Book of Geese by Dave Holderread

[m1chelle1]

Are Emus good as protectors?

Yeah! They’re territorial, and they don’t like anything “unknown” in their territory. That does include new animals to the farm, new birds, baby birds, etc. So it can be a hassle introducing new animals into an area with an existing emu mob

 

[SummerLilacs]

I have Toulouse, and our Gander is more an Alert than Guard. He lets me know when anyone pulls into the driveway, or the neighbors Guineas come to visit... and he constantly scans the sky. When he has a break, the Goose takes over. They really work as a team. The Jumbo Pekin joins into alert, then the Rooster, which is when I know there is a real threat. Now, the dogs join in barking, and run to the window to check on them. I wonder if it's a Toulouse or hereditary thing... because from hatching his son has watched over his sisters. I never expected that.

From an alerting standpoint, I think they are amazing. They give everyone time to head for cover. I would never expect them to guard the flock though. They are beautiful birds.

 

[AGeese]

When I think of “guard geese” I really think more of “alert geese” & “deterrent geese”.
I’ve seen hawks swerve and fly away due to our geese size and the flock movement (I have 11 geese), which has def been a deterrent to some areal predators in our areas. Our chickens can and have used the larger gaggle as their personal cover in these instances. Works well for us in certain cases. Although we seem to not have an issue with the larger areal predators, either. I’ve experienced our geese being good alerters to strange animals and activities and larger birds swooping in. It does help, we have every kind of domestic farm type bird on our property and they feed off the different alerting. That really seems to help with predation in general.
Do geese “guard” in a traditional sense, no, generally not. I mean, some will attack strange creatures, absolutely. But it’s essentially sacrificing itself, likely will get severely hurt or possibly die, especially with canine type predators. The gooses attack can allow the rest of the flock to escape/hide (if there’s anywhere to hide) or a chance to get away at least, until/if help comes. There is value in that, potentially, but I love geese so this scenario is sad, still.
I always talk to our customers about how it really does depend on how your yard or farm layout is, is there other protection from predators or are you solely trying to just rely on one thing for protection? Do you have multi layered protection in place? Are there places to hide? Will your animals hide, do they even have good instincts? Mine do, some don’t for their own good, lol. It’s really a take everything into account scenario.
We have emu to protect from the ground standpoint (coyote, dog, raccoon, anything that doesn’t belong), they’ll stomp anything strange to death, just yesterday went after a poor egret that decided to land in our front pasture. Hell ours even chase squirrel away! Multi layered protections like this, on a property that is designed for success, can work well.
Anywho. That’s just my 2c

This is the post that needed to be heard. There's unrealistic expectations as to what guarding is, and then there's personal experience which varies widely depending upon the situation said geese/goose may be raised in or placed into.