Geese, chickens, pool and visitors - match made in heaven?

[mangobingo]

I've been kind of thinking about getting a couple of geese, partly because I've heard they're good lawnmowers, partly because I'd like a guard animal but don't want a dog, and partly because we used to have them when I was a kid and I always liked them then. Unfortunately, though, I'm not sure we've really got the right setup to have geese. We already have 7 chickens (including 1 rooster). Do geese and chickens get on OK? The chickens free range all day, over our entire 1 acre property, so they'd be sharing territory unless we started fencing off areas. We also have a swimming pool - presumably the geese would be straight in that, right? Are geese louder than roosters? And how would geese react to people staying with us? Would they chase them off the property...?

Thanks for any advice/sanity checks you can provide, before I go ahead and do something stupid...

 

[redhen]

Hi! We have an above ground pool..and my geese have never tried to get in it...
They MAY go after guests at your house... or even you.

BUt for us..its no biggie... i can handle them and they quit being stinkers after a few minutes. They WILL protect your property... but not from too many things cause they can be killed also.
My geese and chhickens get along okay... but they were raised with them since they were babies... sometimes they will try to bully them.. but nothing big.
All in all we really enjoy our geese.

 

[roocrazy]

X2 except my gander has never shown any aggression and is a lousy watch animal
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[The goose girl]

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If they have enough space so the chickens can stay out of the way from the geese. And if the chickens are smart enough to do that.

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Presumably, yes. But you never know. I expected my goose to destroy my small frog pond, but so far he only drinks from it and eats some of the plants. The other geese I've had were in that pond constantly, even as babies, killing it by pooping and shredding.

On the other hand, I never thought about protecting the garden cushions. My goose has developed a fondness for yanking the cushions off the furniture. Then he'll sit and poop on them. Euw! None of the other geese did that.

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My guess is that it's about the same noise level, comparing my goose to my neighbor's rooster. The rooster of my next-neighbor is way louder.

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They'll try! But if you instruct your guests on how to act around the geese, it's not a major problem. I mean, "Elderly Woman Savaged by Goose - Still in Coma" or "Toulouse Pair Kills Family of Four" are headlines you'll never see.

Sure, they can deal out blood blisters, but so can grasshoppers. And the grasshopper didn't even give me a fair warning!

 

[mangobingo]

Hmmm, that doesn't sound so bad! I'll discuss it with the other half. We just heard that the rooster has been chasing our 6ft+ loudmouth friend around the garden while we've been away, so we'll probably have no friends left to be chased by geese anyway. Thanks!

 

[ultasol]

They might not kill someone, but if your visitors are small children caution is necessary. Geese are fantastic grazers and, if there if enough space, share well with others. With good pasture, geese do well on grass alone.

Geese are, well, poopy. I can't imagine wanting them on the deck of my pool.

 

[The goose girl]

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I agree. Small children should never be left alone with animals. Still, I've heard lots of stories about geese scaring small children (and big children, and adults), but I've never heard any about geese hurting people, except for small bruises and blood blisters.

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Really? I have a dream of opening a spa: "Swimming with Geese". I mean, since the dolphin thing was such a hit...

 

[fowlman01]

There are a lot of breeds of domestic geese and they all act differently and the noise they can make goes from very little to quite a bit and quite loud.
Children are not safe around any goose unless you have one that you know will not attack any kind of animal. An Egyptian goose could easily kill a young child. They are a domestic goose and a male is only 5 lbs. They can hurt an adult. They are very pretty and look more like a duck so people don't know what they are getting into when they get them. China geese could do bad things to children as well. Do some research before you buy any kind of waterfowl.

Walt

 

[Cat Water]

Kill small children? Has that ever happened before?

 

[Miss Lydia]

When our grandkids visit, I tell them not to pet the goose, he acts bad but his bite is worse than his bark.