Happenings on the Ranch

I love our geese.  We started with one pair; a goose and a gander.  Last year they hatched four little goslings.  Unfortunately, though the geese are happy to swim in their pools when they don’t have babies, they find it necessary to teach the little ones to swim in the big pond next door.  This lead to losing two of the babies to predators (probably the turtles in the bottom of the pond).

This year the two babies are full grown and one decided to sit on her eggs.  It’s very interesting.  There was one nest where both geese placed their eggs.  The younger one sat first and hatched out five goslings.  We lost every single one of them.  I think she just didn’t know enough to take care of them and I tried to make every effort for her to raise them instead of us.  It didn’t work.

What’s interesting, though, is as the young goose was sitting and hatching out the last of her eggs, the older goose was slowly taking over the nest.  It started with her sitting next to the nest while the other was on the eggs.  Then she scooted over, slowly pushing the younger goose off.  By the time the last gosling hatched, the older goose was sitting fully on the nest.  Somehow they knew that the younger goose’s eggs were almost done and it was time for the older one to sit on hers.  Was fascinating to watch.

So, as the older goose sat she slowly started hatching out her eggs.  Goose eggs don’t hatch all at once.  There can be a week’s difference between when the first one hatches and the last one.  Goslings develop pretty quickly so that one week makes a world of difference in the strength of the babies.  As the goslings began to hatch, mama goose stayed on the eggs as the other three took care of the babies.  Again, I tried to let them take care of them on their own.  But after losing one (which I desperately tried to save) I’d had enough.  So as the three geese circled around me, I managed to get two of the youngest babies away from them, leaving only one.

If you’ve ever seen a goose get protective you can understand what a feat this was.  They puff themselves up, hiss with their mouths wide open, spread their wings out and stretch their neck towards you.  I’ve never been bitten, but Arcenio has had one clamp onto him and I can tell it’s not fun.  So I herd them like I would a mad bull and swoop in to grab the goslings as the opportunity presents itself.  Not easy when it’s three to one and they are circling the wagons around the babies.

One more baby was born the next day so now there were two goslings with the geese, aged about five days apart, and two with me in the brooder.  Once again, the geese took the two little ones over to the pond – and only one came back.  The youngest one went missing and the older one was limping (again, turtles).  So, I went in to  get the last baby.

As I wrangled the three geese and backed them up into a corner, the little gosling made a run for to his mama who was still sitting on the nest.  I got into the pen, locked the three geese out and went in for the grab.  Of course, baby decided to hide behind mom so I had to convince her to move.  That didn’t go over very well.  I used a stick as a guard so she’d snap at that and not me.  I grabbed a small bucket and made my move.  With stick in one hand and bucket in the other, I leaned down into the nest area.  Mother Goose was not going to make this easy, as she hissed and snapped at the stick while backing the baby further into the corner behind her.  Finally, as she took hold of the stick, I put the bucket in front of her head so she couldn’t see anything.  Quickly, I dropped the stick, grabbed the baby and backed off.  Mama goose was mad but she wasn’t going to abandon her nest so I got away.

I made it back up to the front of the house and put the third gosling in with the other two.  They are in a small pen outside during the day, but get moved into the garage at night to keep them safe.  As I put the baby in the pen, he was calling for the big geese.  This one had been with them much longer than the other two.  As he called, all three adults came running.

As the baby hung out in the pen all day with his two siblings, the geese stood guard not letting anyone or anything near the pen.  If I walked by, they hissed and raised their wings to shelter the pen.  It was plain to see the attachment was already there.  The other two goslings could have cared less what was going on and got more excited when I came by than they did with the geese there.  The older one kept trying to find a way out and, when he couldn’t, sat at the edge of the pen closest to the big geese.  It made me sad, really, but I know I need to protect the little guy.

As dusk approached, it was time to move all the little ones into the garage.  Thankfully, the two ganders had gone off to find dinner, so only the goose was standing guard.  I started with the 30+ baby chicks as the goose watched me very closely.  Then I headed for the goslings.  As I put them into their cage for transport, I was fending off the goose with another stick.  Then, when she realized I intended to move the babies, she started hollering.  Loudly.  As I picked the cage up and slowly moved backward, stick in hand, here come the two ganders running as fast as they can around the corner toward me.  Great, the goose had called for reinforcements.

I continued to back up into the garage, hoping they would stop moving with me once we got to the threshold.  They’ve never been in the garage but, apparantly, protective instinct took over and they continued forward.  All at once I realized that in order to get the cage in it’s place I would have to back into this corner and turn around, leaving my backside exposed to these geese.  Um, no way!  So I called in my own reinforcements … Arcenio.

He came into the garage from the house, promptly laughed at my predicament, and then herded the geese out of the garage long enough to shut the door.  I put the cage in place and the poor gosling kept calling for help.  That made me feel even worse but, again, it’s for his own good.

I figured that one night seperated would be enough for the goose and her posse to forget about the gosling.  After all, they haven’t even looked for the other two even though they’ve been outside in the front every day.  Sure, they’ve stopped by to visit them but never stood guard.  But, I guess one night isn’t enough.

Every 15 minutes since 6:30 this morning, the trio of geese have come by my bedroom window calling for the little gosling.  I’m getting ready to go outside and move the babies back into their pens for the day.  I’m assuming I’ll have a goose and two ganders standing watch again.  You gotta’ love a family bond.

Once the babies have their feathers and have a better chance of fending off the turtles, I’ll place them back with the parents.  I just hope the bond remains so we can have one big happy family.