Happenings on the Ranch

Follow up to What’s Good for the Goose …

The next morning I woke up to the sound of geese at my front window starting at about 6:30am.  Every 15 minutes, three adult geese would come around the front of the house, honking and calling for the oldest gosling.  They would pause by the garage door, honking as if to check to be sure he was still in there, and then continue their circle around the house.

I went out around 9am to move the babies out to their pens for the day.  Sure enough, about five minutes later here come the geese.  They parked themselves by the pen and continued to squawk at the gosling.  I walked away to do something else and came right back.  In the meantime, there’d been a jail break!  One of the geese pulled open the pen and out ran the oldest gosling.  The other two little ones had no intention of leaving and stayed in the pen.  This seemed to confuse the geese because, even though they had freed the one they were obsessing over, they hung around the pen for the rest of the day.  They would leave briefly to go over to the pool to swim but, thankfully, stayed away from the pond.  They finally left in late afternoon.

They continued to come by today off and on, but are a bit less obsessive now.  The gosling comes with them and hopefully they won’t take him to the pond any time soon.  You gotta’ love a family bond.

~Karin

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.

As some of you know, we had 70mph winds around here on Friday.  I stood at my bedroom window watching loose items fly across the front of the property and the chickens running for cover.  Unfortunately, the plastic at the base of the greenhouse had not yet been secured.  So, as I watched, the wind blew underneath the plastic, picked up the east side of the greenhouse into the air like a parachute, pulled the supporting poles off their concrete bases and slammed the whole thing down.  The center pole couldn’t handle the violent drop and the whole north section collapsed in on itself.  I was screaming at it the whole time, like my desperate cries of, “No, No, NO!!!” were going to help.

I was really concerned about the destruction and, after the winds died down and the rain went away, I headed out to survey the damage.  The plastic was torn, several wood beams were snapped in half and three sections of the frame were bent beyond repair.  Thankfully we had split the original structure into two halves and intended on putting up two small greenhouses instead of just one.  This meant we had extra parts in the back that hadn’t been used yet.  So, Arcenio and our oldest son, Anthony, worked all weekend to repair the greenhouse.  Everything is back up, for the most part, and we’re waiting for these windy days to subside so we can put the new plastic on.  It’s still a devastating blow and I’m trying not to let it put us behind for the start of the season.

Speaking of seasons, the deadline for paying for your CSA shares for 2010 is fast approaching.  All shares must be paid for in full by May 1st.  We still have spots available so head on over to our CSA page for more info and to download the share agreement!

Despite the wet weather and persistent winds we have managed to get some seeds planted.  Spinach, carrots, radishes, green onions, lettuce, sweet peas, kale, arugula and mustard greens have all gone in and the earliest seedlings are looking great.  We’ve got a newly developed strawberry hill with 50 plants in the ground and the rhubarb bed is coming back beautifully.  Once these winds subside a little bit we’ll be planting beets, turnips, cabbage, and cauliflower.

Everything is turning green on the farm and we have momma geese and turkeys sitting on their eggs.  I love this time of year as it gives a real sense of renewal.  I can’t wait for the first harvest to be able to taste all the wonderful veggies the farm has to offer.  My stomach is growling just thinking of it.

Until next time!

~Karin