The father goose is a pure Sebastopol and mother goose is an American Buff. They make beautiful babies together, though some might have been from the tufted Toulouse gander. The parents protect these babies with their lives, both of them and they move slowly to accommodate the little feet and short legs as they take them out for their walks. Three of the babies were late hatchlings and cannot keep up. I put them back in the nest this morning to keep warm. 

Geese are very polite. People...not so much anymore. 

In written communication isn't it most pleasant to see, "thank you" instead of no problem? Isn't it nice to see, 'thank you and you're welcome" at all rather than a thumbs up icon? In real life how many people maintain the pleasantries of politeness. I called my elderly uncle the other day. He thanked me for calling and told me he loved me. Older folks do that. They thank others for everyday actions that most take for granted. But who calls a 91 year old anymore? Maybe they are more thankful for being thought of than the younger generation is. I learned though. I learned that I felt good when I was thanked for the simple act of calling, and I thank others for the same. I have done that for years, but then again, now I am am of the older generation too. 

Politeness should not be forgotten. People should respect and revere their elders, give up their seats, offer a hand to carry things and so on, no matter what. If we cannot help one another, then why are we even here? It should not be just help for the elderly, but for anyone that needs help. 

Take this tip from the goose family. Be polite, take your time, accommodate those with shorter legs (or shorter incomes, or shorter arms or whatever) and help out. For the geese, the survival of their young depends on it. What about the human race? Our survival does not depend on being polite, however; by helping one another we certainly can improve our human plight. 

I don't just mean in the face of disaster, like the Fort McMurray evacuation for the fire or a tsunami aftermath. I mean everyday, all day, all the time. 

Love is what makes the world a better place. Don't you agree?

Geese are magical creatures, delightful to watch, comical, friendly and are very excellent parents. They sit and hatch their own eggs, and the whole gaggle, males and females, care for the babies. Unfortunately, with the ravens gone wild population around the farm, I cannot let the geese keep their babies out in the open, and the ravens even lure them to the wire and eat them through the fences. 

This winter, the number of ducks was greatly reduced, only with trios of the breeds being retained. There are Rouens, Anconas, Khaki campbells and Buff ducks. They cohabit with the geese, because the number of geese and ducks actually raises the temperature in their shelter quite a lot and it is warmer for them. They learn very quickly, unlike chickens. I only had to herd the ducks and geese into their winter shelter twice and the next night, they were already in there themselves. Chickens take forever to learn where they need to go and even then, some are too stubborn to go anywhere but where they want to! 

The Fat Ewe Farm geese are beautiful. There are two American Buff geese and a Tufted Toulouse cross gander that are mated. There is a Sebastopol pair and the offspring from the Sebs and the Toulouse and the Buffs. The Sebastopol cross geese are stunning, with their long ruffled coloured feathers and blue eyes. Well, not all of them have blue eyes, but most do. My only problem is that I cannot sex the ganders from the geese of the offspring. Several experts have tried to as well, but without turning the geese upside down and vent sexing, we won't know for sure until mating season. 

There are several people interested in these beautiful birds for their own farms. I love the geese. They seem to float rather than waddle like the ducks and the Sebastopol's feathers, when completely grown in, hang to the ground, some over a foot long. Stunning! 

In winter, they are easy care. They do have a large rubber tub they can bathe in once a day. They will go in the water, no matter what the temperature is. To them, water is the best thing going! They do not have to have bathing water, but they do require enough water to dip their heads in so their eyes are washed. The Muscovy ducks sleep in the chicken coop, though, because they need a warmer house than the goose/duck house. The loose feathered birds, like the Sebs and crosses of them, do not have the same insulation factor as the smooth feathered geese, but they are doing well in their large hoop coop. I sprinkle new hay on the floor once a week. When it is still fresh they eat quite a bit of it, which helps them with fibre and greens, since greens are scarce in Alberta winters. 

I think when I move from here, if I ever do, I will always have Sebastopol geese. The Fat Ewe Farm would not be complete without them!

Fifty five of my beautiful birds went to the butcher shop today and came back in body bags, then were 'put on ice' or rather stuffed into the freezer. This was the harshest culling I have had to do, however; in this area, rare breeds of  birds are not very marketable unless one takes them to a rare and unusual animal sale. Those sales happen twice a year and require a full day away from home, plus several full days building proper show boxes and then sticking the animals in them. One is required to stay at the sale as well, which lasts all day. I may go with only  a few birds, bunnies and lambs, but in the spring. There is always so much to do. 

For example, this morning I was up at 6 am, then went out to catch chickens and stuff them in the canopy of the truck with the turkeys, ducks and geese that wre put in the night before. The chickens were quite easy to catch in comparison with the large birds. To catch them, I built a makeshift pen and the birds were herded into it, with feed there waiting for them, and once in, a flexible wire panel was pulled quickly around them trapping them in the pen. Then I simply had to pick the birds up and hand them over to Travis who put them in the canopy for me. Still, picking up a large goose is not easy. Geese and turkeys that run around outside all day and use their muscles are extremely agile and strong. The large white Danish geese with blue eyes all went bye bye, but the lovely rare Sebastpols and their offspring of different colours, actually crosses with the tufted Toulouse cross gander, got to stay. Pairs of the ducks, one male and one female were kept with the exception of the Blue Swedish and Rouens. I kept about 6 Rouen ducks, 5 ducks and one drake and only one drake of the Blue Swedish. I meant to send him off, but he was overlooked for some reason. I will try to find a home for him and the Khaki Campbell pairs, white and Khaki. Those Khaki Campbells dress out at only a couple of pounds and their pin feathers do not come out easy, so they are not a good seller. 

Actually, none of the birds are good sellers. For some crazy reason I thought folks would want farm raised birds, running around all summer dining on grass and bugs with grain supplements, but not here. They just want the fat, big sloth birds that are caged and do not move and grow like Frakenstien so they can be butchered in 5 weeks. Gross! And their eggs do not sell for a fair price of $5 a dozen, so I do not sell them either. Hence the heavy cull. Why keep birds, that cost a lot to feed and take time to care for, if the eggs and birds, live or frozen simply do not sell? The Sebastopol geese might be a good seller, but that will remain to be seen. In the USA the coloured Sebastopol geese sell for as much as $300 and are kept as lawn ornaments and pets because they are so beautiful. Mine are also wonderfully tempered, so would indeed be good pets. Geese are social and intelligent and love to converse. We chatter back and forth to each other every day and they will come right up to me and talk to me. So, they got to stay. 

I do plan to cut down the chickens as well and should have taken more in to butcher, but I was catching alone and trying to load them in the canopy  without losing any of the birds already there, so only  loaded the roosters, except one and two nasty hens that peck the other girls, or did. I have another dozen chickens to butcher, but there are twenty some chicks either just hatched or already feathered, which will grow up over winter. Oy. Less hens will mean less eggs, which is fine ,since I cannot keep up to what is gathered every day anyhow, and less chicks, so less birds to butcher. 

The 55 birds cost 6 hours of driving time, there and back twice, once to deliver and once to pick up, 4-6 months of being fed, and believe me, large birds like turkeys and geese eat a lot, and then, are you ready for this? $455.85 to have the birds butchered. Yup, folks, four hundred and fifty five dollars and eighty five cents! I cannot possibly eat 55 big birds this winter. They will keep frozen for up to three good years. I will give some away and definitely cook a lot of them, but I have a feeling that the dogs will get their share when they get old and freezer burned and that is such a pity and expense. 

Lesson learned. Birds are  out. In this area they do not work. I refuse to get the meat birds that grow so quickly they cannot sustain their own lives and they often keel over and die. I refuse to feed animals foods containing gmo's either so force feeding in small pens is out. And since from now on, it is for me only, no more guests at the bed and breakfast, and the occasional friends or family, about 5 or 6 ducks and maybe 10 chickens, maybe less, is all I need. I am not sure what to do when the birds reproduce at such a rapid rate as they have been doing. I will try to sell the chicks and ducklings and have been able to do so sometimes, but not always. Then what? break their necks?OMG break the neck of a baby duckling???? NO. Can't and won't be doing that. I gues the rest of the story will be written after the next year trying to cut down and stay with low numbers. Time will tell. 

Roast goose for Thanksgiving anyone? Duck? Turkey? Maybe a black skinned chicken? 

I could mow the lawn or I could open the gate. Both will accomplish the same task, getting the lawn trimmed. But the ducks and geese have eaten the available grass in their pens, the sheep and the goat pens. I can open the gate to the ram pasture, but then the rams will meander in and I prefer they stay where they are. So, I opened the gate to the house, well, both houses. Gross! 

The ducks and geese took up residence at the little farmhouse on the porch, especially since I just hosed it down and washed it. It is a covered area and although they do not mind the rain, when it is constant as it has been, they prefer a little roof over their heads. They have their own shelter and the barn, but this one is next to the rain barrel, the barrel that is overflowing with fresh rain water and they can play in it. 

They have been eating oats lately and their feed consumption was way up. This tells me two things. They are not eating enough grass and bugs and they need to move. I also observe their droppings, and yes, they are hard not to observe or step in, and they are brown and now green. If they are eating enough grass and greens, the droppings are a deep green colour. The brown was from the oats. Although they can survive on their meagre diet, the pasture is free, or rather the lawn. I have now mowed the lawn for a while becuase it has been raining and raining. The grass is lush and green and perfect if you are a duck or goose. Even the chickens perk up eating fresh grass. So, I gritted my teeth and opened the gates knowing full well there would be messes everywhere. The messes are disgusting, but nothing that a hose won't clean, as long as it does not track into the house too much. Shoes are always off at the door, but there are two dogs who are inside at night that do not adhere to the shoes off rule. I try to run them through the fresh grass so they can clean off any manure stuck to the fur. Usually it works. It does not clean off the sand and mud, but that is another story. 

There are quite a few Sebastopol cross goslings that are feathering nicely, more open than the pure Sebastopols, but beautiful with a touch of black and grey. I cannot tell if they are geese or ganders. Some can, but I cannot, not until mating, so they will stay the winter until I figure it out. Some will go to new homes then. 

In the meantime, they are eating the grass and mowing it down at a remarkable rate, despite the rain and the growth that is continuously taking place. They sort of respect the fence around the garden, but the Khaki Campell ducks can slip right through. The only tell tale sign of their entry was a nest with four eggs under a potatoe plant. Duck eggs are the best, thanks duckies. 

The moral of this story is, don't mow the lawn. Get geese and ducks instead. Oh, and watch out for the lawn slugs. Hee hee. 

The little duckling hatched from the farm duck egs early in May are already feathered and ready to explore their world. It is their first day out with the adult ducks, some of which are their parents, though neither the adults nor the babies are aware of that because they were artificially incubated by a machine. My friend was interested in incubating some duck eggs to give her children the opportunity to see the baby ducks hatch and to raise them as pets. She has an incubator that holds 125 eggs though and since she was only going to hatch 10 ducklings, I seized the opportunity to ask her if the empty spots could be filled. She obliged and 50 ducklings were hatched. Some were sold immediately and some a bit later. 

The ducklings that I brought home were put in a large livestock trough outside with two heat lamps, one on each end. An old glass screen door was placed on top of a grid panel to keep cats and ravens out and the glass allowed sunlight in. On warm days the door was removed and the birds had fresh air and sunlight, unlike most brooded chicks and ducks that are raised in buildings without ever seeing the sun or smelling the wind. 

The ducklings quickly outgrew their livestock trough and were moved to a hoop coop outside without a heat lamp. They did have a huddle box to cuddle together in if they got cold, but I did not notice them using it. Ducklings are much hardier than chicks or tureky poults and can regulate their tempertures better, even before they get their feathers. They did quickly outgrow their hoop coop though and it, like the livestock trough was always wet and mucky. Gross! 

So, when they got their feathers, they also got their freedom. At first I left the hoop coop open for them and surrounded the coop with livestock panels, but the ducklings could fit through the panels. It was more to keep curious other birds and the dogs and cats out so they did not become frightened. They stayed there about a half day before liberating themselves and as a group zipped around to explore their new world, sipping water at every stop and tasting some of the grain and the grass. They got delectable hand picked grass in their former lives as babies, but now they must fend for themselves. 

Today the babies were quite well adjusted and happy. The raven still worries me, since they are small, but there are plenty of adult birds around them. The adults will not protect them, however; the Sebastopol goose has taken to them ever since they were in the hoop coop and she has remained at their sides and protected them. She is delighted that they are free and waddles around with them leading them to water and food and shade. That is very sweet to see. 

The fate of some of these ducks will be the freezer, sad to say. Some will be replacement ducks for the older adults, who will them be freezer birds themselves. The white Khaki Campbells will stay. They are valued for their egg laying but with the white carcass, the pin feathers are not so noticeable and therefore more desireable. Welcome to the Fat Ewe Farm, little duckies!

Yesterday I moved the older ducklings out of the livestock trough brooder into the hoop coop because the new Blue Swedish and Pekin ducklings and the Danish white goslings arrived. The last hatched Muscovy ducks and the three goslings were left in the brooder because they were too young to move on with the ducklings. I did move the goslings, but they nearly got trampled as the ducklings tried to pile one on the other in an effort to get away from everything. 

The ducklings went over to the new home in the wagon. They were terrified as little ducklings always are. But, when they were in their new home, they had a lid from a Rubbermaid container filled with water to play in. It was 30 degrees and the water was a welcome diversion from the fear they experience with any new situations. Unless ducklings are handled frequently, they tend to be very skittish. Some breeds are reportedly better than others, like the Blue Swedish, but we shall see how they fare compared wth the Khaki Campbell, Rouen, Saxony and Ancona ducks. Of those breeds, the Campbells are certainly the most nervous and the Saxony the quietest. 

Once the older ducklings were in their new home, they began to play and eat, both very good signs that they are comfortable. A bit of a surprise came from the geese though. They heard the babies and their mother protective instincts took over and they began to come to the shelter and hiss at anything near. That was endearing to see. I wish the Sebastopol goose would sit on eggs. Maybe next year. Only one goose is sitting this year and she has about 6 eggs only. The Sebastopol cross goslings, if there are any, should be very beautiful with coloured long flowing feathers. 

I do enjoy the waterfowl. They are so much hardier than the chicks. The chicks are best incubated and raised by their mommas and one momma just hatched 10 little ones. Tomorrow I will show them to you. Now, out to feed the duckies!

When I first started farming in 2011, I really had a lot to learn. This dumb city slicker did not really know the difference on sight between sheep and goats, chickens, geese, turkeys or guinea fowl or much about cows or horses. I have come a long way in the past 4 years and of course, will continue to learn more. I had never really seen geese up close, only through a car window driving by a goose and duck farm in Yarrow, BC. They were stinky and over crowded and all white, obviously raised for meat production with little regard for the lives of the birds. I am not saying they were not given the necessities, but they didn't have the opportunities to enjoy their lives as the species they are. 

I got some goslings the first year, Embden crosses. They had tufts on their heads, and I later figured out they were tufted Toulouse crosses with Embden. Embden geese are big, agressive geese. Toulose geese are much calmer, but still not calm enough for me. The ravens ate my goslings right through the wire enclosure. I wondered what happened as they disappeared. I could not find a way for them to get out and did not see any dead bodies. The raven would sit patiently on the outside of the cage and when the gosling was close enough, reach his beak in and tear off a bit of the gosling, eventually pulling the remains out and eating it all, which is why there were no bodies. The next goslings were raised where the dogs could protect them and they fared better. They grow very quickly and eat mostly fresh grass. How a creature can eat grass and convert it to fat is a miracle. Some of those geese went to the freezer and I must say, they are incredibly delicious eating. They averaged about 14 pounds, not much, and of that, provided two meals only, with much of the waste being bones. The meat breeds of geese dress out to a greater percentage of meat to bone. 

Last year, I ordered two Sebastopol geese. I had seen photos of these geese who look like they are wearing wedding gowns of fine ruffles. Simply stunning, they are! The goslings were sexed and cost $100 each. They were taken great care of and have grown to be lovely adults. One was nearly lost to an owl in the winter. The owl tore off the wrist portion of a wing, but since they are flightless, once it healed, it will not cause any permanent harm. The two female geese other than the one Sebastopol are Amercian Buffs, a beautiful buff coloured quiet, docile breed. I wish I could find a gander of that breed. Instead, to have two ganders, in case of the demise of one, I kept one of those tuft tops that I had originally. He was a scrawny teenager, but is quite handsome now with grey and white feathers. Of all the geese, he is the loudest and most agressive. 

They geese are nesting now, so they are highly protective of their nesting area. They were hissing at me when I checked one nest today. The Tufted gander has mated with one Buff goose and the Sebastopol gander has mated with the other Buff and his Sebastopol wife. The cross goslings, Sebastopol and Buff, will be very striking with long flowing coloured feathers or possibly the soft smooth feathers of the Buff with Sebastopol fluffs. There are 7 eggs in the nest now. It has been pretty cold and has frozen to minus 10, so the eggs might not be viable, since the goose is not sitting yet. She will continue to lay eggs in the nest until she feels she has enough to ensure continuation of her species, usually about ten or twelve. It takes just over a month to hatch the eggs. Due to the loss of baby birds to the ravens, the goslings will have to be taken away and artificially reared or they will be dinner. I have a waiting list for Sebastopol geese and the crosses. At $100 and up per goose, it is better money than raising sheep. From one nest, ten babies provide $1000 dollars. At best one lamb will fetch $300 unless it is a specialty lamb, which may come closer to the big dollars, but still not equal to the thousand dollars. 

Geese are interesting and the Buffs and Sebastopols are gentle and non invasive. Anyone can walk around them, provided they do not come too close to the nest, and they do not bother with them.The Tufted Toulouse cross gander has learned to give me a wide berth after a few early encounters where he met my boot after he tried to bite me. He does not both with Robbie too much either, because Robbie has given him a haircut once or twice when he attacked him. Sofi, on the other hand, is fair game and the gander loves to chase her, hissing and creating a scene. 

A mixed farm wouldn't be complete without geese. I am considering raising forty to fifty next year and then having a goose per week for dinner. One goose, in the grocery store, is around $50. If I had a market for them, butchered, then that is another possibility to add to the farm income. I am thankful for the opportunity to get to know geese. Would you like to ?

Last spring The Fat Ewe Farm acquired a pair of Sebastopol goslings, a male and a female. They are less hardy than the regularly feathered geese, with the openess of their plumage not being as warm as the tight feathered friends. When the predator came from the sky, it attached one of the Sebastopols and tore the wing off at the last joint, but he is recovered now. In that same incident, his foot was injured and for a long time he limped around. I checked his foot over and again to ensure there was nothing broken, but it was very swollen. I am grateful that it has healed and he has full use of it now. 

Sebastopols are an ornamental breed of geese, kept for the exquisite beauty. When fully feathered in the summer, they appear to float across the lawn wearing long gowns of white ruffles. Their feathers grow poorly in a curled fashion and the wing feathers can be askew as well, giving them a very unkempt appearance when they are growing feathers. However, the geese look spectacular when they are fully dressed. Due to small numbers, there is not an adquate gene pool in Canada, and many of these geese are inbred leading to poor fertility rates. For that reason, they are sometimes mated with other breeds of geese . If the ruffled feather pattern is dominant, then the offspring are much hardier than the pure Sebastopols and also will be more fertile usually. Then the resultant bird is a coloured Sebastopol, not a recognized breed of goose, but still a very beautiful one. 

The Sebastopols seem to stay together. Geese tend to mate for a long time, if not for life. Hopefully they will have little Sebastopol goslings, but if not, the Toulouse cross gander will mate with the female and possibly produce coloured Sebastopols, most likely grey splash on white. In any event, they birds are beautiful and a joy to watch and a wonderful addition to the Fat Ewe Farm.  Oh, and poor Eunice…the wry neck Rouen. 

It is not only human nature that shuns those who are not like the others. I see the ducks bite her and try to move her away, so she remains after they have left to eat or to bathe. My heart breaks for her, my Eunice. She stayed after the ducks went home so she could bathe in peace without the biting of many bills trying to mover her away. Nature can be cruel as well as beautifule.

It took a while for me to research enough to be comfortable raising waterfowl through a northern Alberta winter. For one, I do not have heated coops. Also, I do not have an underground water system or a system that keeps water from freezing. So, for the ducks and geese, it was still important that they had access to fresh water daily so they could dip their heads in to clear their eyes, but they also like to bathe daily, despite the frigid temperatures. 

The ducks and geese go into their tubs and flick the water over thier backs, wetting the feathers. Then they sit for an hour afterwards and preen. This means that they spread the oil from their oil gland near the tail, with their beaks, through out the feathers. The oil helps to unify the feathers and then keep the birds warmer. This seems counterproductive when the tempatures are so low that immediately upon leaving the water, it freezes to ice on their feathers, but it does work. 

The ducks prefer to be outside during the day and do not require too much shelter, just a place away from the wind and off the cold ground, with a roof to keep the snow off too. Bi weekly, or as needed, I spread some fluffy straw on the floor of their shelters. The birds tuck their legs and feet up into their sides though and rest on their breasts, which are amply covered with feathers and underneath those, a beautiful layer of fine down. The water actually does not penetrate their feathers if they are in good condition. 

The Sebastopol geese worry me though. They have open feathers and not much down in comparison to the other geese, yet they love to bathe just the same. They also sit and preen and are not shivering, so I assume they are not cold, but they do not have the insulation against the cold that other geese do. Fortunately, the ducks and geese crowd themselves into an 8 x 10 shelter, so their body heat does keep the shelter warmer and the proximity to each other keeps the birds warmer too. It is always nice to cuddle up to a buddy. 

The Muscovy ducks do not sleep with the other waterfowl and instead, go into one of the chicken coops. The body temperature of chickens is higher than ducks and in that coop there are a lot of them, so perhaps it feels warmer to the Muscovy ducks. The caruncles, or red raised bits on their faces, can freeze and if they do, it means that they could get brain freeze too, in which case, death would result. Today they all got new straw in their coops and they had their daily baths too. I could stand and watch them for a long time, I find them so interesting. But when the temperature is well below zero and the wind is blowing, standing to watch is not really a good option. 

Another thing I do not comprehend is how they know each other. The Saxony ducks, three girls, got two Saxony drakes recently. I did not segregate them to introduce the drakes to the girls, but some how they know who is who and they hang around together. I see that when mating occurs in the spring too. The Rouens hang around together and the Campbells too, and now the Saxony ducks will likely too. Pretty cool things, those birds. Aren't they?

The ducklings and goslings hatched in the incubator earlier in spring are now almost full grown adults. It is possible to tell the difference between the sexes too. The male ducks have a distinct green tinge to their bills, while the females have plain orange, brown or mottled bills, depending on the breed or cross. The males will also develop a curl in their tail feathers fairly soon, but for now, they can be sexed. There are about half and half it appears. Most of these girls will stay on the farm since their moms are now three years old and their laying will decrease considerably next year and the subsequent years. The Khaki Campbell ducks will lay from early in the spring, even with snow on the ground and freezing temperatures, right through until the late fall, and possibly the start of winter. The other ducks, Saxony, Rouen and Ancona, will lay more sporadically now until fall. The only gosling hatched from the farm is a very large gander, mostly grey in colour. He is already protecting his flock. The white Chinese gosling belongs to a friend and was a sole hatchling, so has come to live on the farm for now. The poor fellow has a genetic defect resulting in dropped wings, called angel wing. Since he was fed just the same as the rest of the ducklings and the three other goslings, it was not likely a deficiency that caused the problem, because no others display any abnormalities at all. Well, that is not entirely so. One Rouen was hatched with wry neck, a twist in the neck that inhibits proper eating and drinking and is very tiresome. Although I was advised to do away with him, he has been given the chance to survive and do his best to keep up with the flock. 

The pure white Sebastopols are becoming quite stunning with their fluffy feathers. The goose comes to me and tells me stories. I picked her up today and she protested loudly bringing the gander over to investigate. Then she calmed down and laid her beautiful head on my arm. Ah, the goslings and ducklings are wonderful creatures. They really are.