. You will have to post pictures of you goslings. I love how they run scared with their wings spread wide. The slapping of the feet just crack me up along with the girlie screams......... lol. The only time mine honk is when they see me..... HA! Guess it's there way if saying hi. I just say hi back and it keeps on going. Too funny.

 

[gryeyes]

Although they're not fully grown, there's no way would refer to Kate and Angus as goslings any more. It's also hard totell them apart; the best indicator of the difference between them is Kate's bill, which has a more even slope, while Angus' bill has a slight dip and is just a tad more orange than hers.

I love how they gabble to each other upon greeting, whenever they have been separated in roaming for a bit. It's like they're telling each other what they've been up to for the past few minutes. When they nap with their heads tucked under a wing, next to each other, Angus keeps an eye open, on the alert. He may drift off to sleep, but he will open that one eye pretty frequently.

They like to run up and down my steep driveway,wings flapping as if they're gonna take flight.

They have favorite chickens they allow to wander with them. They don't like discord at all, and will break up chicken squabbles, plus they must perceive the roosters mounting hens as a problem, because they stop THAT behavior, too!

They see aerial predators and watch carefully, then honk an alert if a high circling hawk begins to fly lower.

They'll even go into the coop to check on a hen singing the egg song, to see if that's something they should "abate."

I have a baby monitor with two cameras in the coop, and at night, Kate and Angus play with a cardboard box, billing it unmercifully. They found a yellow plastic ring, like the top to a bottle of soda but hollow all the way though, and play with it a great deal. I was afraid they were going to try to eat it, but, no, it's a toy for them. They carry it around and move it all over the yard. I expect to see it in their kiddie pool before too long. Angus has already taken a small length of a broken tree branch into the pool. He entertains himself with it, pushing it as it floats on the surface of the water, occasionally grabbing it and flinging it around.

I can hardly wait until I get the 300 gallon stock tank up here, so I can see them really swim in water deep enough to really paddle around.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
Did you move after your new coop was built?/ I was following that thread and was surprised when I read that you had moved.. Geese are so neat, I only have one a gander [emden] but he does not like any kind of confusion in the barn yard[we don't have a barn] yet

but if the ducks start to get out of hand [drakes mostly] he is right there to break it up, I enjoyed your story of your 2, I hope to have more geese in the future. My favorite that I'd like are the American Buffs.