Geese and ducks?

[Zaxby's2]

Okay, so I've heard that geese are protective and will fight off predators, so I was thinking of keeping one or two in with my chickens and hopefully soon-to-be ducks. Would they get along okay? I would probably let the chickens have their own pen and give the ducks and geese a pen to share. Are geese aggressive towards people? What are some nice breeds but are good protectors? Could I just get one female so or would she need a mate? Thanks!

 

[DrinkTheRainbow]

I just got my geese today and I put it with my 2 muscovy drakes and trio of black swedes. The swedes avoid them and the muscovy drakes fight each other for the female goose. I wonder why because they used to be lovers...

 

[crj]

I have all of the above. I do pen my geese and ducks together overnight. The chickens go in their own pens. All free range together. If you are good to your goose I'm sure it will be good to people. My birds don't fight with each other but once in a while someone will get goosed or someone will run someone off just because. At the moment my geese aren't good protectors. It seems they frighten easily and come running with wings out screaming....... lol. They are still young. If something very frightening happens then all the birds will get noisy but that's rare. I have to say they are all very entertaining and each on a different level. They blend once in a while but they tend to stay in there own little groups.

 

[cat1994]

My geese pick on my chickens and my chickens don’t really like my geese at all but if you introduced them when they were young I think they may get along better. Now my geese and ducks did ok but my geese would chase them away from the food so I had to feed them separate. My gander is mean but my geese are ok to humans but they still chase my chickens sometimes. I here Chinese geese are very good guard geese but I think Pilgrim geese are nicer. I would get two females so they can be friends but you still don’t have to worry about a mean gander.

 

[Zaxby's2]

Will females be protective? I'm not asking them to take down a huge dog but I would like them to be able to scare off a small fox and buy the others some time by fighting off a coyote or dog until I can come out and scare the predator away. What breeds would last the longest? And would I have to get another female or would she need a friend? I wouldn't mind getting two geese, I'm just trying to figure things out.

 

[Yetti]

mine are penned together. I house them at night separately. the geese can be a little rough on the ducks. I have a huge one called King Kong. he and the next biggest don't take any crap from the 6 male ducks. I had one get pinned down over getting to the food first. once in a while they just get a bug in their butt to fight.

 

[zzGypsy]

in my experience, it depends...

I've had some geese that would protect whatever birds are there. and some that protect only other geese *from* whatever other birds are there!

in my experience, geese will protect what they're raised with. I've got a small group of 5-month brown chinese geese, and they stick to them selves, mostly ignoring the other birds (ducks, chickens, turkeys, guineas). while not agressive, they'll occasionally pinch some bird that's between them and the feeder.

I've got one 2 1/2 month african that was raised with ducks of the same age, and he hangs with and protects them, warning off all the other birds. I think he's starting to figure out that he's a goose, not a duck, because sometimes he'll do the flight-run with the bigger geese, but he hangs with, forages with and protects the ducks.

Saw the same thing growing up, we had geese and ducks, and each year the geese would protect the ducks they were raised with and run off the geese and ducks from other years. of course, ALL the geese ran off our poor collie, who wasn't quite bright enough to figure out the geese were NEVER going to be happy to have him licking them.

so... I'd say your best shot is to raise the goslings with the babies you want them to protect, all in the same brooder. If those birds hatch babies, I'm guessing they'd take on protecting offspring as well. we never kept chickens so I dont' know if they'd adopt them, but if they were raised together, they might well do so.

In general, my geese will challenge, but not "fight off" animals or people they don't recognize, so the other birds get some protection because the geese are alert about intruders in the yard. We had one african goose as a kid that would actually defend - pinch you or beat you with his wings (OUCH!) - but most of them, while quite loud about intruders, were all honk and no bite. kind of like the difference between a watch dog - who'll notify you of intruders - and a guard dog - who is prepared to do something agressive about it. Mostly my geese are much better about warning than actual guarding.

 

[Truffle]

I thought the same about geese being able to fight off predators...My year old Chinese goose tangles

with my Jack Russel on occasion, but he's usually the one who goes away bleeding.

They taunt each other until one goes after the other! I think the attachment they both have with me and the jealousy as a result, has a lot to do with the fighting. I now have the geese penned up in their own yard, but it didn't prevent "Gideon" my goose from trying to bite "RUBY" one of my Jack Russels right through the fence! The holes in the wire were just big enough for him to put his bill...and Ruby grabbed it! Gideon goosescreamed and ran over to his pool and immediately dunked his bleeding beak under the water! It all happened so fast...I couldn't stop them. He stayed away from the dog the rest of the day! But I know he'd do it again!

 

[cat1994]

Zaxby's2 :

Will females be protective? I'm not asking them to take down a huge dog but I would like them to be able to scare off a small fox and buy the others some time by fighting off a coyote or dog until I can come out and scare the predator away. What breeds would last the longest? And would I have to get another female or would she need a friend? I wouldn't mind getting two geese, I'm just trying to figure things out.

I almost lost a female to a fox, I heard them yelling and I ran out and the fox dropped her and I got the fox, so I can't say that they do much protecting, I say Chinese would do best just b/c they are very loud so you can here them and get out there to save them, I would get more then one so they are not lonely​