I was walking down my driveway and noticed a commotion near a stack of lumber. I wasn't sure what it was, but there was some sort of chicken noise, and hissing, and some muffled honking. As I got closer, I could see the two geese had a chicken down on the ground and were pinning it down and ripping beakfuls of feathers off the chicken. Apparently they'd been at it for a while, because the chicken was pretty much plucked.
The geese seemed intent on finishing the job, so I waded in and grabbed the poor victim chicken and promptly got hit by one gooses wings as the other one bit me.
The chickens had chosen that spot as a good space to lay eggs, but the geese have apparently claimed it now. That hen had the temerity to try to lay eggs in goose territory, and paid the price in a pound of feathers.
There's 8-10 goose eggs under her and 4 or 5 chicken eggs as well, half-buried in the grass.
The goose that's sitting on the eggs is relatively safe; the lumber pile is pretty close to the center of the farm activity, so the coyotes steer clear. I'm going to let her hatch the eggs out.
Just hope that there's no more goose-on-chicken violence.
So is the goose going to hatch the chicken eggs along with the goose eggs? That should be interesting when the chicks won't swim like a proper gosling. The ugly duckling story in progress.
ReplyDeleteOne of my 3 geese is getting very territorial lately. I keep looking for eggs, but so far haven't found any yet.
Ha! how hard is geese plucking compared to chicken or turkey?
ReplyDeleteOut Embden is cranking out about an egg ever other day. If our gander was also an Embden I would let her set but I don't want to end up with a bunch of "mutt geese" running around... I will say one of those eggs is like an entire omelet.
ReplyDeletePlucking waterfowl is harder than with other poultry. I add some dish soap to the scalding water to help it get to the skin of the bird, and you have a harder pull. The main flight feathers of a turkey and a goose both require a pretty good pull.
ReplyDeleteI know this is old but chickens take 21 days, geese like 30-35 (something like that)
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the goslings? She just get up when the chickens hatch or?
Sorry, been stalking the blog from the first entry since I found it xD