Customer Stories and Helpful Advice About Ducks & Geese

My geese don't have the option of being "picky." I have a pair of White Chinese and 5 tufted American Buff. They live in my 60+ tree orchard. The only other things besides the variety of orchard grasses that the geese are eating is the wheelbarrow load full of whatever I clean out from under my 15 hanging rabbit cages each day. The geese stand at the fence about 50 feet from the stall door to my rabbitry each morning and call out to me as I'm doing my chores. When they see me get the wheel barrow out their voices get louder.

I fill the wheelbarrow with hay that has sifted through the rabbits cages to the ground, whatever feed the rabbits have spilled, and whatever rabbit manure has accumulated since my last raking. I have to say that I never realized that one of my most satisfying tasks would be to rake manure and "waste" from under my rabbit cages - but it is.


I hear the geese and smile because I know that none of what I am cleaning up from the ground is "waste." It's going to be recycled into the orchard to feed both my trees and my geese - who are in turn feeding [and pruning] my trees and mowing my grass.

As I finish loading the wheelbarrow and begin up the driveway, the geese follow along on their side of the fence, cheering as though I am the "star" on their team. They greet me raucously when I reach the orchard gate and escort me noisily to the next tree on my "mulch line." As I am unloading the wheelbarrow they are sticking their heads into it eager to see what I have brought them this time. They are never disappointed. It's much more satisfying for me than any meal I have prepared for children, or friends, or family. I don't think I have ever had a goose complain about the menu or refuse to eat what was put in front of them.


Of course, they too, like my human family are always even more excited when it's "dessert night" which comes on those days when it's time to thin the fruit on the tree that I just mulched. You've never seen anything like excitement until you've seen geese under an apple tree with falling apples. They are squawking, and grabbing, and squabbling and running with whatever they have just picked up or grabbed from the next goose. It's hilarious and just makes me smile and be grateful that what seems like "so little" to me is "so much" by these entertaining creatures. They offer me more than they will ever know by adding to my sense of deeply felt satisfaction and gratitude that I can have this life.