Breeding Wild Water Fowl at Chincoteague, Virginia
Thomas J. Reed Has Interesting Wild Water Fowl Preserve. Started 10 Years Ago With Two Ducks. Has 1200 Wild Ducks And 300 Wild Geese.
"A man must like his business to make a success of it." Thomas J. Reed, of Chincoteague Island, is right, for he has demonstrated it in his fascinating business breeding wild water fowl. From his early childhood he has loved ducks and geese. If you are interested in attracting game to your vicinity here is the man who can furnish you with widgeon grass, eel grass, wampee or white waterlily. In his files are letters from every State in the Union, Germany, France, other European countries and Asia. Wild water fowl are shipped to Zoological gardens, game preserves and scientific institutions.
Let it be understood wild fowl is not raised for the table. They are too costly for that. It is easy enough to bring home wild birds, but they are usually dead. To raise wild fowl is another story. So successful has Reed been in his chosen vocation that he doubles his business every year. The fowl are hatched in incubators. As many as a thousand little ducks may be seen in one of his houses during the hatching season. On an average he raises all but five out of every hundred ducklings.
Ten years ago young Reed started his unusual business on a large scale. Two ducks constituted his original investment. With the help of nature and artificial heat he has gradually developed a big business. Last year he shipped not less than 1,400 wild ducks and geese and at the present time he has 1,200 wild ducks and 300 wild geese. By study and application he has learned to understand the peculiar traits and tricks of his feathered friends.
What impressed us most was the tameness of the quackers. We followed our guide to one of his ponds and observed with intense interest. What a sight! As soon as the birds saw their master they came flying and swimming from all directions. Bedlam reigned. We have seldom heard such confusion and tongues as we heard that afternoon, with the exception of a holy rollers camp meeting. The funny thing about it was that the smallest ducks made the greatest noise. Throwing handfuls of feed into the water; for all the feeding is done this way. Tom pointed out the different species. "The little ones there are the gray Holland call ducks. They were imported because of their loud call." We have a ministerial friend who candidated in Kentucky but failed to land the call. He received a letter shortly after saying: "If you had hollered louder, we would have called you." That beautiful glossy blue back bird is imported from India. How gracefully she floats on the water.
Mr. Reed is in a position to furnish wild Canada geese, brant, wild black mallard, wild gray mallard, black English call ducks, gray English call ducks and hopes to breed other varieties as time goes on. His license of a sort rarely issued by our government reads as follows: "To possess, buy, sell and transport migratory waterfowl and their eggs, legally acquired for propagating purposes, to kill migratory waterfowl bred in captivity, and to sell and transport the carcasses of the birds so killed for good purposes, subject to the conditions and restrictions of Regulation 8 of Migratory Bird Treaty Act Regulation." In issuing a license of this kind Uncle Sam recognizes the value of a reservation like the one Reed has established on Chincoteague Island.
To return to the feeding scene. We stood there and could not believe that these girls were wild. One of them, an old goose, ate corn out of our hand. While we were watching her as she licked grain after grain out of our palm, another goose came and picked on our gold ring. The longer we stayed the tamer they seemed to become. It was an amazing spectacle. Mr. Reed told us that a government inspector, who visited his reservation after seeing 27 other reservations, had stated that the fowl here raised are the tamest he had ever seen. This can only be explained by saying that Tom loves his ducks and geese with rare devotion. Seldom if ever he leaves the place for any length of time. A business like this requires constant attention.
In another article we shall tell of some of the traits of wild geese. For want of space in that article we will tell here of some incidents that have come to our attention and of some information furnished by Tom Reed. At one time he had a goose that was devoted to her gander. You see, the gander selects his life partner one year before the goose begins to lay eggs. The goose died and that gander literally mourned himself to death, for he would not eat. The goslings stay with the goose and gander that mothered and fathered them for three years. Then they are old enough to lay their own eggs and pick their mate.
How do geese know their own goslings among so many of other families? It may be that they smell them, but they do not make a mistake. When a gosling follows the wrong goose, the goose or the gander will soon let it be known that foster children are not desired in goose land. It is a funny sight when the goose family goes for a walk. Father gander heads the procession, the gosling follow and at the end of the train waggles Mrs. goose. Try to separate them!
When a dog enters the reservation the geese bunch up and fight the enemy with uncanny heroism, especially if the goslings are in danger. During the mating season a gander will fight a gander who tries to steal his mate until one of the two is dead.
Bird love is beautiful to behold. One of our friends had a badly crippled chicken. A pigeon on the place befriend the poor chicken and the two are inseparable. If anyone dared molest the chicken, that pigeon would attack the invader most fiercely. It was akin to the love a human has for a less fortunate fellow pilgrim on the journey of life.
Geese lay five to seven eggs in a season. But there is one goose on Reed's place that has a record of nineteen eggs in one season.
The eighty acres comprising the reservation of this lover of the wild contain three ponds of brackish water. None of the ponds go dry in the summer time. Thus the place is ideal for the raising of wild fowl. That the business is known throughout the Untied States is demonstrated by the fact that after a campaign of advertising there were 750 inquiries in one day.
We close this informal story of an enterprise that is full of human interest with a true story that illustrates our contention that geese are among the most intelligent of all of our feathered friends. "A goose was once observed to attach itself in the strongest and most affectionate manner to the house dog, but never presumed to go into the kennel except in rainy weather; whenever the dog barked, the goose would cackle, and run at the person she supposed the dog barked at, and try to bite him by the heels. Sometimes she would attempt to feed with the dog; but this the dog, who treated his faithful companion with indifference, would not suffer. This bird would not go to roost with the others at night, unless driven by main force; and when in the morning they were turned into the field, she would never stir from the yard gate, but sit there the whole day in sight of the dog. At length orders were given that she should no longer be molested. Being thus left to herself, she ran about the yard with him all night, and what is particularly remarkable, whenever the dog went out of the yard and ran into the village the goose always accompanied him, striving to keep up with him by the assistance of her wings, and in this way running and flying, followed him all over the parish. This extraordinary affection of the goose towards the dog, which continued till his death, two years after it was first observed, is supposed to have originated in his having saved her from a fox, in the very moment of distress. While the dog was ill, the goose never quitted him, day or night, not even to feed; and it was apprehended that she would have been starved to death had not a pan of corn been set every day close to the kennel. At this time the goose generally sat in the kennel, and would not suffer any one to approach it except the person who brought the dog's or her own food. The end of this faithful bird was melancholy; for when the dog died, she would keep possession of the kennel, and a new house-dog being introduced, which in size and color resembled that lately lost, the poor goose was unhappily deceived, and going into the kennel as usual, the new inhabitant seized her by the throat and killed her." We shall have more to say about wild geese in another story.