Raising Geese 101

[Lupa Duende]

Thank you for posting this thread.
I would love to adopt geese and your thread has helped me narrow down my breed preferences. I am looking for cold hardy, strong foragers, and docile critters to coexist peaceably with my menagerie of wandering chickens, goats, dogs, ducks, children, guinea fowl, and husband here in Quebec. It is wooded swamplands with four acres fenced in for the wee ones to wander. Do you have any suggestions if I get to choose a breed? Usually my animals find me....
Thank you in advance!

 

[razvanM]

Well I have a question about geese,do you think a dewlap toulouse or embden male(any heavy goose breed,I just gived this example) would be able to mate with a light goose female like a cotton patch or a normandy goose without causing too much damage on her and result some really nice crosses.What do you think is this posibile ?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

I dont recommend crossing of the breeds, just to cross them. Dewlaps need all the pure blood they can get, so crossing them serves no purpose unless you plan to butcher all the offspring. if thats the case go with a cheaper version and get production toulouse. Nice size, good table bird. If you want to stay purebred and butcher oregon Blues raises Grey SB Pomeranian geese and says they have excellent table size.

 

[Kevin565]

Thank you for posting this thread.
I would love to adopt geese and your thread has helped me narrow down my breed preferences. I am looking for cold hardy, strong foragers, and docile critters to coexist peaceably with my menagerie of wandering chickens, goats, dogs, ducks, children, guinea fowl, and husband here in Quebec. It is wooded swamplands with four acres fenced in for the wee ones to wander. Do you have any suggestions if I get to choose a breed? Usually my animals find me....
Thank you in advance!

I do apologize for the late reply.

For your situation I would suggest looking into Cotton Patch Geese or Shetlands. They have been known for excellent foraging and calmer personalities than some other breeds. However, just like any breed come spring time they might become aggressive.

Well I have a question about geese,do you think a dewlap toulouse or embden male(any heavy goose breed,I just gived this example) would be able to mate with a light goose female like a cotton patch or a normandy goose without causing too much damage on her and result some really nice crosses.What do you think is this posibile ?

I do agree with Celtic on this one. However, if I were to do the cross I would probably do it vice versa. You wouldn't want the offspring to grow too large in the egg of a smaller breed.

 

[razvanM]

Thank you guys.I have no intention to raise purepreeds just for shows and exhibtion.I want large table birds.And I acctualy found the right birds and I will take a few gosling next spring.It is an embden x toulouse cross but there may be other breeds crossed in too.They look exactly like toulouse geese except they are white and have no dewlao,but they have thet large,low,round keel that the toulouse has.So those would be perfect for me they also lay large eggs.They are sold in my region as commercial crosses like BBW turkeys or jumbo Pekin ducks.I know they grow fast,they lay a lot of eggs,they are very large but my question is do you think they will go broody ?cuz ussualy commercial birds have lost the incubating instinct.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Given you don't know the true background cross, it is hard to say if they will or won't.

 

[jbirds2012]

Embden Geese are a heavy goose breed often raised for meat. They have been used as "watch dogs". This breed is also raised for it's down.

thanks for posting this thread, we like this one, we were thinking about getting some (some day) DH thinks it would look nice on a platter with steam coming off of it and i like the down idea.

 

[Kevin565]

thanks for posting this thread, we like this one, we were thinking about getting some (some day) DH thinks it would look nice on a platter with steam coming off of it and i like the down idea.

Thanks Jbirds! I think Embdens would be a great choice for your situation!

 

[lovinchickypoos]

Does anyone have info on buying adult or adolescent geese? I do not have any but I am starting to consider geese as people on BYC have changed my mind about them! I found a craigslist ad for African Dewlap birds who are 5-7 months old and I wondered if, since they imprint on their humans, they rehome well. As far as my situation, I have 2.33acres that consists of a large backyard with various grasses and a field which is currently in weed grass, rye that develops large heads, and a variety of weeds. I have 18 chickens, which could may go up due to chicken math

. They range a lot but not always. I like to learn as much as possible before obtaining any animals. Plus, I'll have to convince DH that they serve a purpose and won't cost a ton of money!!!
Any input is appreciated!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Geese eat a diet that is 90% grazing grass, 10% commercial feed (higher for those where it snows)

Not all breeds are created equal. Some are very loud, more aggressive ect. Some are calmer and friendlier and somewhat quieter.

I would suggest reading up on breeds and finding out about them before jumping into geese.

We have Sebastopols, Dewlap Toulouse, Production Toulouse, and American. We had Africans and sold the 4 recently to a new home where they will be the only geese.

I will allow our youngest son to help with all of the geese, except the Africans when we had them. They were very in your face, loud and unafraid, They would mock charge and sometimes their charges would be too close. All of our other breeds do very well around him (20 months old).