I really want to get some Sebastopol geese, but I am not sure where to put them. Can they be in with the chickens? Where do yours live?? I have a really large run attached to the coop. My coop is 10x12 or so and the run is close to 25x25. There is alot of room outside for them. Thanks for your help!
Geese & Chickens - Can they live together?
- Thread starter steffpeck
- Start date
- Jul 14, 2009
- 153
- 5
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Does this Chinese gander look aggressive to you???
Quote:
Does this Chinese gander look aggressive to you???
If you keep exclusively females, it shouldn't be much of a problem. They won't be as overrun with horomones as ganders would.
Especially if they are allowed free range and space to "get away" from each other.
But to me, a product of good breeding is for aggressive geese to end up on the dinner table. Conformation is great... but as they say in the horse world,
"If he doesn't act like a gelding he will be."
Especially if they are allowed free range and space to "get away" from each other.
But to me, a product of good breeding is for aggressive geese to end up on the dinner table. Conformation is great... but as they say in the horse world,
"If he doesn't act like a gelding he will be."
- Oct 12, 2010
- 21
- 7
- 24
OMG!!! How terrible! I am so sorry for your losses! That's so sad.
The only thing I can think of is that my chickens and geese are not in any type of "run". We have a small pasture (just under 1/4 acre) that they are loose in each day. The chickens simply move away from where the geese are if the geese get honery. But they do ALL surround me, 5 geese, 12 chickens and now 3 ducks, as I throw out treats to them. (veggies, crackers, bread crumbs, etc...) The chickens arrive first, then the geese come over and the chickens simply move away some so that I can toss to them while I drop things right in front of me for the geese. As for the ducks, they just kind of hang out on the edge of the group and wait until something falls in front of them or everyone else has had their fill. They are very dignified little guys.
Just after dusk all the chickens go in on their own to their pen to roost. If the geese and ducks have not already put themselves up, they readily go into their respective pens while I am closing the chickens gate. Then I close their gates on my way back to the house. I'd say that maybe I am just lucky, but in my neighborhood there are several yards with mixtures of geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowl. But as in mine, they are only together in the yard (1/4 acre or more). If they are in any pen, run, enclosure, etc.. they are kept separated. I only put them up then because of night roaming dogs or coyotes.
I think my recommendation would be to not keep your barnyard fowl in ANY type of enclosure together, no matter how large. Only outside where they are somewhat loose and can easily identify territory in the yard and move away from each other if someone else gets aggressive for whatever reason. (food, mating, babies, etc...). For many species of all types, if the submissive animal can not retreat from what the agressive animal perceives as their "space", the agressor will perceive it as a challenge and attack. And unfortunately, the submissive one had no desire to fight, no desire to challenge, they just couldn't get out of the other ones "space".
Just in case it comes up, although they are technically loose, none of my birds ever leave my property. We have a small fenced backyard that shares a fence with their pasture that two of my hens will hop into to meet me at the backdoor in hopes of getting treats before anyone else, but that is the extent of their wandering.
Again, I am so sad for your experiences and your loss!
The only thing I can think of is that my chickens and geese are not in any type of "run". We have a small pasture (just under 1/4 acre) that they are loose in each day. The chickens simply move away from where the geese are if the geese get honery. But they do ALL surround me, 5 geese, 12 chickens and now 3 ducks, as I throw out treats to them. (veggies, crackers, bread crumbs, etc...) The chickens arrive first, then the geese come over and the chickens simply move away some so that I can toss to them while I drop things right in front of me for the geese. As for the ducks, they just kind of hang out on the edge of the group and wait until something falls in front of them or everyone else has had their fill. They are very dignified little guys.
Just after dusk all the chickens go in on their own to their pen to roost. If the geese and ducks have not already put themselves up, they readily go into their respective pens while I am closing the chickens gate. Then I close their gates on my way back to the house. I'd say that maybe I am just lucky, but in my neighborhood there are several yards with mixtures of geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowl. But as in mine, they are only together in the yard (1/4 acre or more). If they are in any pen, run, enclosure, etc.. they are kept separated. I only put them up then because of night roaming dogs or coyotes.
I think my recommendation would be to not keep your barnyard fowl in ANY type of enclosure together, no matter how large. Only outside where they are somewhat loose and can easily identify territory in the yard and move away from each other if someone else gets aggressive for whatever reason. (food, mating, babies, etc...). For many species of all types, if the submissive animal can not retreat from what the agressive animal perceives as their "space", the agressor will perceive it as a challenge and attack. And unfortunately, the submissive one had no desire to fight, no desire to challenge, they just couldn't get out of the other ones "space".
Just in case it comes up, although they are technically loose, none of my birds ever leave my property. We have a small fenced backyard that shares a fence with their pasture that two of my hens will hop into to meet me at the backdoor in hopes of getting treats before anyone else, but that is the extent of their wandering.
Again, I am so sad for your experiences and your loss!
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I have a 12'x20' barn that has two stalls and an open area with free-standing rabbit hutches (used as brooding coops for hens/chicks, and as "sick bay"). The larger stall has a ramp going up (the barn is built into a berm/hillside) into the covered chicken run, which in turn has a latched predator-proof gate that opens into the large waterfowl pen.
Every night, the chickens fly up into the rafters and roost for the night, and the waterfowl come in from their pen, through the run gate, and down the ramp into the stall where they spend the night.
Every morning, the waterfowl go back up the ramp, through the run gate and into their waterfowl pen where they spend the day, and the chickens fly down from their roosts and have full use of the barn and chicken run all day.
It works.
It's really important to give both groups their "privacy," and especially separate feeders and waterers. At night, the waterfowl have a bucket of water and a little food to tide them over early in the morning. I remove and clean out the bucket and food when they go outside every day. I don't want the chickens to get into the water that geese and ducks muck up with who-knows-what (I swear, even with the stall full of clean shavings, they manage to find something yucky to dabble in their water!!!).
Anyway, maybe something in that will be useful to you.
Every night, the chickens fly up into the rafters and roost for the night, and the waterfowl come in from their pen, through the run gate, and down the ramp into the stall where they spend the night.
Every morning, the waterfowl go back up the ramp, through the run gate and into their waterfowl pen where they spend the day, and the chickens fly down from their roosts and have full use of the barn and chicken run all day.
It works.
It's really important to give both groups their "privacy," and especially separate feeders and waterers. At night, the waterfowl have a bucket of water and a little food to tide them over early in the morning. I remove and clean out the bucket and food when they go outside every day. I don't want the chickens to get into the water that geese and ducks muck up with who-knows-what (I swear, even with the stall full of clean shavings, they manage to find something yucky to dabble in their water!!!).
Anyway, maybe something in that will be useful to you.
I am very new to raising chickens and I am about to get some geese this week, I have been thinking of how I could put my chickens and geese in the same coop at night. From what I have read here it sounds as if I watch them well enough and maybe place a privet home for the geese in the coop( witch is an old shed very large) kind of like a little stable they should all get along RIGHT?
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I raised a pair of geese and they were cute. My geese got bigger and bigger until one day, I caught the Male holding a silkie hen in its beak and slamming it against the ground. The Silkie died. Chickens and geese do not live well together... In my experience.
I have both and ducks too they all free range together but I'd never close them all up together or pen them together. Geese are unpredictable especially doing breeding season.
Very sorry for your loss @IdealisticRoo
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Mine live with our goats. It works out great, the geese eat the grass and the goats eat the weeds. They get along fine.
Back when I was a kid, I had a great setup with ducks, geese and chickens all living in the same coop/run. The run had a huge watering pool,The metal kind, 3 feet tall, and an 8 foot circle for the ducks and geese to swim in. I made a water fall in it, and surrounded it with rocks all the way to the top so you couldnt see the metal. My dad and I had that set up soooo beautifully!Anyways, I came home from school on day, and my aracauna had drowned.
A week later a cornish x drowned as well. About two weeks later I came home from a friends house, and found the two geese we had holding my black cochin under the water. I saved her thank goodness. But, I was sad, and hated the geese. I gave them away to a friend. So................I would say,,,,your chickens are in grave danger living with geese. Just my experience though.
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