While we’ve surely had a lot of success here at Stonecrop, not all of our plans have turned out exactly as we would have liked. The story of our geese captures one of our very first epic farm flops.
Before we bought our farm, Greg learned that geese can be excellent guard animals. With this knowledge, we acquired 2 geese for “added protection” of our first laying flock of hens. They were a bonded pair of geese, meaning one female and one male, and they were feisty from the start. They were going to be perfect…
Our grand plan to have these geese protect our hens shifted when we saw our first goose egg. We were so excited by the prospect of having baby goslings on the farm, that we took them away from the hens they were supposed to protect and gave them their own paddock.
The female started laying more eggs and the male became extremely territorial. He hissed, squawked and often charged at anyone who came near. Greg thought it would be best to move the pair from the field to our backyard so that we could keep a closer eye on them. “Just until the eggs hatch,” he said.
The foxes found them and snatched all 18 goose eggs and killed the female goose. It was a very sad day on the farm. We felt terrible. Nobody was more devastated than the male goose, who we later named Chi-Chi. He roamed the farm, and called out for his mate with a howling screeching sound that neither of us had either heard before.
Within a day or so, the howling stopped and he curiously began following me around the farm! If I was working in the garden, he would plop down and watch me intently. During morning and evening chores, this little goose followed closely behind. He let me touch him and eventually, let me pet him (click here for the video proof).
Things started to get stranger by the day. He started nesting at our door step. He waited at the front door of our house in the morning and walked me to my car in the morning, as I rushed off to my day job. He began stretching his neck up past the window sills around our house so he could watch me, following me from one room to the next. With a backyard (front yard, sideyard, and driveway) full of goose manure, we realized we had made some mistakes here.
We tried to get him re-bonded with the laying flock (I mean, he was a guard animal after all!). But, despite our best efforts, he always flew out of the electric netting away from the hens and waddled back to our yard.
We knew he was a special bird that deserved a special home. I put an add on craigslist and received calls immediately from people who wanted to eat him and another person who wanted to show him in the NYS fair. I let them down easy. There had to be another option.
Eventually, I received a call from a man who lived near Buffalo. He told me all about his love, or maybe borderline obsession with geese. He said he keeps his geese safe with electrified fencing and 24 hr video surveillance. He built them ponds and grows organic sprouts for them to eat. As If I wasn’t already convinced at that point, he told be how he brings his geese to an avian vet twice a year for checkups. I wasn’t exactly sure what an avian vet was or what one would do for a bird like ChiChi but it sounded like the match to me.
The man came that evening and promised to send pictures. Exactly 3 hours later, I received an email with a half dozen photos of Chi-Chi wading in a great big pond with his new friends. Greg and I both shed a few happy tears and made the executive decision that geese were just not for us.
All the best,
Your Farmers
Jenney & Greg