My experience with geese has been mainly bad. I don't know what the others do to keep them sweet, but if you can manage that they might be nice pets. I see them as messy attack ducks that are 3x the size with 10x the mean bits. It's been the case with geese raised by multiple people. Some of them were super sweet until they hit puberty, some were just mean. This goes for both sexes all times of the year. Both people eventually sold out of them because they were just too much. They weren't new poultry people either and I did not see anything wrong with the manner of handling or any weakness in body language that would incite aggression. With adults it was more of a nuisance, but I have seen them knock down children and go after their heads. No, no nests were involved.
Ducks, on the other hand, are awesome. I have yet to encounter a mean one, well, except the broody half-mallard on my neighbour's pond. I own 9 of them right now and they just make me smile to watch them. Winter water is a bit of a pain, but hey, they're waterfowl & I'm willing to go to a bit of work to be able to keep them. I have ducks from all classes except heavy, I think... or maybe I do have one heavy. I'm forgetting. They're all super sweet.
Two of my lovely girls, Brooke and Hailey.
Edit: I see Aurora said her ducks were skittish. I have had really skittish ducks in the past, but all the ones I've acquired recently are the sweetest things. I don't know why, maybe because I spend a lot of time with them after maturity & don't force handling whilst young? I find ducks tame differently than chickens and prefer to make contact on their own terms. With chickens you just hold them more---with ducks you hold them less. That doesn't mean ignore them, though, I work around them a lot and they eventually come up and get brave enough to stick around your ankles and grab buttons on your skirts. They definitely are much more sensitive to body language, meaning you have to avoid eye contact and not square your body to theirs. That's just my experience, would be different for human-imprinted ducklings but I haven't tried that yet.
Ducks, on the other hand, are awesome. I have yet to encounter a mean one, well, except the broody half-mallard on my neighbour's pond. I own 9 of them right now and they just make me smile to watch them. Winter water is a bit of a pain, but hey, they're waterfowl & I'm willing to go to a bit of work to be able to keep them. I have ducks from all classes except heavy, I think... or maybe I do have one heavy. I'm forgetting. They're all super sweet.
Two of my lovely girls, Brooke and Hailey.
Edit: I see Aurora said her ducks were skittish. I have had really skittish ducks in the past, but all the ones I've acquired recently are the sweetest things. I don't know why, maybe because I spend a lot of time with them after maturity & don't force handling whilst young? I find ducks tame differently than chickens and prefer to make contact on their own terms. With chickens you just hold them more---with ducks you hold them less. That doesn't mean ignore them, though, I work around them a lot and they eventually come up and get brave enough to stick around your ankles and grab buttons on your skirts. They definitely are much more sensitive to body language, meaning you have to avoid eye contact and not square your body to theirs. That's just my experience, would be different for human-imprinted ducklings but I haven't tried that yet.
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