A few questions about geese.

[Harley's girl]

I was wondering just a few things. I have never had geese before this past autumn so....
1st thing do I need to put them in the coop? Every night is a huge fight with me yelling go to bed and them honking (what I can only assume is goose obscenities!) finally after about 15 mins of this back and forth squabbling they go into the coop. I know that we have coons, opossums, and skunks. Will they be ok to be left out? Or must I continue to go through this? Oh yeah they are full grown (2 years old) they are the Embden. Ok and my other question is.....Will they scare off hawks? I have more than anyone ever ought to have. They are constantly flying over and making my chickens scream! Will the hawks stay back because of the geese? Thanks so much! And sorry for such a long post.

I had planned on asking these questions about 6 months ago. I have finally had enough fighting with them and had to ask!

 

[farmertank]

Geese hate to be shut in. I have Ebmdens and I have a fenced in area with a three sided little building for them and some low branched trees. At night I feed them in the fenced in area(I don't feed them during the day) and when they go in I just shut the gate. The small predators you mentioned will more than likely not harm a goose(not saying that can't) but if you have Bobcats, Coyote, The bigger predators they will kill a goose. shutting all the geese in a smaller fenced in area keeps one from wondering off or a predator from seperating them. This tends make predators a little more leery with so many geese in one spot. Both of the times a Bobcat killed one of my geese, the goose was way away from the rest of my flock.

They do scare off hawks, I still have had a few attacks, but not like before my geese. If your littler poultry is to far away from your geese(this happens sometimes during free range) a hawk may brave it. But, it your goose is near and spots the hawk they tend to fly over like they didn't even know the chickens were their lol. I beleive that the more geese you have the less hawk attackes you'll have. I have heard that turkeys also detter them, it's just a size a hawk doesn't want to mess with.

I hope this helps you, I would love to see pics of your geese.

Julie

 

[Harley's girl]

Thanks so much! I do have coyotes but they have never gotten too close to the house.
Here are my girls. They have just started laying, I am really excited! 1 egg makes us breakfast!

 

[farmertank]

Oh nice looking Embdens. I love goose egg, they make great omlets.

Here is a pic of my three boys 2 summers ago. They decided to raise 2 pekin,1 mallard, and 1 rouen ducks. They made good Daddy/moms lol

 

[farmerlor]

Aw, isn't that cute???

 

[Harley's girl]

OMGoodness! That is darling!

It really makes me wish I had a gander!

 

[Harley's girl]

When they go broody could I stick some chicken eggs under them or would they not go for that? I had thought of sticking duck eggs. But I am wondering would they take to chicks? Would they be too small for them?

 

[farmertank]

This is just proof that in some species, The male actually does something

 

[Harley's girl]

Quote:
LOL

Like the papa sea-horse! They actually do raise the babies!!! I have heard (though none of mine did) that Silkie roosters will steal the clutch from the hen!

Can you imagine?

 

[farmertank]

You could try, I have put banty chick eggs under a muscovy duck once and she hatched them out. I would think that size would be comparable to a goose hatching a standard size chicken egg. I would slip them in at night in the dark. This way she won't bother to move and may except them by morning.

I would be interested in knowing how this goes if you do try it.

Julie