Lola and Gabby quickly became the jesters of the farm. They were day old mail-order babies. Sisters at heart, as they have been together since day one. But two very different breeds which give completely different personalities.
Lola is the gray and yellow-ish gosling and she is an Embden goose breed. As she grows and looses her gosling fluff, she will have white feathers tipped with gray. Embden’s are great weeders and get pretty large, males 31 lbs., females 20 lbs. She is calm and friendly and not too noisy or aggressive, although Lola does enjoy trying to grab a chickens tail feathers here and there.
Gabby is the smaller yellow gosling, and she is a Chinese goose. As she grows into her adult feathers, she will be all white with a knob on top of her bill. Chinese geese make excellent guard geese. They have a smaller body with a long, slender necks. Males are 11-22 lbs. and females are 8-20lbs. Gabby is much more aggressive and noisier than Lola. Gabby always has one eye to the sky while Lola is all, “La-la-la, let’s eat.”
When Lola and Gabby arrived, they were already completely attached to one another. They cuddled together and had each others back when the chicks (also day old’s) came to visit. The chicks had one side of the brooder with a divider between. A few times I removed the divider to see if they could get along. Nope! Divider stayed in place until Gabby and Lola got too big and moved to a larger size area. Then the chicks got the whole brooder to themselves.
Lola and Gabby enjoyed bath time. Although at first they just liked to stand in the water and drink it. We could only put them in slightly warm water for a few minutes and watch them carefully. They can die if they get chilled and being this young they cannot swim or float yet.
Gabby and Lola treated us like “Mom and Dad.” They would follow us on walks, never wanting to get too far away, running in a full speed waddle to stay near. Even as tiny goslings we could easily see their different personalities. Lola got along with everyone, even Lexi our dog. But Gabby would run at Lexi and try to attack her even though Lexi was many times her size. Clara was not having any of it. Clara would fight back at Gabby. Soon Lola and Gabby decided they did not want to mess with Clara, ever. Gabby tried to run Nugget off too, but somehow, Nugget being so laid back and cool, put up with Gabby’s treatment and even Lola’s occasional tail feather pulling, and became friends with the geese. Nugget is the only one the geese allow to eat next to, lay next to, be fed next to.
I read a lot about different breeds of geese and the pros and cons of having two geese when you want one as a guard goose. Some sites said if you have more than one goose they will not guard because they consider the two of them as family and won’t protect the chickens. My goal was to guard the chickens and weed the garden/chicken yard.
However, when ordering goslings, you have to order at least two. I decided I did not want two aggressive geese. So I went with a calm, heavy weeder, Embden, and a guard goose, Chinese.
I am so glad I went that route. Nature over nurture is how this has gone down. Lola and Gabby have been raised the same, yet their natures are opposite. I wouldn’t want to handle two Gabby’s, but I also don’t think Lola is too much of a guard.
Lola and Gabby have their own goose house on a deck with a sunk in pool. We call their area: The Girls of West Wing (their home is on the west side of the hen’s Fowl Manor). Gabby and Lola are there to Serve (Lola weeds) and Protect (Gabby guards).
To see videos of Gabby and Lola, click the links.
To see step by step the build of the goose house and deck, click this link:
