by Inspired Ink

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 24, 2008

Having started with chickens and ducks, one day I added three baby goslings to our little "backyard barnyard." My first reasoning was that I had heard that geese were efficient weeders and would keep the grass short as well as help to control the weeds. I think maybe that was just an excuse really, they were cute little balls of fluff and I just wanted to take a few of them home! Little did I know at the time that geese are not "just more poultry" to those used to chickens and ducks, but are very unique!

The first difference between the goslings and the other birds is related to the magic of "imprinting." Geese, it seems, are one of the birds who most strongly identify with large caretaking creatures around them and accept them as their parents. So instead of having to chase them down and catch them as I had to do with the ducklings and chicks, the goslings stuck to me like feathered Velcro. When they were just a few days old, I took them outside to explore the wide world. They were delighted to find grass and weeds to rip apart with their tiny beaks and immediately started gobbling up greenery. I was pleased to see that perhaps they really WOULD serve as mini-lawnmowers and weed-eaters.

Then when I took a few steps away from them, they immediately spread their stubby wings and, calling "wheep-wheep!" raced after me, their little feet slapping the ground like a tiny herd of elephants. I was Mother Goose, and those babies weren't letting themselves get lost from their mother! They always made me laugh, the way they would drop everything and run after me the moment I walked away or called to them.

They are very affectionate to their "parents" as well. Each expresses it a little differently though. One will come up to me and tremble, begging me to bend down to him so that he can chew on my hair. Another likes to tuck his beak under my arm and make soft little trilling noises. The third nibbles all over my clothes before laying his head over my shoulder and resting there.

Another difference between goslings and other poultry involves the growth rate. By the time the goslings were a week old, they towered over chicks that were seven weeks old. I'm glad I only had three of them, because I didn't have anything to put them in at night that was large enough for more than three. Luckily though, goslings also adapt to temperatures MUCH more rapidly than other poultry. I was used to keeping baby poultry in a brooder under heat lamps for up to two months while they feathered

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