Part one was a little look into the vast world of this subject, don't get overwhelmed. There is a lot of information out there, but I want to simplify it. I will give you my experience and then show you the facts:
Three years ago, when I was in grade 9 I started diving into researching about any animal I could have as a pet. My family (my parents and brother) were living at a friend’s acreage and then my grandparents house in a span of a year and a half. I needed an animal of my own to talk to and snuggle with. After months of research and convincing I finally got my slim grey cat named Jerry! During our time at my grandparents house I continued to do a ton of research because I just had a strong feeling that I wanted to dive into farming/livestock. Before when we were at our friend's property we had ordered 25 meat chicks with our friend's and they were raising our chicks with theirs until we got our chicken tractor set up. Unfortunately we moved back to my grandparents and now we had to figure out where to put our boilers. We soon found a single mother who had a property that we could put our chicken tractor on, so we made a deal that she and her kids would take care of the chickens daily and we would pay and provide for the feed and move the tractor when necessary. It worked out great, but when one of the chickens was limping we decided to bring it to my grandparents and I would nurse it back to health. I brought her to the backyard and named her Lily, she slept in the backyard in a dog cennal and I would spend all day with her and she would follow me around and we would just sit on the grass and watch the crows (who were eyeing her, but she would duck under my back to hide) People said she wouldn't make it and she wouldn't get better, but I proved them all wrong because she didn't die of depression from loneliness, she didn't die from her limp and she didn't die from a predictor because I was with her. I will get more into why later.
After a couple weeks she went back to the tractor and after a few more weeks she went to a butcher with the rest of them, only one out of the 25 chickens was not edible.
Funny little side story: We spilt the chickens 50 50 with the other mother and one day my mom took out one of the chickens from the freezer for dinner, when she went to pick it up one of the legs was missing, lol. We think it was Lily and her leg just got cut off when she got processed.
Anyway, during these almost two years (living in Edmonton Alberta) I was still researching more sepecifically geese. Then we moved to Nanaimo BC in December of 2024, in March we got a call from some friend that had Embden goslings. Long story short I finally convinced my dad to convert our old unused dog house into a goose house and we picked up my very first goslings, they were two weeks old, Which I wasn't thrilled about, but what can you do? We ended up picking the two youngest and smallest ones and brought them home to our RV (that we're living in) and they lived under our table for the beginning. Lucy was the youngest and she wouldn't go ANYWHERE without Ricky, she would absoulutly freak out, and Ricky couldn't care less.
This is my first spring with them and right now Lucy has been missing for seven days. We live along a river and we've seen her on the other side so, yeah.
Okay, I just wanted to get my story out of the way so you guys understand part of the picture. I'm in grade 11 now and part of how I got my dad on board (I know he seceretly likes the geese) is I presented it as my grade 11 PROJECT.
My Grade 11 Project:
I had a theory; most people have the misconception that geese are hissing, honking, deadly, viscous animals. On the contrary, they can beautiful, funny, and gentle animals. I don't really want to get into that because I get very passionate about it. My grandpa didn't want me to get them because he said, "They will kill you, they will beat you with their wings!" I want to make this clear, and this is part of my theory, that geese can be nice; In some ways, geese are what you make them to be. They can absolutely be mean and bite you, like wild Canadian Geese, but for wild geese that is how they survive, by defending themselves. Even domestic geese can be like that, if that is what their taught.
As soon as I possibly could I sat with Ricky and Lucy and sang to them, talking, and listening to them. I spent so much time with them at I was the only one who could tell them apart. If you have seen a movie of a parent or you are a parent with twins, you are likely the only ones who can tell them apart. Well that was me with my geese. I don't like of them as farm animals or pets, they are family, just like all our other animals. We have two dogs, two cats, and two two geese (well one goose right now). I don't want to label all geese like this, but I was right, geese can be nice. Ricky is so shy, quiet, soft and kind. He escorted me to my front door, lol.
I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of what I'm saying. This is my opinion and my experience, I have read and watched a lot of people who don't have the same experience as me, and fractly I think that's just because you don't have a good/great relationship with them. They are not just animals, they have feelings and they can learn how to be nice, if you teach them properly and patiently.
Three years ago, when I was in grade 9 I started diving into researching about any animal I could have as a pet. My family (my parents and brother) were living at a friend’s acreage and then my grandparents house in a span of a year and a half. I needed an animal of my own to talk to and snuggle with. After months of research and convincing I finally got my slim grey cat named Jerry! During our time at my grandparents house I continued to do a ton of research because I just had a strong feeling that I wanted to dive into farming/livestock. Before when we were at our friend's property we had ordered 25 meat chicks with our friend's and they were raising our chicks with theirs until we got our chicken tractor set up. Unfortunately we moved back to my grandparents and now we had to figure out where to put our boilers. We soon found a single mother who had a property that we could put our chicken tractor on, so we made a deal that she and her kids would take care of the chickens daily and we would pay and provide for the feed and move the tractor when necessary. It worked out great, but when one of the chickens was limping we decided to bring it to my grandparents and I would nurse it back to health. I brought her to the backyard and named her Lily, she slept in the backyard in a dog cennal and I would spend all day with her and she would follow me around and we would just sit on the grass and watch the crows (who were eyeing her, but she would duck under my back to hide) People said she wouldn't make it and she wouldn't get better, but I proved them all wrong because she didn't die of depression from loneliness, she didn't die from her limp and she didn't die from a predictor because I was with her. I will get more into why later.
After a couple weeks she went back to the tractor and after a few more weeks she went to a butcher with the rest of them, only one out of the 25 chickens was not edible.
Funny little side story: We spilt the chickens 50 50 with the other mother and one day my mom took out one of the chickens from the freezer for dinner, when she went to pick it up one of the legs was missing, lol. We think it was Lily and her leg just got cut off when she got processed.
Anyway, during these almost two years (living in Edmonton Alberta) I was still researching more sepecifically geese. Then we moved to Nanaimo BC in December of 2024, in March we got a call from some friend that had Embden goslings. Long story short I finally convinced my dad to convert our old unused dog house into a goose house and we picked up my very first goslings, they were two weeks old, Which I wasn't thrilled about, but what can you do? We ended up picking the two youngest and smallest ones and brought them home to our RV (that we're living in) and they lived under our table for the beginning. Lucy was the youngest and she wouldn't go ANYWHERE without Ricky, she would absoulutly freak out, and Ricky couldn't care less.
This is my first spring with them and right now Lucy has been missing for seven days. We live along a river and we've seen her on the other side so, yeah.
Okay, I just wanted to get my story out of the way so you guys understand part of the picture. I'm in grade 11 now and part of how I got my dad on board (I know he seceretly likes the geese) is I presented it as my grade 11 PROJECT.
My Grade 11 Project:
I had a theory; most people have the misconception that geese are hissing, honking, deadly, viscous animals. On the contrary, they can beautiful, funny, and gentle animals. I don't really want to get into that because I get very passionate about it. My grandpa didn't want me to get them because he said, "They will kill you, they will beat you with their wings!" I want to make this clear, and this is part of my theory, that geese can be nice; In some ways, geese are what you make them to be. They can absolutely be mean and bite you, like wild Canadian Geese, but for wild geese that is how they survive, by defending themselves. Even domestic geese can be like that, if that is what their taught.
As soon as I possibly could I sat with Ricky and Lucy and sang to them, talking, and listening to them. I spent so much time with them at I was the only one who could tell them apart. If you have seen a movie of a parent or you are a parent with twins, you are likely the only ones who can tell them apart. Well that was me with my geese. I don't like of them as farm animals or pets, they are family, just like all our other animals. We have two dogs, two cats, and two two geese (well one goose right now). I don't want to label all geese like this, but I was right, geese can be nice. Ricky is so shy, quiet, soft and kind. He escorted me to my front door, lol.
I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of what I'm saying. This is my opinion and my experience, I have read and watched a lot of people who don't have the same experience as me, and fractly I think that's just because you don't have a good/great relationship with them. They are not just animals, they have feelings and they can learn how to be nice, if you teach them properly and patiently.
