My Geese and their goslings

[cgmccary]

I thought I'd share some pictures of my Toulouse Geese and their goslings. One of them hatched 7 eggs and all 4 of the adult geese raised and protected them. They took care of them solely on their own. All made it. I sold 3 of them and kept 4 so I now have 8 Toulouse.

 

[gryeyes]

O M G.

I am melting at the sight of those geese and goslings! I so hope my Toulouse pair decide to start a family next spring!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Awww what a nice picture. Thanks for sharing.

 

[conny63malies]

must .. move .. where . ..poultry is legal NOW and buy toulouse goslings

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
what an adorable picture, thanks so much for sharing.

 

[sourland]

Picture # 2 is quite telling with what is probably one of the ganders scanning the skies for danger. Geese do believe that it 'takes a village' to raise a child.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
Thats interesting, now that I look at the picture I can see him doing that. What a good daddy!

 

[FarmrGirl]

What adorable babies!! I love them

And most geese are great parents... dad's included. I've seen them take such good care of their babies, makes my heart melt

 

[toadbriar]

I'm curious how it works out when they raise babies and you want to sell the babies. How do you manage to separate them, and how traumatic is it? Is there a right way/wrong way to go about it?

Mine aren't old enough to lay and I've been wondering how this part works out, because I'd like to sell babies. Knowing how they are as parents, I could easily see this being harder than freezer camp.

 

[cgmccary]

toadbriar: I'm curious how it works out when they raise babies and you want to sell the babies. How do you manage to separate them, and how traumatic is it? Is there a right way/wrong way to go about it?

Mine aren't old enough to lay and I've been wondering how this part works out, because I'd like to sell babies. Knowing how they are as parents, I could easily see this being harder than freezer camp.

Good question. I wondered the same thing when I sold the three. I wanted them to spend their early life with their parents so they were older (i.e. a couple of months old) when I sold them.

One family bought the three I sold so they got to stay together. I would not have sold one by itself. It took three of us to catch the three. They weren't tiny when I sold them. They were almost the size of the adults & though I could discern, the buyer could just barely tell the difference between the goslings and parents (the goslings still had some of that "cute factor" going). Two of us held off the parents while I netted the three. Since four stayed with the parents, they carried on and seem happy. They stay out, take care of themselves, stay close to home and sleep either in their barn (they've got their own & its closest to my house) or sometimes, they stay up by the house. I don't restrict them in anyway. They have two kiddie pools & venture about the same perimeter during the day never going off my property. When the goslings were little, they ALWAYS took them in their barn at night, and the four adults would surround them in there and seemed to stay alert all night. They didn't want the dogs or me going in their barn at night so I stayed out. They raised those goslings totally on their own. I think mine would happy as long as the four adults were together which I plan to always keep.

I have two great dogs and a donkey so I don't have predator problems except the occasional G. H. Owl taking a Guinea at night in the trees where they roost half the time.​