Goose’s Toothsum Grin
Geese have teeth on their tongues. Sharp looking barbs!
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Jeffries Family Farm
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.Oven, Spit & Pit Roaster Pigs!
Enjoy Our Pork!
Enjoy pork butchered in our family’s Vermont state inspected on-farm butcher shop here on Sugar Mountain Farm. Affordable quality pork from our family farm to your family’s table. One time purchases or weekly, biweekly and monthly CSA boxes available from $40 each. Save buying in bulk as a whole, half or quarter pig. See the Pork Page for details.
Hi,
I may have missed the reason, but why are the piglets cheaper in the fall? Is there a higher mortality of the piglets leading into winter?
Thanks
Super shot there. I never knew this about geese. I like to learn something new each day so I can coast the rest of the day now. LOL. Is there a particular purpose for these teeth?? Just curious.
Probably the serration along the tongue and beak are for gathering plants. Possibly aquatic as well as terrestrial. The geese spend most of their time grazing grass. Interestingly, there were giant prehistoric geese with big teeth. They soared the oceans and ate fish. I’m glad the modern geese aren’t big like that. They’re intimidated by me, barely.
That’s a very good question deserving a whole post to cover. Short answer: supply and demand. In the spring is when everyone wants to buy piglets but we have limited supply. To produce piglets for the spring they are born during the hardest season of the year when the sows actually have fewer litters thus supply is lower. Thus if you buy in the spring you’re competing with everyone and their brother for a limited pool of piglets. Tight supply and high demand push the price up. The biggest competitor for piglets is our own farm – we need to keep enough to supply our wholesale, retail and CSA customers with their pork as well as roasters.
You should have seen 15 preschoolers feeding geese at the park. The geese were not afraid of the children and the children were not afraid of the geese. The adults were afraid of the geese but I guess we have been chased by enough of them to know better. Do ducks have this on their tounges? I will have to look at mine to see.
That is incredible! And… soo cool!
I certainly never know that either! Does it have anything to do w/ the welt they can put on you? The teeth are pretty far back to make contact when they ‘get you’. I wonder if swans have this same setup on their tongues.
My husband & I recently encountered a family of Canada geese who nested in a little patch of shrubs against a local home improvement store. Both parent geese gave us this look as we approached, and hissed with what must have been meant to be threatening (but seemed more funny to us). Is your goose is hissing in this photo?
Geese.
Aye, that is what she’s doing, and loudly. :)
I’ve been reading your blog for awhile, and I’m sorry that this has nothing to do with your recent post at all but is merely a plea for help. We moved to an acreage in the last few months with an absolutely wonderful dog who (for a dog with NO prior knowledge of livestock) adapted very well to our cows and ducklings and chicks. He would sleep next to them when we pulled them out in the yard as little babies and has left them alone as they run around the yard. The last two days, I’ve caught him chasing one or two, but he quit after a scolding. Today he killed two in a matter of seconds while I was out with the calves. He doesn’t eat what he kills… never has anyway. I’ve been told that he will need tied all the time (which renders his current help as fox, rabbit and snake killer useless!) Please tell me there is something I can do if the thorough scolding and being tied up for the rest of this evening doesn’t do the trick. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Great Blog! I’m going to be useless around here for the next few days…I plan on reading EVERYTHING you’ve written. I’m retiring in a few years, and reading everything I can to get ready to homestead when I do. I’m a city gal, so please forgive my ignorance, as while I devour your blog I’ll probably want to post a ton of questions. Should I post on the individual pages, even if they are from previous years? My main question is about how you pasture your animals. I love that they are kept together, it seems like a community that way, and may make them less aggressive. I plan to keep as many types as you have, with the addition of cows and goats as well. Would this community pasture work with all of these different types of animals, and is there some concern of them being contaminated from communal diseases? Thanks so much. Hope to learn a lot from future correspondence with this blog.
P.S. What a wonderful world you have! Blessings to you, your fantastic family and friends.
Caryn, it is a matter of retraining. Be patient. Be persistant. See the article about Killer Kita. If she can do it then your dog probably can too. Best of luck, -Walter
Tiffany, go ahead and post questions in articles new & old. The nice thing about the web is it is timeless. The discussion continues through the years.
Cheers,
-Walter
Thank you!! I’d forgotten about that post (we read up on your LGD’s before moving here) and it was most helpful and encouraging to review it. He was dragging his leash but untied most of today without incident (I did have to recall him from where the poultry were playing a few times, but I’m encouraged.) -Caryn
Video with pigs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jx0dTYUO5E
Amazing what scientist will study. I would expect your pigs not to need this as they meet actual males.
EJ
Hello – for some reason, my email program says your email is not valid… trying to find out if you have any piglets left to sell. Thanks
froggemail@gmail.com
Dorenna
Hi Dorenna,
I’ve been having some bouncy email – I have notified my service provider. Thanks for letting me know.
On the piglets, we have reserves for all the piglets out through mid-July. If you send a $15 deposit along with a note letting me know which sex you want I will put you on the list. Further details are on our web site at:
http://SugarMtnFarm.comCheers,
-Walter
That is one scary-looking bird! She looks rather prehistoric! Not sure yet what I’ll do with this interesting bit of trivia, but I will store it in my brain and hope to retrieve it again some day when the conversation rolls around to geese or teeth!