"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

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I have a question about how you keep them. Do they have just a fenced in area?? What kinda of housing do they need?? I know they don't roost like a chicken so what do you use? A building of some sort?? Sorry for so many questions!!

It really depends on your predator risk. If you have coyotes, fox, or raccoons that regularly travel across your yard you will definitely need to pen them up at night. Where I live right now, I have a very low predator risk and have kept them just in my back yard with a four foot high fence. My oldest ones are three years old and I've never lost a one. On the ocassions that my dogs got out and killed some of my chickens for whatever reason they never bothered my geese. It could be that my geese trained the dogs ahead of time to be fearful of them. My geese regularly stick their heads into the dog kennel and pinch my dogs to keep them in line. If you've even been pinched by geese you understand why the dogs don't mess with them. If you've never been pinched by a goose, let me just say that they can put a bruise on you the size of a baseball. Ask my husband how I know.

When I move them onto our property that is heavily wooded they will definitely have some very strong, secure pens for nighttime.

OUCH!! Sounds like that really hurts!! Thanks for the info. Will they put themselves to bed at night do you think?? And one more question can you mix your Sebbies & Scovies together or do they need to be seperated?? Thanks!!

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Wow,. that's really nice,....they will be some,.... Lucky Ducks!

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first eggs are the best!!

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OMG this is so true!! It's amazing what a feral dog can do to a deer!!

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VERY nice!! I know they will enjoy that when your done!!

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Ms. Yvette!! How are you feeling????????? I hope well!!

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It really depends on your predator risk. If you have coyotes, fox, or raccoons that regularly travel across your yard you will definitely need to pen them up at night. Where I live right now, I have a very low predator risk and have kept them just in my back yard with a four foot high fence. My oldest ones are three years old and I've never lost a one. On the ocassions that my dogs got out and killed some of my chickens for whatever reason they never bothered my geese. It could be that my geese trained the dogs ahead of time to be fearful of them. My geese regularly stick their heads into the dog kennel and pinch my dogs to keep them in line. If you've even been pinched by geese you understand why the dogs don't mess with them. If you've never been pinched by a goose, let me just say that they can put a bruise on you the size of a baseball. Ask my husband how I know.

When I move them onto our property that is heavily wooded they will definitely have some very strong, secure pens for nighttime.

OUCH!! Sounds like that really hurts!! Thanks for the info. Will they put themselves to bed at night do you think?? And one more question can you mix your Sebbies & Scovies together or do they need to be seperated?? Thanks!!

I've run out of answers.

I have a small building that we built specifically for the geese but they've never used it for shelter. I had planned that they'd lay their eggs in it but instead they built their own nests on the ground. So, to work around them, I picked up their nests and placed them in dog houses or dog crates to give them shelter. That worked out great! The geese won't even go into the building during bad weather -- go figure. I use the building to keep their food dry. They have food available 24/7. During laying season I feed layer pellets and the rest of the time I feed flockraiser. They don't eat too much feed because they'd rather be out grazing on grass. They do use their building for eating inside.

When I build shelter for them at our property, I'm going to build open pens with a roof to close them up a night, and/or when I plan to be away to keep them safe. I will probably have a small portion closed off to keep their food dry, and a section with laying boxes built on the ground. I will likely keep them penned up during laying season to keep my mating pairs/trios together.

As for them tucking themselves in at night, maybe Gracie can share her experience. For me, I think it depends on what you train them to do. I have a smaller fenced in area that I sometimes will heard them into. Some of my geese will just follow me in, others have to hearded in. I don't know if they would go in at night on their own like chickens do.

As for mixing the Sebbies & Scovies, I don't know the answer but I'm wondering the same thing. My Scovies are not quite big enough to be let loose but, when they are a little bigger I plan to mix them with the Sebbies to see what happens. I'll have to be careful and watch to see what happens because my geese used to harrass my chickens. I hope they can live together.

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That's so cool! Congratulations!

I can still remember our first egg,..you would have thought it was made of gold the way we acted,...