A Place for Animals-Ducks and Geese
When we arrived here almost 13 years ago, we brought with us a small red coop of 10 laying hens, and a pair of American Buff geese named Ginger and Ferdinand. The chickens no one questioned. But the geese….no one understood.
Keeping geese is odd in the US because the US doesn’t keep geese (Europeans keep geese). It’s shortsighted, because geese do a job, which I’ll talk about below. To me, keeping geese in a country that doesn’t keep them really just brings home the point that here in the US we don’t allow our animals to work with us the way that they can. We see them as something to be extracted (just like everything else), instead of as allies. If anything at all, I hope this article will open your eyes to the other things animals can do for us besides providing food (which they do as well).
Ferdinand and Ginger are no longer with us, though their descendants are. Over the years, I have had American Buff, Pilgrims, a very loud and very affectionate Chinese goose named Arthur, and now I have two Ferdinand and Ginger descendants named Persephone and Echo living with a pair of Embden geese named Maxwell and Leona. As to ducks? Such a long cast of characters there. I’ve had Pekins, Runners, Cayugas, Muscovys, Khaki Campbells, Appleyards, and White Crested (for pictures of these, see here). Why so many different types? Turns out that ducks might be delicious for humans, but they are VERY delicious to wild animals, as well as easy pickings…
…click on the above link to read the rest…
