Answers about the goose

Well, guys I really don't know how long geese live. For Alicia's 18th birthday i wanted to give her something unique and she was headed away to Montana to study Agriculture, so I figured livestock would be a good gift.

We bought mated pairs of 4 kinds of ducks and the 2 geese. We didn't know that one of our ducks was homicidal until the mama goose and 3 or 4 of the ducks were dead. The plan was to keep all the mama and daddy animals and eat the little ones, but we never did. The first year, we just had one baby live - Dixie - and you all know the story of how Heathcliff adopted her as his own the minute she walked into the yard after being born.

And the next year, we got about 15 baby ducks, but we didn't know how to cook them so eat just let them live and when Alicia and I went to Hawaii, Brian gave them all away, or sold them. Alicia threatened to drop out of school and come home if he got rid of the goose, and we kept Dixie for all those years to keep him company - until she got eaten by the eagles last year.

I think geese might live for 25 years. We like him because he has lots of personality, he is an excellent watch dog - even though he lives in the back, he knows when ANYBODY comes onto our property and lets every one in the neighborhood know. He protects the other animals from predators - dogs, eagles, hawks, owls, etc. Dixie was down on the pond alone when the eagles got her, so he couldn't save her. He rides herd over the whole flock and makes sure they stay in the yard where they're supposed to be and stuff like that.

Once a year or so, he leads an expedition to the neighbors house to eat Melva's flowers, but we've only had to replace them twice I think. Usually they make such a racket we catch them before the flowers get eaten. Other than that - he keeps everybody back there where they belong. He yells at airplanes and birds when they fly over to sound the warning to the others.

There are some truck drivers that always honks when they go past - some honk at us, some at the neighbors - and Heathcliff always honks back - it's pretty entertaining. Since we mostly deal with him from up on our deck, we can be entertained by him and don't have to worry about him chasing us unless we are down working in the barnyard.

So there you have it - everything I know about the goose and why we have him. They also eat bugs in the garden - and slugs. Chickens will eat everything in the garden, but geese usually will just eat a bite or two of veggies and then they eat all the bugs.

When I was a girl, my grandmother lived near acres and acres of mint farms - they smelled so good driving thru - and the farmers just had flocks of geese in the fields to eat the bugs - no fences or anything to keep them in. They just stayed where they were supposed to be and worked. That was how I first came to like them - I never had any up close experience. It also had always been my goal that if I ever had a pond, I would own ducks and geese. Hope this answers your questions. Love, Charlotte