Guard Geese

[Goosebaby]

For anyone considering buying “Guard” geese to protect your flock, watch this first and then reconsider.

Not my video, just found it on YouTube.

Also TRIGGER WARNING the video involves the death of numerous chickens.

The lesson. Geese will not and can not defend your flock.

More info here https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-goose-and-why-you-should-not-get-one.77508/

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

For anyone considering buying “Guard” geese to protect your flock, watch this first and then reconsider.

Not my video, just found it on YouTube.

Also TRIGGER WARNING the video involves the death of numerous chickens.

The lesson. Geese will not and can not defend your flock.

More info here https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-goose-and-why-you-should-not-get-one.77508/

Thank you for posting this for all the people thinking of ever doing this.
I have always tried to keep them away from the chickens and they will do this to the ducks too.
My geese will rip a chickens feathers out whenever it can catch one, and they are considered the "nice" geese breed. American Buffs.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Timely post.

It's that time of year...with goslings hatching soon, I'll be fielding questions from people wanting one "guard" gosling (they won't get a single from me). I do try to educate, but often find the inquirers to be quite defensive. Doesn't stop me, though.

 

[Goosebaby]

Timely post.

It's that time of year...with goslings hatching soon, I'll be fielding questions from people wanting one "guard" gosling (they won't get a single from me). I do try to educate, but often find the inquirers to be quite defensive. Doesn't stop me, though.

I just love the ones who are experts in something they’ve never done before and of course know far more than the people who actually do it.

 

[telandra2]

Poor geese keep trying to flee through the automatic door.

 

[Goosebaby]

Poor geese keep trying to flee through the automatic door.

Yeah the poor things are helpless and terrified.

 

[JRies]

I had to turn the volume off my poor puppy 55 pound started running into walls wining, He is just learning how to be a LGD for my birds and has been working with the hatchling. My older geese go on high fear alert when he is in the yard. He is doing well with the ducks. But geese are only alarm systems and just a note you dont here much from them in that video just feer ant trying to look big.
Thank you Goosebaby.

 

[The Dim Side]

This was something we learned along the way with getting chickens. We watched videos of other farmers doing the solo guard goose, and we tried it initially when we got chicks, (the one in my avatar picture, Lemongrab), not understanding the flock mentality. But even as a 3-week-old gosling, he hated the chicks, lol. And he was super lonely, so we got him a goose friend after a couple weeks because it broke my heart how lonely he was whenever I wasn't with him. I tried to be there as much as I could, but then I'd go to bed in another room. I'd wait till he fell asleep first, but when he woke up alone, he'd cry endlessly.

I have four geese now, and while they're good alert systems (mostly just the one female will do a low, hesitant honk that sounds like a gasp when she sees danger in the distance, it's not loud yelling, so I have to be vigilant about them), we don't use them as guards. They're more pets, and I'm overly protective of them, haha. When I found a mink in the barn (or maybe a weasel?), we started locking the chickens in the coop again (they have a mobile coop that's inside the barn right now), but the geese didn't have a secure coop like that. So I moved them back to the mudroom where our ducks live, lol.

I didn't watch the full video, just a couple parts of it excluding where the chickens die. Would make me too sad. =(

 

[AGeese]

Yeah I've seen this one. It's a shame, but read through the comments before you judge. The geese can't see what's going on for one, the only reason we can see is because it's a trailcam with IR/LED. They didn't have lights or motion lights in the coop for that matter so as not to disturb the flock. That's why the geese look bewildered.

Now my neighbors geese are in a barn with their chickens free to come and go and there is some night light, but not a lot. Whether they will actively protect the chickens is one thing, but they don't tolerate anything in the way of foreigners in their space which is the whole barn.

In my situation, I do not keep them penned together because my gander is territorial with everything. He will not even put up with me in his pen. Any thing that walks, runs, and drives by the house he either knows about and is heading in that direction or he's already on it.

 

[Berd Man]

That’s a tough video to watch, poor chickens. I think that the issue in a way lies with terms like “guard goose”. People see that terminology and think that this is akin to a livestock guardian dog, llama, or something along those lines. The idea should not be for you to lock geese up and hope that they become instant bouncers for your chicken coop at night.

I keep geese in a rotating pasture system with 25-35 chickens and I did have predation from feral cats, hawks, ravens, buzzards, and lost several birds. I decided to add a trio of geese and since they have roamed with the chickens there has not been an issue with predation. I do not think that the geese have had to physically battle anything, but I do see the same flying predators and they are watched closely by my geese when they fly over. They have been deterred at least enough to stop landing at this point.

A goose is still a bird that can be eaten by a vast array of animals. They’re never going to be coop muscle, but they’ll raise a loud alarm and get you involved earlier than if you hadn’t had them around. I like that they let me know when people are walking near my property too. There’s not a lot of liability concern for geese like if I had a few dogs running loose near where strangers are walking. Most people are greeted by loud aggressive honking and move quickly away from my property line.