It started so innocently as we needed protection for our Bresse chickens. I guess after word got around to the predators and the raptors really became a problem. At first it was hawks literally landing on our chicken pens to wait them out. Don’t get me wrong Bresse are very predator savvy, but the hawks were patient and try to wait the until the chickens forgot. Fortunately we were always there to scare them off. At first by hollering and then using bottle rockets, but believe it or not they began ignoring the rockets and even the hollering unless we walked to the pens.
The final straw was when Lou Anne walked out to see what the fuss was and an eagle flew out of the tree above the chicken pen. That even scared her as it swooped down then out.
We thought about guard geese and when our friend Sally gifted five Toulouse goslings to us we were all in! Just about the time they were old enough to put with our white American Bresse flock we got a phone call from another friend Alex, who offered a breeding pair of American Buffs at a price we couldn’t refuse. Since they were older we put them with our colored flock and guess what the predators disappeared! We are still very vigilant, but to date we do not have any raptors landing near our pens.
It doesn’t stop there. Nope that’s not how it works. I need to mention for several years we raised Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats and shortly before we bought the geese we retired and sold them to a good friend. So its mid April by now and I was mowing two days a week trying to keep all the pens under control. One day sitting on the mower I remembered Lou Anne saying we should get some “Weeder” geese to eliminate half my mowing. So we discussed it further and she said the Chinese geese were known for this and had the best reputation for this purpose. Of course I told her to order twenty of them. I mean I was done with cutting all this grass!
We had like a month or so before they arrived and suddenly it quit raining and I’m talking drought conditions by mid May! So with Lou Anne’s encouragement, a week before their arrival date we scaled back to only ten White Chinese geese. At this point we were experiencing how personable geese could be. We often commented how our Bresse hens were so friendly that they often get in the way, but geese are more like the puppy’s of the poultry world. This couldn’t have been more evident when we picked up that box of ten in the wee hours of the AM at the Post Office the end of May! White Chinese is a whole different breed and I’ll be discussing more about them later!
Okay you might that that’s where the story ends but … it doesn’t stop there. Nope that’s not how it works. Now the Toulouse were getting older and we decided to get a couple more females as it appeared we had more males than we needed. Yes of course most would sell the extra, but we don’t have that gear! Anyway we picked our two “Toulies” up, again in the wee hours of the AM on mid June at the Post Office and they looked healthy enough, except Lou Anne said one was kind of puffed up. Unfortunately she stayed puffed up and got lethargic and we lost her after only four days.
The little Toulouse girl was too young to be introduce to another gaggle and they were out of Toulouse at the hatchery. So we did what anyone would do and decided to get three Africans! So we picked up one male and two females, once again in the wee hours of the AM at the Post Office eight days later. This will be her buddy’s until she’s of age to introduce her to mates. As of this writing the Toulie/African group are a little over three months old and live in a divided 20’x8′ Goose Coop with the four month old “Weedle’s” and this is commonly known as “Weedleville”. So welcome to Weedleville my friends!