Best Geese Breeds for Beginners

[Callender Girl]

My only experience with geese is my two female American Buffs -- and I totally love them! The are loose with chickens and runner ducks during the day, and aside from "herding" the runners every so often for no apparent reason, and occasionally suggesting the chickens keep further away from the treats, everyone gets along well.

They have never shown any aggression toward people.

Gussie and Golly keep me posted when there are human visitors or overhead predators. I don't think they would lift a feather to protect any of us, but they are excellent at sounding alarms.

They are beautiful birds, lay delightful eggs for a few weeks every spring and are endlessly entertaining. My girls were the last two goslings remaining in a brooder at the local feed store. Guess no one realized how incredible they were!

Hope you get -- and enjoy -- your geese!

 

[telandra2]

I would have to disagree. My goose does protect our flock quite well, at the very least we know if something is going on.
(We live in an urban area)
As for hormones, again you'd have to raise him around the chickens. When ours gets "nippy" we firmly hold his beak until he gets the message. Mind you, I do only have experience with a male goose. Overall, they are lovely creatures imo and are wonderful additions to a flock

I'll counter your disagreement with 'it depends..'

Something got a duck, then another duck, and finally the alpha goose hen with a very protective gander and gaggle of 10. I thought 10 geese would be safe. They yell at the postman. No humans heard or saw a thing with a real predator.

My young gander drowned 2 ducklings in the water dish, killed several others, and tried to drown 2 goslings. He was raised with them all.

I just got 2 Emdens to add to the Africans and Chinese. The E's have much quieter voices.

 

[Goosebaby]

I would have to disagree. My goose does protect our flock quite well, at the very least we know if something is going on.
(We live in an urban area)
As for hormones, again you'd have to raise him around the chickens. When ours gets "nippy" we firmly hold his beak until he gets the message. Mind you, I do only have experience with a male goose. Overall, they are lovely creatures imo and are wonderful additions to a flock

It sounds like you have an alert goose, which geese do fairly well, depending on the goose, some being better than others.
As for the ability to protect other birds, that just isn’t a reality, predators that haven’t encountered geese before can be fooled by their appearance and bluff for a bit, but it only takes one to call a gander’s bluff.
I’d rather be wrong, I’d rather that geese were adept defenders of themselves and others for their own sake, but I’ve learned the hard way that only a dog keeps my geese safe when I’m not there to.

 

[CloneFly]

Thank you so much for the welcome CloneFly ! I am very glad to hear your experiences with geese have been positive. Thanks so much for the helpful tips! Is your goose the same age as your chickens (litter mates)? If so do you suppose that helps them get along?

Our Gussy is a couple weeks younger than the rest of our flock. That way the chicken's could

It sounds like you have an alert goose, which geese do fairly well, depending on the goose, some being better than others.
As for the ability to protect other birds, that just isn’t a reality, predators that haven’t encountered geese before can be fooled by their appearance and bluff for a bit, but it only takes one to call a gander’s bluff.
I’d rather be wrong, I’d rather that geese were adept defenders of themselves and others for their own sake, but I’ve learned the hard way that only a dog keeps my geese safe when I’m not there to.

A dog is truly the vest idea for flock protection. But against small pests and predators (cats, rats, smaller dogs and such) the goose does a commendable job at alerting us and protecting the flock

Not to mention he's such a cute addition! When he's not screaming that is

 

[CloneFly]

Thank you so much for the welcome CloneFly ! I am very glad to hear your experiences with geese have been positive. Thanks so much for the helpful tips! Is your goose the same age as your chickens (litter mates)? If so do you suppose that helps them get along?

Gussy is a few weeks younger than the hens. So I suppose it helps that he had to "rise" in the baby pecking order of the time. It's also very important to have a lot of hands on interaction with the gosling when he's brought home. That way he'll have a close bond with you and will see you as the "alpha" so to speak. Makes it easier to control him as he gets into the hormonal age

 

[3xhhheather]

Hello 3xhhheather and thank you for the breed recommendations! Good to know that the French Toulouse have a better temperament. Do you have any hatchery that you prefer to purchase your poultry from or do you breed them yourself?

I've ordered from Metzer in the past and bought locally, it's my understanding that most of the larger hatcheries source their geese from Metzer. Still feel a bit intimidated about using an incubator so I'm going to let my girls do it for me this Spring, see who ends up being a good Mama for future hatches.

 

[JeanLynott]

My only experience with geese is my two female American Buffs -- and I totally love them! The are loose with chickens and runner ducks during the day, and aside from "herding" the runners every so often for no apparent reason, and occasionally suggesting the chickens keep further away from the treats, everyone gets along well.

They have never shown any aggression toward people.

Gussie and Golly keep me posted when there are human visitors or overhead predators. I don't think they would lift a feather to protect any of us, but they are excellent at sounding alarms.

They are beautiful birds, lay delightful eggs for a few weeks every spring and are endlessly entertaining. My girls were the last two goslings remaining in a brooder at the local feed store. Guess no one realized how incredible they were!

Hope you get -- and enjoy -- your geese!

I have had the same experience -- we have only ever had American Buffs and they are delightful. The only time we've seen them become aggressive is when they are sitting on eggs.

Good luck with your geese! I'm very glad we got ours two years ago!

 

[DuckDuckSquirrel]

My gander would kill a rooster given the chance, he ripped a tail off a 29lb turkey aswell and he was raised with them for 12 years. Had foxes take ducks and chickens.. geese will not stop predators from taking birds View attachment 3366227

Thank you for sharing your experiences! I assume this is the gander in question, what a beautiful bird.

 

[DuckDuckSquirrel]

I've ordered from Metzer in the past and bought locally, it's my understanding that most of the larger hatcheries source their geese from Metzer. Still feel a bit intimidated about using an incubator so I'm going to let my girls do it for me this Spring, see who ends up being a good Mama for future hatches.

Thank you so much for getting back to me! I buy my poultry at local feed supply stores. The selection is not as good as catalogs but the mortality rates are low in my experience. Good luck in your hatching endeavors. Last year I experimented hatching Pekin ducks under broody chickens and the results were fantastic!

 

[DuckDuckSquirrel]

My only experience with geese is my two female American Buffs -- and I totally love them! The are loose with chickens and runner ducks during the day, and aside from "herding" the runners every so often for no apparent reason, and occasionally suggesting the chickens keep further away from the treats, everyone gets along well.

They have never shown any aggression toward people.

Gussie and Golly keep me posted when there are human visitors or overhead predators. I don't think they would lift a feather to protect any of us, but they are excellent at sounding alarms.

They are beautiful birds, lay delightful eggs for a few weeks every spring and are endlessly entertaining. My girls were the last two goslings remaining in a brooder at the local feed store. Guess no one realized how incredible they were!

Hope you get -- and enjoy -- your geese!

Thank you so much! Your experience with geese sounds wonderful and I can only hope to have similar results.