children and geese

[KellyandKatie]

We just got a pair of very pretty, nice geese from the humane society, I think they are imprinted on people, as they follow me everywhere and do not want to be away from me. Very nice to me

but I have four small kids, ages 8,6,3, and baby- so far so good- but I do not want the geese to become bullies of my kids, I know this can happen- my kids are intimidated by the geese too, and I can see this going poorly

what are some handling tips I can give my kids?

I will post pics soon so you all can guess what I got too

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Knowing what breed you have will help.

First thing, DON'T feed them by hand ever, not you, not the kids, not ever. You can give them treats in a bowl though so they know you are brings the food.

I also hope Oregon Blues chimes on here for you. She has great straight forward advice on geese and how to raise them and work around them.


We have lots of geese and the youngest human kid is 18 months old and walks around all of our geese with no issues.

 

[KellyandKatie]

I *think* one is a chinese and one is a roman... not real sure, but I will try and get some pics up soon...
they are both on the small side- like maybe 10-12 pounds each- one has orange legs and an orange bump on his bill, he is all white, and is very verbal- I say 'he' not really knowing for sure if he is a he

the other one is mostly white with just a few small grey spots - she has a tuft of feathers on the top of her head, not super pronounced tuft, but a turt - she has pink ish yellow ish legs- less talk ative and more people orinentated than even he is -- her name is Gertrude, his name is Boris the Humane Society said

they look healthy- but I think they look like they need to eat more too - I wish I could get them eating more - or maybe they are eating what they need and it is just less than I thought it would be

I will look at some old posts too-- I look forward to any advice, thank you

 

[KellyandKatie]

I looked up pictures online, I betcha I got a Roman and a Chinese

 

[SummerChick]

Congrats on the geese, it's wonderful you gave them a home! What are you feeding them?

 

[KellyandKatie]

We have a donkey who has his paddock down to a couple inches of grass, so I showed them this nice cut grass, and I showed them the grass that our goats trimmed the tops off of, if I am sitting out in the pastures with them, they eat, but as soon as I leave, they follow me. I think they should be eating more grass.

I mix my own ration for my milking goats, it is about 13.5% protein and all vegitarian. Its a mix of barley, black oil sunflower seed, and split green peas. I offered them some of this in a dish, and I offered some of the crumble poultry ration in a dish too, they tasted both, but did not really eat much of either.

They are chumming around with my ducks as well.

I gave some (always only veggie) kitchen scraps to my birds yesterday, and they came over and acted intereted, but again, did not really eat much of it

They have lots and lots of clean water, in different areas all over the pastures, paddocks and their pen- I am trying to place water sources in places I want them to graze in.

I do not know much about geese, but I can see their breast bone protrude in the center- to me that says they need to get some weight on them, maybe I am just not used to geese, but I would hate to see any of my chickens or ducks in that condition.

They get to roam around our place (fully fenced in by field mesh fencing) all day, and have a really big pen (also the red top field fence) that we lock them up in at night. I did not put them in the coop with my chickens and ducks, because I was not really sure if they would hurt any of them. I have a separate area for my chicken coop, the chickens can come and go, as can the turkeys and ducks--- but the goats can not ( so they do not eat their full of chicken feed) and I see that the geese can not either.
I am debating moving the geese into the donkey's area so that they are not right out front where the kids are coming and going all the time, I do not want my kids to be afraid of the birds, or to tease the geese

I need to check out how others have their geese set up - is there a picture thread?

In their pen that they get locked into at night is a plastic dog house lined with crap timathoy hay, a water bin large enough for them to swim in, and some feeding dishes - the whole thing is on grass and is probably 15 feet by 10 feet - and agian, they get out during the day

 

[larkflying]

I have 4 kids ages 16, 12, 9, and 6 . . . we've had our American Buff geese for over a year. I don't think you will have any problems until breeding season . . . ours are wonderful during this time of year. The parents with the goslings are still a bit overprotective, but the goslings and the other adults are just very curious and dignified. They are great to watch.

I told the kids never to run away from the geese. They are also not allowed to chase the birds for no reason. The geese have more or less been trained to back off at NO. BAD GOOSE, so that is what the kids say if the geese are stepping over the line. We don't hand feed them, but we try to spend a lot of time with them so they know us. A lot of dog training methods will work with geese -- they are pretty smart.

During breeding season (approx Jan - May/June) I didn't let my then 5 year old in with the geese without one of us right by him. He wasn't very scared by them, but I was being careful. Despite that, one of the ganders knocked him over when our backs were turned. He was fine, just a little shaken. So, you do have to be really aware of the little kids. I would allow the kids to carry a herding stick when they went in during breeding season . . . and my younger two only went in with my older daughter or myself.

Many people don't have a problem at all though, so I would just be aware when it gets close to January, and just supervise the kid/goose interactions until you see what your two act like. There's a lot of great information on here about training/disciplining geese too if you do a search!

 

[KellyandKatie]

Thank you for replying,I read your message to the kids this morning and they felt more confident today, the geese leave all of them alone except my own daughter who is still afraid of them- we will keep working on it before it becomes an issue

thank you

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Kelly I have a large list of items we feed the geese here on our farms website if you want to read it over. Maybe something on it will appeal to yours.

 

[larkflying]

My geese love watermelon rinds -- they crunch them up until there is nothing left. They loved dandilion flowers as well, and apples. It is too bad they won't stay and eat without you though.

I'm glad your kids feel better and that what I said was helpful. My oldest daughter (16) is not an animal person and it took her a long time to get used to the geese. She pretty much left them alone during the breeding season, but she'll talk to them through the fence. My 12 year old LOVES animals and spends more time out there than I do -- they follow her around if she is out there, especially with the feed bucket. She wasn't intimidated even in the breeding season. So, it does depend also on the child's personality to some extent.

I didn't realize you were a WA person too -- sounds like you have a great set up for geese! If I had enough fenced, we would have donkeys too . . .