Farm Journal: Bad News in Goslingtown

Just a quick note, I’d hardly even call this a full post. A couple of days ago Michael interrupted a raven in the act of killing one of the goslings, too late. We found the poor thing dead with a broken neck. Another gosling was missing. Weeks ago, we saw a raven taking off from the yard with an egg in its beak, so we should’ve expected something like this. We feel pretty bad.

We rigged up a small enclosure for the mama and the remaining five goslings, using the old “chicken tractor” I cobbled together from a defunct chicken coop my parents gave me. Then we noticed Bad News in Goslingtown, the Sequel: one of the five goslings has a severe deformity in its leg. One leg is splayed and twisted at the joint, and its foot is even further twisted. I tried to take a photo, but it’s hard to tell the full extent of the problem.

It seems to get around all right—kinda—ish?—flopping along on its belly and using its good foot and the “knee” of its bad leg to propel it. When I was a teenager my family had a chicken who lived a long, happy, and fruitful life with a very similar deformity, so we’ll see how this gosling does as it gets older. I’m afraid life will be harder for a disabled goose than a chicken, unfortunately, because of geese’s heavier body weight and need to get in and out of swimming water. We will cull if and when it becomes apparent that Gimpy (is that a mean thing to call it?) won’t be able to live a full or comfortable life. I feel like a “real” farmer would just cull now. Maybe we will. I don’t know.