Things I've learned about geese

The geese have become a bit of a pain around here lately. Matt and I have had to show some great restraint in not thrashing them some days. They have become the bullys of the farm as of late and have been getting into everything. They are just smart enough to get into trouble but not much more. We have had to put a baby gate up in the porch to keep them out of the cat food (which they love to eat, who know?) and today I have had to chase them out of the chicken coop and pen three time so far. Most of the cats have learned to stay away from them as the geese will try to take a chunk out of them at any chance they get. They don't seem to like Liam very much but thankfully for them they keep there distance even if they do make a big fuss about him being out in the yard. I'm sure they are eating there fill of grass but it really dose not seam to be making a dent in the yard though you would never know it by the amount of manure they are leaving everywhere.

I don't want to say that there days are numbered because I'm not sure what if anything I want to do about them. One option is to sell them now and try to make my investment back. Another is to wait till around Christmas and add them to the freezer, but I do have people asking to buy eggs in the spring if they start laying. I have read that if you don't have a gander then they might not lay at all and I'm not sure what sex are geese are because I have not had the guts to catch and hold one long enough to find out. For all I know they could be all ganders; then i'm really out of luck. Someone said that if they have brown eyes then they're female and blue eyes means males but they all have brown eyes so I don't know if that means all girls or nothing at all.

I had originally planed to put some in the freezer (for us or to sell) and keep the rest to breed for the spring.

At this point I'm not sure what is going to come first: The freezer or the eggs. I think we will have to wait and see if we can put up with there nastiness. The chance to sell them will be good for some time and I think we will have to get creative as to how to handle them before I give up.

Wish me luck!

role call

It feels like our farm is starting to fill up:

43 Chickens

12 Cats

6 Geese

And

3 Humans

Up in arms

On Sunday the geese got there first outing. Matt set up a small pen for then outside around the raspberry patch. We picked them up one by one and moved in are arms, which was met with lots of chirping and a few hisses. They spent the afternoon eating the tall grass around the berry plants and were more then happy to follow me back into the porch that night with no more then calls from me. Every morning since they eagerly walk through the backyard and eat there fill of the ever growing grass.

Its been a very busy week on the farm, it feels like so much has happened since my last post. My sister has come to stay for awhile and help get some stuff on my To Do list done. The weather has not been cooperating with us, we have had 100km winds and rain for several days now. On Friday one of the trees near our house split in half and fell 10 feet from our front door, i am very thankful it was not closer. But even though it has been less then nice outside many things continue to flourish: The geese are now larger then our rooster and show no sign of stopping. They have almost eating they way though a 12kg bag of food in 3 1/2 weeks along with a big basket of cut grass everyday. There true feathers are coming now so by the end of the week i hope to be moving them outside into the pen i have yet to finish, but hope to.
Our cat Sadie had her kittens in the barn this week. Two are caramel coloured, and one is black. We moved them into the sun room with the geese once the weather turned nasty and they are nomming away happily on their momma .
I put up a proper clothes line all by myself this week. Its really satisfying to see all the clean diapers lined up in the sun and they smell so good. My home made laundry soap is working great and is something like $.05 per load instead of $.50 for Nature Clean, which I used to buy( i use Nature Clean's stain remover soap bar instead of Zote) There are all kinds of flowers coming up all over the place, the old owners planted a lot of bulbs that are now everywhere. There is a big field of dandelions that i am planing on making into wine in the coming week. I will post more about wine as i do it.

I got creative this week and painted some chairs. i have had them for about a year but was not a fan of the colour (they were forest green). Now they are set up on our deck with with a salvaged teak table so i can see them from the kitchen sink when i do dishes.

10 Chickens

1 Rooster

5 Cats

3 Kittens

6 Geese

3 Humans

New pen

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them in to the sun room at the back of the house, because I was tired of the small from there pen. We wanted to make it big enough so it would last them until they get moved outside. After the geese are moved i am planing to clean it and then put day old meat chicks under the heat lamp in there.

New homes for geeses

Over the weekend Matthew and I put our heads together and built a new pen for the baby geese. We decided to move them to the sunny room at the back of the house, because I had become tired of the small from there pen.

One week old

Our six French Toulouse goslings are now one week old and growing like weeds! We have 4 "tufted" and 2 plain. At the present they are hanging out under a heat lamp in our laundry room. I have to start working on their outside house very soon as they are out growing their little box.The plan is to raise them till the fall, keep 1-2 breading pairs for next summer and put the rest in the freezer (which will be hard because they are very cute right now, though i guess it will be easier when they are grown and i am hungry). With any luck we will be able to keep a cycle going for years to come.

Beautiful birthday

Yasterday was my 22nd birthday. It was wonderful. My mother came to stay for a few days and got to spend some time with Liam, Mathew and I. It was a wonderful gift in itself; i missed her very much and it was great to have her puttering around the house. We made a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and on Monday night Matthew brought use all out for dinner. At the moment i'm waiting for my present from myself to be ready for pick up: Four day old Toulouse geese!