One of my female geese has shown an amazing (to me) puzzle solving ability. The fence of their and the ducks' enclosure is a 6' wooden fence on 2 sides and 3' wire on the others. They've eaten all the greenery in their yard so I give them any grass clippings from mowing and any weeds I pull up.
In their yard is a chunk of petrified wood about as big around as a human head and 1.5 times as long. This was only a short distance from the wire fence. Miss Smarty Goose figured out that with a running start, a leap onto the rock and a few flaps of her wings she could clear the 3' wire fence.
Naturally I was not looking forward to chasing a goose around an about 90' x 50' yard minus structures. Again she showed her intelligence. I'd left my push mower parked a foot & a half or so from this side of the wire fence... A short running start and she used the mower as a launching pad to propel herself back where she belonged!
Needless to say I have moved all she can use as launch pads either out of their enclosure or far from the 3' wire fence.
Right now I'm rather indecisive whether I should allow all the geese to graze the main yard (supervised) or feather clip their wings. My raised bed gardens aren't producing anything impressive so I'm leaning towards letting them do my mowing and weeding for now then clip later and pen them back in.
The ducklings are doing quite well, growing like weeds and seemingly bonding with me more than my first flock. They're already at 1 week of age starting to try to grow pin feathers on their wee butts and accept me when I sit with them.
I've learned the difference between their normal happy peep and their distress peep. Now I only get a couple distress peeps when I pick one up before it becomes a happy peep.
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