Should geese be kept for their eggs and company rather than their meat this Christmas? We speak to Louise Rennie, from Edenwater Eggs in Kelso, who is firmly in praise of her white-feathered friends...

Geese don't exactly have the best reputation in the world of birds. Maybe that's why, historically, they're been more common as a fixture on our dinner tables than in our back yard. But if the 12 days of Christmas song is anything to go by, a goose was once seen as a legitimate gift idea, albeit a grumpy, honking, hissing one.

Or at least that's the reputation these white birds hold. In reality, however, a goose is like any other creature in so far as if its basic comforts are supplied then it's a perfectly loveable pet -or so says goose owner Louise Rennie, anyway.

Rennie runs Edenwater Eggs - a small business providing a veritable selection box of eggs from the hens, ducks, geese, quails, and bantams that roam Syndenham Farm where she, her brother Robert and dad Andrew live and work. Operating from Kelso, the farm's birds are all truly free-range in as much as there are no fences surrounding the land's perimeters, meaning they can roam the entire plot from 7am, when the poultry are let out, to sundown when they go into their henhouses to roost.

Technically speaking, the 12 days of Christmas song is slightly erroneous on the sixth day - geese only lay eggs from when the days begin to get longer to mid-summer, so anyone receiving a gaggle for the festive season would have had a bit of a wait until the warmer months upon which eggs would materialise.

But Rennie believes that the value of geese extends past their meat.

Indeed, her gaggle came to her as young adults from another Scottish farm where they were being raised for Christmas. Once purchased, however, it became clear that although the geese's laying season is relatively short, their behaviour all year round merits their long-term place in the farm family.

"I originally bought the geese without Dad knowing as I knew he wasn't keen to have them as they do have a reputation for being bad tempered," Rennie explains.

"The only goose that has a name is the gander Brian - I've no idea where that name came from though! He is my favourite due to his big personality."

Syndenham Farm's geese start their day at 7am, when Rennie will let them out of their houses. She will collect the duck eggs while the ducks and geese go to the pond together for their morning wash, after which the two broods will return to the henhouses to feed. Later, the ducks will return to the pond to spend the day on the water, but the geese, after their feathers have been cleaned and preened, will eschew the water to graze around the pond and in neighbouring fields.

After lunch Rennie returns to the birds to collect the second batch of eggs and feed them again. Like other pets, providing geese are well- fed, can clean themselves, have company and lots of space they will behave themselves, even if their reputation

"My geese are all even tempered and will only hiss at something or someone who they don't like. They get on well with all the other poultry and share a house with the ducks, proving they're relatively sociable. They do need a lot of space to roam and graze all day to keep them happy, but I think they make great pets as they do become friendly with whoever feeds them."

"Additionally they make good guards for around the farm as they will "honk" if they see something they don't. They are good with dogs they know but can tell one dog from another even if they are the same breed. The geese will let me know if there's a strange dog about.

"Geese shouldn't just be kept for meat, because their eggs are delicious and versatile. They are great company if you treat them kindly and will keep a patch of grass evenly grazed for you."

When in season, Rennie's geese eggs retail for £1 each. And in-keeping with their idiosyncratic behaviour, laying patterns can be a little more lax than by-the-book hens - instead of an egg a day, each goose will lay between 35 and 40 between March and June. But who buys them, and what do they use them for?

"People buy goose eggs for baking with or for frying or scrambling, mainly. Most of my customers like them fried with bacon for a really big Sunday breakfast."

 "I actually have a little customer who comes to The Egg Shack, which is a little shed on the farm that has an honesty box policy, to buy a dinosaur egg.

"He eats a whole one to himself despite only being four years old as he firmly believes an egg that big could only come from a dinosaur."

"Unfortunately Christmas day is just another day for the geese which means I'll have to work my present-opening dinner around them.

"Saying that, they'll enjoy not being eaten, so maybe Christmas day will be special for them after all!"

Edenwater Eggs operates from Syndenham Farm in Kelso and seasonal goose eggs are available on-site and from selected farm shops in the area. For more information visit www.edenwatereggs.co.uk