Chicken Guard Goose?

[mominoz]

My Africans daily are turned out with Saxony Ducks and are fine. They will take the pool, but the ducks are pretty laid back, I haven't seen the Africans bother the Saxony. Now my Shetlands are fiestier, and they are turned out with either Dutch Hookbills or Runners and are ok. Seems the ducks are pretty good at figuring ..."hey, not worth fighting over..." Everyone does have a different night and feeding pen.... but has been this way for several years.....but the Geese just Alert, I have some hawks in the area and the Africans and Saxony all took off running when they flew over

> I do pair up the larger slower geese with the larger slower ducks, and the other pasture is the 'flighty' ducks and geese who move faster..... Shetlands and Runners or Hookbills...

 

[Mzkelsey]

I have an African that had been in with my flock of 25/30 for just over a year now. She was the last addition to the current flock. She is obsessed with my older roo and rarely leaves his side except recently she has started attacking one of my buff Orpington hens. 3 times now I've caught her throwing the poor girl around by the feathers on her back. This last time she just laid down and I thought for sure she was dead. Luckily she pulled through, although badly bruised, half naked and bleeding. Each occurrence I've grabbed the goose and told her no but now I've fashioned a gate to keep her in the enclosure when the chickens go out and I've been letting the Orpington stay out at night. Had anyone seen such targeted aggression? Any suggestions for peace making would be appreciated!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Female geese can be as cantankerous as a gander during the breeding season those hormones get the best of them. My females got hold of my Runner females and chewed her face up. she has never attacked any of my birds but she lost her mate of 10yrs in Feb and maybe she is frustrated? But anyway I had to fenced my little Runner away from her and now at night the ducks have the front room in the coop and My goose has the backroom she shares with some of the chickens but they roost up high.
Hopefully come June hormones will be back to normal and your goose and mine will have calmed down. Can you put a dog crate inside your coop for the Orpington so she is safe? I keep a dog crate in my coop for bullies or injured. My little runner slept in it at night till her face healed.

 

[Shadrach]

Now, I've had geese that picked on my ducks, but I can't help but wonder... If raised as a day old gosling, WITH day old chicks, one, would they get along, and, two, would they be good for protecting my chickens? If so, what type would be best for this that isn't SO loud, and good in most weather? We've had Africans before and they were LOUD and picked on the smaller poultry.

Nope. Geese don't give a monkey's what happens to the chickens. They are competitors essentially. They'll eat the same food, drink the same water, take advantage of the same forage.
It's not a good idea to house them together.
Muscovy ducks are a slightly better bet for getting along with chickens and they seem more aware of what is and what isn't dangerous. They won't protect the chickens though for the same reasons as above.

 

[AGeese]

It's situational, and if you raise up geese rather than just a goose there's going to be territorialism and breeding aggression. My neighbor had an Embden show up on his doorstep one day and adopt his two ducks and she was very protective of them.

I know there are people doing this with chickens, but one goose is the recommendation because they're flock animals. It's the same with chicken breeds, they tend to tribe up.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Since this thread was resurrected, Pyxis wrote a thoughtful article about why the "guard goose" concept (that, yes, more than a few people tout as a great idea) is a myth.

It may be possible to range geese and other fowl together successfully, but it shouldn't be a single goose or gander, and the geese shouldn't be expected to act as livestock guardians.

 

[AGeese]

That article although raises some points, but is clearly emotional. I could make point about not owning animals period. You could make the point about not having more than one dog, and so on.

Personally I wouldn't tell you to get a male anything period. Males are driven to mate and may challenge what stands in their way to do it, or they may try to mate with you, or your chickens.

Geese imprint like any other flock animal. They'll imprint on a person. One emotional anecdote doesn't cancel out another's experience, but going in blind and unprepared for things if they do not turn out the way you expect is not the way to go.

If anyone thinks they can just drop any old goose off craiglist in with their chickens and expect it to guard I'd agree - not the way to go and will could end up being just the opposite of what you're hoping depending on again the situation and the temperament of the bird.

Geese in the plural are deterrents, if you get protection from them it's because they're already dominate in their own territory (your yard.) If a goose doesn't have a flock it will find the closest thing to it (my experience) albeit ducks aren't chickens (my experience.)

Multiple geese are less likely to protect anything because they don't see anything other than themselves as a priority, if the goose has imprinted with other species then they are its flock. But again, my advice is do not get males.