Mods- please move to "Geese"?- Growing Goslings!

[chickenlisa]

More good info! Thanks! When you cull, do you sell, give away, or kill (eat) them? I'll be a willing buyer of eggs from good stock, or goslings too from good breeders. For now, I'll just watch them and love them and see how they feather out as adults. I"ll take pics too so you can help ID any good ones (if I have any

)
They are so soft and their feathers are so dense! I've never held and felt a goose before these ones, so I'm constantly amazed how thick and plush their feathers are.
Lisa

 

[crazedguinea]

well i learn more and more on this site than by reading. chickenlisa-you getting any honks(mini honks i mean) yet from your older ones? my dumpling is starting to make honks but deuce and debbie aren't yet-i am curiuous if any of yours are honking too. today they had an exciting morning-the guys came with the motorcycles to go up to oley so i had to take them for a walk out front so they didn't get too interested in the bikes especially with the mufflers. they enjoy seeing new people and surprisingly are more curious than aggressive which is so cool. then they "gardened" with me which turned out to be a "no no no" fest-a fence is going up soon(to protect from deer mostly but it will keep out the geese too). they are enjoying swimming in the creek which is sort of shallow but provides great joy to them and to my son-he loves watching them when they go "water crazy". saw the canada geese across the street hatched out 5 goslings and it brought back memories of when these guys were smaller. the new guy who moved up to the farm is fascinated with how they follow me and is quite entertained too-people are paying more attention to the geese than the horses and donkeys now!!! they'll be in heaven once the garden is in full swing and people are stopping by for produce and all the bemusement they'll bring! i'm trying to talk my cousin and wife into some geese being they just got their 3 acre farm-they want ducks. hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather in nj-probably similar to what i'm getting over here!

 

[chickenlisa]

cg- nope, I haven't heard any honky noises yet. Still the Reep reep sounds. The weather is absolutely perfect today in NJ.

I'm only inside for a min. to look for vinegar. I'm changing the H2O in my duck's pool and was going to add a gallon of white vinegar to it. I guess we ran out and haven't bought more since last Fall. So I'll have to go get some, as the temps this weekend will get close to 90

I just heard, and that H2O will go green fast without vinegar in it.
The geese have a little tiny baby pool that I can dump out everyday and refill for them. They love it. I have to work on some low fencing this weekend to give them more room to roam. They don't have free access to the grass yet, so I have to extend where they are out to where the grass is. They'll love that. I'll be listening for honks now, someone should start that soon if your's is.
Thanks for the head's up.

 

[Omniskies]

I normally sell them as pets and weeders or to people who are wanting a pair of geese to breed for meat. When we got into this we decided that we'd eat the extra males that didn't meet the breed standards, but so far we haven't had any extra geese - they're all sold as pets or breeders before they hit the 12-14 week mark.

 

[crazedguinea]

any updates on the colors of the younger ones? (wow it's been awhile!)

 

[chickenlisa]

yes, it has been awhile. I just found this thread when I was looking for my Mandie thread.
The younger 2 babes are white with small specks of gray. They are just a wee bit smaller than the older ones. They are 1 big happy family of geese. We love them and they are so fun! I have heard a few honks the last few days. Higher pitched sounding than I expected, but maybe that will change as they mature. I'm still not sure about heir sexes though. I may have girls with bad coloring. Will wait til next Spring to worry about that. For now, they all get along fine and we're getting to know them better and better.
Can you post pics of yours and tell us more about them too?

 

[chickenlisa]

here are a few recent pics of mine...enoying the good weather we've had.

 

[BAYAREABIRDER]

How are canada geese??? I am just windering, can they be as calm as pilgrims??

 

[chickenlisa]

Not as far as I've ever heard. They are Wild geese too. The Pilgrims are domestic, aren't they?

 

[Wifezilla]

The babies are so cute

I saw a pair of African geese up close yesterday. I haven't been up close with a goose in forever. BEAUTIFUL. Noisy as all get out, but awesome. If I had room I would so get a goose.