American(Buff, Blue, Lavander,etc.)goose thread! Post pics!

[donkeydew2farms]

I have a worming question has any body used flubenvet 1% on their geese. are worms visible to the naked eye in there manure . my female blue looks to me like she lost some weight now granted she is in full bloom molt but I don't want to take any chances after losing my other goose. I can't rule out that worms what caused her death. the stress of laying and being that she was still young. you don't know how bad I felt. so to cover all bases I want to worm them. putting it in there water would be the easiest. Has any body ever used Hey Gates layer pellets with flubenvet in it. thanks.

 

[ChristineR]

I have a worming question has any body used flubenvet 1% on their geese. are worms visible to the naked eye in there manure . my female blue looks to me like she lost some weight now granted she is in full bloom molt but I don't want to take any chances after losing my other goose. I can't rule out that worms what caused her death. the stress of laying and being that she was still young. you don't know how bad I felt. so to cover all bases I want to worm them. putting it in there water would be the easiest. Has any body ever used Hey Gates layer pellets with flubenvet in it. thanks.

No, but I recently asked Holderread what they use, because I suspect my waterfowl may need to be dewormed. Here's what they do:

We do not routinely deworm our waterfowl, but if necessary, we recommend using an oral dose of 1% injectable Ivermectin for Cattle & Swine (NOT Ivermectin + clorsulon) at the following rate: 1/10 cc per 4 pounds of bird.

 

[donkeydew2farms]

thanks christineR I might take some stool and have the Vet ck it. I am a person that if they don't have worms I don't want to give them unnecessary medication. but if I have to I will check that out. thanks.

 

[Monstro]

Thinking about getting buffs. How many work well together? Male/female? And should they be ok houses with ducks? Thanks

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Hi Monstro!!

You've pick a wonderful breed of goose!! The American Buff has the best disposition of the goose breeds. They are on the endangered list which is another reason I chose to raise them.

I have 4. I raised them from goslings which I feel is the best way to do it unless you are in a hurry to breed them. Bringing adults geese together usually doesn't work they will not band together as adults if they weren't raised together as goslings, at least that is what I have been told. I have had and interesting experience here with having my two of four original geese, I brought two young ones from a late hatch home in July and they are all going well together. It's been and interesting experiment. My older geese were about three months old when I brought the others home at about two weeks. If you get goslings and raise them together they should be fine for the first year if you don't have them sexed and end up with more than one gander.

Going into the second year you may need to watch to see if the ganders will fight each other for dominance of the geese. I believe I may have three ganders and one goose at this time. I may need to make a change next spring. How many you raise is up to you. If you purchase goslings I would pay the extra to have them sexed so you get what you want. One gander and two geese should work well. As long as you have more geese than ganders. The ganders will fight. I don't know if they get along with ducks. I do know they will chase my chickens occasionally.

I do love having my buffs. They are so much fun to watch grow and very entertaining and they will imprint with you if you raise them from goslings. When mine hear my voice when I am outside the come running to where I am. They are grass eaters and if you have flower beds you may need to put up small fences to keep them out. They test everything they see with their beaks. Doing your research before you make the decision is always good. And this website is the best for finding information and possibly someone who has much more knowledge about geese than I will respond also. I am happy to share what I know and have experienced.

I hope this helps some.

 

[Monstro]

Hi Monstro!!

You've pick a wonderful breed of goose!!  The American Buff has the best disposition of the goose breeds.  They are on the endangered list which is another reason I chose to raise them.

I have 4. I raised them from goslings which I feel is the best way to do it unless you are in a hurry to breed them. Bringing adults geese together usually doesn't work they will  not band together as adults if they weren't raised together as goslings, at least that is what I have been told.  I have had and interesting experience here with having my two of four original geese, I brought two young ones from a late hatch home in July and they are all going well together.  It's been and interesting experiment.  My older geese were about three months old when I brought the others home at about two weeks.  If you get goslings and raise them together they should be fine for the first year if you don't have them sexed and end up with more than one gander. 

Going into the second year you may need to watch to see if the ganders will fight each other for dominance of the geese.  I believe I may have three ganders and one goose at this time.  I may need to make a change next spring.   How many you raise is up to you.  If you purchase goslings I would pay the extra to have them sexed so you get what you want.  One gander and two geese should work well.  As long as you have more geese than ganders.  The ganders will fight.   I don't know if they get along with ducks.  I do know they will chase my chickens occasionally. 

I do love having my buffs.  They are so much fun to watch grow and very entertaining and they will imprint with you if you raise them from goslings.  When mine hear my voice when I am outside the come running to where I am.   They are grass eaters and if you have flower beds you may need to put up small fences to keep them out.  They test everything they see with their beaks.  Doing your research before you make the decision is always good.  And this website is the best for finding information and possibly someone who has much more knowledge about geese than I will respond also.  I am happy to share what I know and have experienced. 

I hope this helps some. 

Thank you! From what I've read they seem to be the friendliest and since I have kids that's important. Plus I must have a thing for the rarer poultry since my ducks are Anconas. I was thinking 1 gander and 2-3 geese. It appears metzer(?) might be the only place to order that. The rest appear only to let you order in pairs or straight run. I'm afraid to get a pair just incase something happens to one. And I haven't seen many buffs in my area. But right now it's just research. We're only in the planning stage of building a separate pen to separate ducks from chickens. Next year would be the earliest to get some.

 

[Dootadoo]

These photos are of my American Buff trio, two females and a male. I named them Amelia, Abigail and Waldo after the geese on the move Aristocats. They were unfortunately attacked and killed just yesterday by what we assume was a dog or fox. I'm still so heartbroken over it...they were such fun, beautiful, entertaining geese! They were only 4 months old but they were full grown.



Awkward teenaged goslings at 5.5 weeks old when I brought them home!



They loved to play with cardboard tubes! Silly geese. Check out that adorable white goose butt!



They also LOVED to chew on EVERYTHING! Including my shoes.



Beautiful goose. I believe this is Amelia.



Amelia again. She was smaller, had more narrow nostrils and was always the first one to investigate and come closer.



The ladies.



Their very first evening free ranging...they loved it so much! Waldo is on the left. He has a tuft on his head. When I bought them, I didn't think they were the tufted kind. It's also just feathers, no bump on his head.

I miss my 'gooses' as I called them. They'd come running/flapping and honking when I called to them. I won't miss the poop all over my back porch but I sure do miss seeing them when I look outside or walk around the property. The irony is that I got them to be protection for the chickens. We're trying to get a mesh electric fence and a Livestock Guardian Dog soon as more measures of security and protection. I'll get more geese in the future too.

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Dear Dootadoo,

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I know how it is. The coyote that was coming in and killing my geese and chickens has now been hanging on my perimeter fence for a month. He tried one to many times!!! Check out Stromberg's website. I just received an email from them last week. They have a solar powered night guard for $21.95. It is a laser light that flashes during the night to keep predators away. That may be faster to protect your flock that waiting to find a good guard dog. I hope that helps!

 

[Dootadoo]

@Lovethembuffs ...thank you for that suggestion! I'm going to check it out now. Unfortunately we lost our geese sometime between 8:30am - 10:00am and I was home but didn't hear a thing. So awful.

 

[Lovethembuffs]

Yep they are very sneaky. Mine happened at 9am also. He would sneak in behind my shop where I couldn't see him come in. It was the other chickens that alerted me there was something wrong!!! I pay a lot of attention to them now and I make sure if I have a lot of work to do inside I stop to go outside and make check and a walk around several times a day.