Newbie in many ways!

[Numero182]

Hello one and all!

New to this forum but not to all forums, they are an invaluable source of info from like minded people.

Forgive me for the lengthy post, have searched the enormous backlog here but couldn't find what i was looking for.

So, my wife and I have just sold our house in the UK and moved to Tuscany in Italy, we've bought a small/old olive farm on a hillside where all the land is terraced.

Our grand plan is to become as self sufficient as possible hoping that our holiday rental apartments combined with self sufficiency will give us the new life we've dreamed of.

We've only been here three months and are still busy clearing brambles and land but have the terraces with the olive trees immediately behind the house in good order now.

We had an unfortunate incident last week which hs sparked our sooner than planned interest in geese, when we came home we found someone had tried to climb into the house with a ladder, they never managed it and only damaged the fly screen but you can imagine how that made us feel.

So after talking with friends who keep chickens they have suggested geese can be good burglar deterants so wanted to find out if this is a good solution.

A lot of folk around here keep farm dogs, stuck in kennels or chained up but we firstly wouldn't be happy treating a dog this was and also don't think our cats would appreciate the new guest.

So current thinking is that a pair of geese, if suitable as a deterant could be fenced in on the olive terraces saving us a lot of strimming throughout the year AND give us fresh eggs.

We're expecting to need electric fencing at least as we have foxes, badgers, large buzzards and snakes on the 12 acres of land (most of it woodland) but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Miss Lydia]

So we'd planned to house them at night for sure so sounds like that's definitely a good idea from a sleep disruption point of view, we definitely need to fence them in and where the guests are they won't really be able to see them so that should be fine, means the only deterrent to would be theives will be their noise noise though as charging will only get them as far as the fence, so how closely we allow them to get to our side of the house is the next consideration, depends i guess on how theynare around us and the cats, otherwise we can run the fence a metre from the house (good punn by the way)

If you get goslings and raise them they will be friendly towards you and family till mating season then the ganders can be ornery but it's a natural thing and most of us who love our geese put up with it . We also have a thread on geese training because they can bite and it does hurt. lol so we discourage hand feeding for that reason. I have an Embden gander and he can be loud but only when the dogs bark usually. He is considered the large breed of geese so you might want to consider this breed is you have a hard time locating Chinese. It's amazing how many folks are afraid of geese so actually it might not matter what breed just seeing them may deter anyone from trying anything. lol My geese try to bully our dogs so we don't let them be together unless we are with them all. Dogs can and will mame and kill geese[water fowl]. Have a sign made saying Geese patrolling the area. Kind of like saying Bad Dog. lol

you might enjoy this thread.. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/618185/raising-geese-101

 

[jtn42248]

Swans!? Pea fowl?! Whoa steady on! you both make it sound like so much fun!! We're really enjoying having the geese here although they're hardly filling their roll as guard dogs. Will try a lettuce, could be a good way of getting into the routine of going in at night, after putting the sawdust in last night (which works great by the way) they were incredibly suspicious and would NOT go in, took us ages to round them up. :-D

You will find that geese are VERY suspicious of even the least little change in their environment. Just the act of changing the bedding (I use straw) in my goose house causes them to hesitate and hiss when I put them in at night. After the first night though it is right back to their normal routine. That is part of what will make them good guards. They are more of an alarm system then a guard because they will honk at anything out of the routine. Mine honk at strange birds flying over which is good because sometimes those birds have turned out to be hawks headed for my chickens and because of the geese I am able to drive them away. So remember, the goose alarm system only works if you respond to it even if just to look out a window to see what they are honking about.

 

[jtn42248]

Dogs can and will mame and kill geese[water fowl]. Have a sign made saying Geese patrolling the area. Kind of like saying Bad Dog. lol

I have a cousin who is Mr. Macho, hunter, a mans-man. There is very little that he will not stand up to and even less that frightens him. Seems though, that when he was a kid, there was a gander that lay in wait for him every day when he got home from school. The bus would drop him at his front gate and, no matter how quiet he tried to be, the gander would come charging and would usually get him before he got inside the house. He spent a large part of his youth with goose-bill-bruises on his arms and that part of the anatomy that we sit on.

So, when he comes to visit us he will do anything around the farm to help out but he will not go near my geese...and they are the sweetest things you can imagine.

So, Miss Lydia is right on when she says they make great watchers and property guardians. They really have to do very little...the fear is in the person usually.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Does seem expensive doesn't it! Hadn't considered a drive to France although i suspect people on ebay are trying their luck with foreigners who find it hard to find real priced fowl, I've been given a lead for some here only about 30km away so will investigate that next once I've got the place sorted. After more discussion we think the geese need to be in a spot where they will be permanently fenced in so rearing goslings to be tame pets isn't a worry, we need them to be instant guard dogs on arrival so we can just go and buy two or three juveniles/adults ready to honk! Sound sensible? Our land plot is steep and terraced so it's taken a lot of thinking through and making sure they don't see our holidaying guest often enough to torment them is a big concern, which in the site we're consiering now means they will only do so as they leave the house and return.

Even juvies or adults can be half way tame you want to be able to go into their property to feed and water and clean up so that can be accomplished by spending time with them making sure to never let them intimidate you.They will see you as their care takers others will be trespassers. Let us know how it goes with the lead.

 

[jtn42248]

We went out all afternoon and when we came back they were still on the same terrace but breathing was normal now at least, took my wife and me 15 minutes with a rake to coax them into the house we made, i ended up picking up the female when i caught her and putting her in, she just went straight to the hay and sat down and started calling her man, he called back but took another five minutes to go in, he stood at the door hissing at the house slowly edging his was in, each time we tried to coax him he made to run away so we had to just watch him slowly slowly edge in but success in the end and safe for their first night here!.

Been there, done that. I had to carry my three into their house each night for three days and on the first day had to chase them all over an acre field trying to catch them. But now they go in at night with no problem and they follow me around like puppies. They actually learn faster than dogs and are a lot more intelligent then given credit for.

 

[jtn42248]

My three had to be chased down and physically put back into their pen in the evenings and when I took them out to range. But, like Miss Lydia said, once I figured out that I could just calmly and slowly walk along behind them guiding them with my stick and softly talk to them telling them what I wanted them to do and where I wanted them to go they began to do just that. I don't know (don't think) that they understand a word I say but they appreciate the calm guidance and respond to that.

As for sand...I have heard good things and success stories about sand with chickens but not much about sand with waterfowl. Ducks and geese are just not really careful with their water and you could end up with a wet sand pit. Shavings are a lot more absorbent and they can nudge it around to make little nest to cuddle down into.

 

[LRH97]

I haven't had much experience with geese. My grandpa had a pair years ago. I have heard that they do make good burglar deterrents as well. Another idea would be Guinea fowl, also known as "feathered security alarms." Any foxes, birds of prey, or unfamiliar people will be announced with their loud calls if the birds notice them. They can be free ranged or penned with chickens and are very hardy. Maybe not the best if you live close to others though. Just an idea that I thought I should throw out there. Good luck with your new home and any future birds you may have!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I read once about a prison that had Chinese geese inside the prison yards at night to keep the prisoners from escaping.

Welcome to BYC, your place sounds amazing.

 

[livininbrazil]

Hello one and all!

New to this forum but not to all forums, they are an invaluable source of info from like minded people.

Forgive me for the lengthy post, have searched the enormous backlog here but couldn't find what i was looking for.

So, my wife and I have just sold our house in the UK and moved to Tuscany in Italy, we've bought a small/old olive farm on a hillside where all the land is terraced.

Our grand plan is to become as self sufficient as possible hoping that our holiday rental apartments combined with self sufficiency will give us the new life we've dreamed of.

We've only been here three months and are still busy clearing brambles and land but have the terraces with the olive trees immediately behind the house in good order now.

We had an unfortunate incident last week which hs sparked our sooner than planned interest in geese, when we came home we found someone had tried to climb into the house with a ladder, they never managed it and only damaged the fly screen but you can imagine how that made us feel.

So after talking with friends who keep chickens they have suggested geese can be good burglar deterants so wanted to find out if this is a good solution.

A lot of folk around here keep farm dogs, stuck in kennels or chained up but we firstly wouldn't be happy treating a dog this was and also don't think our cats would appreciate the new guest.

So current thinking is that a pair of geese, if suitable as a deterant could be fenced in on the olive terraces saving us a lot of strimming throughout the year AND give us fresh eggs.

We're expecting to need electric fencing at least as we have foxes, badgers, large buzzards and snakes on the 12 acres of land (most of it woodland) but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hi. we moved from england to Brazil, and are really enjoying ourselves. So, hope you do, too.
As regards the geese: here, people are more worried about geese than they are dogs. Dogs can be poisoned. difficult to do with geese. The most feared are the Asiatics, so either Chinese (here called sinaleiros, I´m sure you know what that´s about) and the others that are liked are the Africans, althoyugh to be honest I think the Africans here are crossed with Chinese mostly. Whatever, they make a lot of noise and casual thieves think twice. Also, Chinese are good layers. My geese lay about 6 and go broody, so we get very few eggs!
You may want more than one pair, though.
Electric fencing should work well. Buzzards are most likely to be a threat to goslings, the snakes would be adders? Well, that´s an unavoidable risk. The biggest threats would be foxes and the locals´ dogs.
One thing to bear in mind is that geese do far better on short grass. A number of people keep geese and sheep together, but then that just adds to the livestock....
Also, when we go out, we often put the dogs away and leave the geese out.
Hope this helps....