I’ve been accused of anthropomorphizing. Really, I’ve never been accused of this, but I probably would be if I hung out with other high school English teachers, and we talked a lot. I imagine we would discuss anthropomorphism, onomatopoeia, and dangling participles.
I’ve read that geese are monogamous. The idea makes me happy. I like to think they fall in love and stay with the same goose all their lives and never even think about divorce.
But Rachele Muglia-Paulus, of Hunterdon County, N.J., who breeds Sebastopol geese for a living disabuses me of any such romantic notions. Turns out, they are only monogamous-ish. Rachele’s gander, Maui, has two girlfriends, Lucy and Marley.
I ask Rachele if this means that Maui is a player. Not exactly, she says. Frequently breeders keep one gander for every five females. Whatever their family dynamic, it seems to work for the three of them. “The females never fight, not with each other and not with Maui,” says Rachele. “All three live in harmony.”
Rachele saw the movie “Fly Away Home” in 1996. It tells the story of a young motherless girl who flies an ultralight aircraft all by herself in order to lead a flight of motherless pet geese south for the winter.
Ever since watching the movie as a child, Rachele wanted a pet goose. But it wasn’t until she showed the movie to her daughters, Milania, 7, and Meadow, 4, and they became excited about geese too that the family began to make the dream a reality.
“I started researching different breeds of geese and fell in love with Sebastopols. I was lucky enough to find breeders and we got five eggs. Into our incubator they went!”
Fly Away Home Farm was established and on May 10, 2018, Maui, Lucy, and Marley were born. Knowing how important imprinting is for geese that are meant to be pets, Rachele and her girls made sure that they were the first creatures the goslings met.
Birds do not automatically know what they are when they are born. The first creature a baby goose sees it assumes is its mother. If that first creature is a human, the gosling leaps to the conclusion that it is itself a human and will identify with that species for life.
“What an adventure it was having goslings!” says Rachele. “We handled and cuddled the babies daily and they followed my daughters and me everywhere. They have brought so much joy to our lives!”
According to Rachele, geese are affectionate, protective, highly intelligent and understand short verbal commands. “As soon as we enter the yard, they honk loudly and run over to us. They will stay by our side and follow us until we leave the yard.”
I ask her if geese are compatible with dogs and cats, and she says that hers aren’t since they were not raised with those species and view them as a threat. “But I know many people who have successfully raised geese with cats and dogs, and they are the best of friends.”
As to their physical requirements, most of a goose’s diet is grass, and they spend most of their day grazing. They need daily water, “enough to dunk their heads and clean out their snares.” They love having a kiddie pool and need a goose coop to provide protection from outside elements and predators. They need lots of clean, dry, thick straw for bedding.
Sebastopols are listed as a threatened species by the Livestock Breeds Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that helps preserve heritage breeds like Sebastopol geese from going extinct. That’s one of the major reasons Rachele wanted to breed them, to “increase their population.”
“I posted in a Facebook farm group that we would have Sebastopol goslings available soon and the response was overwhelming. There is a high demand and we sold out immediately. We even had to establish a wait list for the following breeding season. That was when we decided to breed them every season.”
One final note: The oldest recorded living goose was 36 years old. Clearly those with commitment issues might be better off with goldfish.
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