Yesterday I went out to feed and water everyone as usual. My appearance in the yard always causes certain birds (ducks, geese) to work themselves into an embarrassingly loud honking, quacking frenzy. But yesterday the geese seemed slightly quieter than usual.... like a noise level 7 as opposed to the usual 9. I looked at the pen from across the yard and only saw two geese. Huh, that's odd, I thought. But occasionally a goose will walk up the ramp to the chicken house, somehow stuff their fatty-pants butt through the tiny door and get stuck. Must be it, I thought.
Well, no. This is what I found:
A goose on a nest. A! GOOSE! ON! A! NEST! I have been waiting for this moment since the New Year.
Here she is, all snuggled up inside the crap-tastic goose shelter.
Wow, it has been a banner week around here. Besides some exciting personal news going on, my dishwasher got fixed and now this. I really can't ask for anything else for awhile.
I didn't see any egg under her but was afraid that if I poked around under her too much she'd try to kill me. I've gotten enough bruises from broody chickens and ducks that it didn't seem particularly smart to stick my hand under a huge goose. She was moving something around underneath her and it seemed promising.
Later in the day she was off the nest and getting a drink so I rushed outside. A quick poke around confirmed that she hadn't actually laid an egg. What she was sitting on so diligently and fussing with was... wait for it... a heel of bread. *smacks forehead with palm of hand* I had thrown a heel of home baked bread to the birds the day before and this is what she was trying to mother.
Shortly thereafter the chickens flattened the nest and ate the bread. But at least she's practicing and in that there is hope.
We now you know she knows what to do to be a good mum, fingers crossed eggs will follow.
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