gosling news

First things first. 1) "PJ" is not a gander, she's a goose. I am not certain that "junior" applies here. She's fully healed from the mystery injury from a few weeks ago. 2) The goose nest that Sally Muscovy took over has been removed, due to excessive gosling death. (It gets a bit stinky.) Two months of setting is long enough; she's looking a bit ragged. If anybody tells you animals don't have feelings, they are wrong. Sally was sad. She made chirping noises that I hadn't heard before. If you want to be scientific about it, I observed her pacing, rummaging through the (now empty) nesting material, and chirping at a tone lower than I've ever heard. It looked like "sad" to me.

For those of you who have broadband, here are two movies. You'll have to turn your head sideways for the first -- sorry about that.

The geese seem to love to nibble on things -- hands, clothes, whatever is available. (movie) They have no hands to grab things with, so it only makes sense that their mouths are their primary learning tool.

There are two hatches this year. The first batch of seven are about fully grown, somewhere between 10-15 lbs. There are six more, still growing. You can tell by the voice: the younger are still making chirping noises.

An airplane is flying overhead in the second clip. Birds are always wary of flying objects in the sky -- looks like predators to them. (movie) They regroup at the end for safety.

PJ slowly getting better

PJ was in the house for a few days to recuperate. He wasn't getting better though, always sitting, unable to stand. I admit to looking at goose recipes on epicurious.com because I didn't think he'd recover. I took him out one day to give him a bath, and surprise surprise, he perked up, made lots of happy noises. He really did miss his buds. So that night I put him into the gosling pen, so he'd both have company, and not get trampled by his hatchmates. Next day he stood up! And the day after, hopped on one foot. Today he touches the bad foot to the ground, tries to put weight on, and mostly hangs with his buds but still needs to sit a lot. So, he's on the mend, and is safely out of my dinner plans.

Sally Muscovy seems to have won ownership of the goose eggs. However, not is all happy in the nest. Today I found a dead hatchling. Just one. Maybe there was too much going on in the coop, and with only one bird hatching, how could she know it was time to stand up? Who knows what's going on in their heads.... There are still about 9 unhatched eggs.

Koop Kaos

Came home today to see a goose/gander, not sure which, let's call it Pate Junior, or PJ, sitting in the coop not getting up while the others are already out by the pool enjoying a bath. A quick look showed the left leg dangling, not sure if broken, but not moving at least. Blood on the nostrils too. So I bandaged up the leg, brought him inside, and here he sits, whining, though quietly. Best I can guess, judging by the blood on the feeder, is that he caught his foot in the feeder and couldn't get out. Hard to know exactly.

The indoor kiddie pool, formerly home to the 3-week-old goslings, is now the recovery ward. So the 6 goslings that got booted were moved to the drake dormitory, but not after the drakes were let out of course. Do you know what happens when you let out a bunch of drakes who have not "seen" a duck in 2 months? No they don't go on a wild rampage. First thing they do when they see the ducks is: fight! That's right. No time to waste! Who's the boss?! Seems that pecking order comes first, sex second.

So with all the ducks running about fighting, Pate turns into Sheriff Pate and tries to break up all the fighting. He tore a few chunks out of a Rouen, who then ran into the coop and hid in one of the nests (boy I bet his buddies were laughing at him).

This pecking order thing carried on for about half an hour at which time it was nighty-night time, so I moved them all inside. But this reintroduction of the drakes was a bit too much excitement for everyone, especially Sally Muscovy. She and Foie have been sharing nest duty for the last several weeks as you recall. Both Sally and Foie were taking their turns at beating up the drakes as they'd pass by the nest. Finally Sally just couldn't handle it anymore and chased (much bigger) drakes around the coop and raked her claws into them, pulled feathers out, and basically showed who the boss was. I removed these drakes, putting them into their former home now occupied by the goslings. This settled things a bit, but not enough. The Sheriff still wanted more law and order, so I decided he had to go and put him outside for the first time with the first-borns. It's now 11pm and I can still hear him screaming up a storm.

And inside? Also unsettled. Every time I move out of visual range, PJ starts crying/whining. Probably misses his companions.