Maybe a trip to France would benefit you...Toulouse geese ( adults here ) are about 40 euro's...a gosling is between 8 10 euro's...seems very expensive for them in Italy...you will have to wait until Spring 2015 for goslings though...as Miss Lydia says....hatchlings are normally available in the Spring to early Summer...depending on local weather conditions as to when the geese lay their eggs and hatch them.
I am English too...moved here six years ago and love it!
So many English escaping England! When we decided to move away, we also considered the S of France... more to the Camargue area, but Brazil won.
For the time being, at least....
Does seem expensive doesn't it! Hadn't considered a drive to France although i suspect people on ebay are trying their luck with foreigners who find it hard to find real priced fowl, I've been given a lead for some here only about 30km away so will investigate that next once I've got the place sorted. After more discussion we think the geese need to be in a spot where they will be permanently fenced in so rearing goslings to be tame pets isn't a worry, we need them to be instant guard dogs on arrival so we can just go and buy two or three juveniles/adults ready to honk! Sound sensible? Our land plot is steep and terraced so it's taken a lot of thinking through and making sure they don't see our holidaying guest often enough to torment them is a big concern, which in the site we're consiering now means they will only do so as they leave the house and return.
We get the same here, we have to be a bit smart, by getting our friends to find out things for us, or people will charge a lot. I´ve paid from 50 reais a pair of geese (15 pounds, about) to about 15 pounds for one, but other places I´ve seen them for much more money.
You should be able to get some youngsters easily enough, I should think. Doesn´t really matter if they´re hugely tame or not, as they´ll learn who you are. You can always enjoy closer interaction with goslings at a later date, anyway... One thing I´d suggest, is that when you get them, just pop them in a small temporary pen for a few days or a week, so they can get to know you, and also have their place that´s home, then let them out to wander, then they´ll be more settled.
I´m sure your geese will be fine as long as they don´t make physical contact (a goose pinch can hurt!), so a fence in between the geese and the visitors will be fine.
I give English lessons here in my house, and the students come in, even with the geese wandering around the place, which they do, at times. ( Word gets around that we have guard-geese...it gets mentioned among the local town population, it´s good.) The geese sometimes make a noise, but tend to keep their distance anyway, and the students just scoot into the classroom a bit quick!
Hope you have success with the ones nearby.
I agree with Miss Lydia...
Some adult geese are very friendly...my first one was about a year old when I purchased him...he looked after the baby goslings I purchased too...
I bought 3 adult geese from a farm, they were totally free-range. The geese were really spooked at first, but now they eat out of the food bowl in my hand, and let me pick up their goslings.
