American

I originally got a young adult trio of buff Americans and the gander was extremely sweet and friendly. The hens were friendly but standoffish, they would come up and chat but kept their distance. Unfortunately, he died to a fox. He was the sole casualty so I like to think he died protecting his birds. Unfortunately, the replacement gander wasn’t so nice. At first he was shy but when breeding season came around he decided he loved my dad and hated everyone else. He would follow Dad around singing songs to him and accepting hugs. He tried to bite and beat everyone with his wings and constantly attacked everyone on the farm. Including the visitors. Also the hens sat on eggs but only one incubated successfully. They were very protective of their baby and Charlie momentarily wouldn’t attack you at random with the new purpose of watching over his child. (I’m sure he would if you got close but that’s on you then.)
Unfortunately we sold that baby and he returned to his evil ways. When breeding season ended he was slightly less mean but still very mean.

We love our American Buffs! We have two ganders and one goose who will be one year old in March. They were all raised together and get along very well with each other. They are curious, friendly, and have very distinctive personalities! They like to talk to with us and run to greet us when we arrive home. Their size makes them an excellent deterrent to many predators. They are a very bossy and can be jerks to the ducks at times, but have never been overly aggressive. They are fine with visitors if we are home and tell them to behave themselves (most of the time!). We've have multiple families at our place for apple-picking and they were very well-behaved with all the children. We are looking forward to expanding our flock of this sweet breed!

They are just right for a roasting bird. I like mine a pets though. The blues are my favorite color.

These are my favorite breed. They only get noisy when there are strangers around. They will warn the flock to take cover if a danger is present.

I got a breeding pair last Spring. The male was more interested in staying with the flock of ducks. The female often wandered around alone. She ended up getting taken by a coyote at about 3 months, sadly. The male is not AT ALL aggressive. He is quite timid. He honks rather infrequently, but when he does, it is pretty loud. Not very bright. They are a smaller goose, just the right size for a small family. Probably a good meat goose. Maybe not the best for defense. Probably a decent pet if handled frequently. Very pretty, one of the best looking domestic geese, IMO. I plan on getting one or two females this spring to breed them, along with some Embden and a couple Africans. Anyone know of any breeders in New England? PM me. I'd be grateful.

I've had a number of different types of geese over the years, some were very aggressive and some not like the Buff. The aggressiveness towards me doesn't worry me, since I know how to handle them. It's the aggression towards other people and the other critters in the barnyard that concerns me. So, this is biggest reason I've settled on the Buff or Buff mix. They are aggressive enough to deal with eggs snatcher, bully turkeys and dogs. But, on the other hand, they are calm when interacting with the other critters in the yard. They are good layers and good mothers and the Gander is very active in protecting the young. The bird is a medium sized and great for smaller family without overwhelming the frig with leftovers. The best time to butch is as they are coming off the green grass of summer or early fall. The only time I've notice a great deal of noise from these geese is during the spring mating time, it seems to be a group affair where one is mounting, one is being mounted and the rest will circle around and cheer! The Buffs, like all water fowl, love the water for bathing, however a fresh snow fall of an inch or two will work too. The Buffs do very well in this northern Minnesota cold. They have access to a coop, but most often they are outside in the snow. To date I've not had any of these geese perish to cold weather and we get down to -40° plus wind, nor have they experienced any frost bite of the feet.

Now, let me address the Con! Geese eat a lot of greenery, including flowers and small shrubs. If they don't eat the plant, they will damage the plant by tasting it. This tasting is their only way to find out if something is edible for them. But, in doing so, the plant is damage, pulled out of the ground and/or left in very poor shape. So, if you are free ranging the geese ,of any variety, make sure they don't have access to your gardens!

So, if you looking for a medium sized goose that is calm and for the most part quiet, the Buff is your bird!

We have 4 american buff geese, and we loved them as babies so much, and we played with them and then they hit the teen years and wanted nothing to do with us, then they got to be adults and the males chase my grandmother or any girl they see and attack them not like oh hey its a female but as in i want to rip your eyes out and eat them for dinner, they also attack my muscovies and males are just awful, they are just mean, but i can't help but love them since we had them as babies but they are extremely aggressive and intolerable. But they make great guard geese.

My pair of American Buffs are great. They are characters. I did not try to imprint them because I wanted them to have a fear of people. They did not follow me when they were goslings, but now they want me out with them all of the time. With a large pasture they have all the grass they could want and yet they still want me around. If we let them out of the pasture into our yard they want to hang out at our back door waiting for me to come out. They want to join me in the garden or just follow me around and check out what I am doing.
The gander is protective of his mate. When someone first walks up to them he will stand between the person and his goose. The two of them will his at children if they are not with an adult. My youngest child is 6, she is smaller for her age, all she has to do is spread her arms and walk towards them and they retreat immediately. They are geese so supervision with children is a must, and they make more noisy than some other livestock. My geese are not as loud as a lot of other geese I have seen.
They are a great farm goose. American buffs are medium size making a nice sized roaster. Since they are medium in size they don't eat as much supplemental feed as a large goose. Their color doesn't look dirty like a white goose.

Great geese to have for a backyard flock. I've had them for about 10 years and have enjoyed them. They are a larger breed and therefore create a larger mess. However, they are generally docile (except for early spring) and make great mothers.

I had a pair of American Buffs I bought as a sexed pair of day-olds and had them shipped to me. They were very nice as goslings but that quickly changed. They ended up being very noisy and the hatchery had labeled them as calm, quieter, and friendly. I had the exact opposite. I don't ever plan on having this breed again.

These are a great breed of geese. My pair of American Blues are split to lavender so I get both blue and lavender babies. Gander is kind of snippy if you get too close to his mate. Other than that, they are a got to have breed.