Geese for a newbie?

[KM2H]

Someone local to me is rehoming a male and female pilgrim geese. I'm very tempted for some reason. However, I have only had chickens, sheep and pigs for a year. We live in 5acres all fenced in, within it there are 3 fenced pastures and our main residence area. We also have two girls aged 2 and 4yr old. Something my husband and I are considering is to start a food forest on our main residence area. Our chickens free range all day. We have no ponds in our property. With all this information in mind, do you all think adding a couple of geese would be a disaster or a positive for us? Thank you in advance for any information. Also if you can point me in the right direction for where I can best educate myself, I would really appreciate it.

 

[Goosebaby]

I’m a big fan of geese so I would say it’s a positive. Geese are wonderful and comical, they’re have unique personlalities, learn routines easily, and are very loyal, also they lay huge eggs.
Ganders get hormonal during winter and can be feisty towards rivals so becoming his and the female’s friends is important. Geese have long memories so befriending adult geese will take a little patience initially, and I strongly advise all of you taking the time to spend time with them, it’s well worth it. Sitting with them and offering treats is the best way to win them over.

 

[KM2H]

I’m a big fan of geese so I would say it’s a positive. Geese are wonderful and comical, they’re have unique personlalities, learn routines easily, and are very loyal, also they lay huge eggs.
Ganders get hormonal during winter and can be feisty towards rivals so becoming his and the female’s friends is important. Geese have long memories so befriending adult geese will take a little patience initially, and I strongly advise all of you taking the time to spend time with them, it’s well worth it. Sitting with them and offering treats is the best way to win them over.

Thank you for the input. I already committed so I should be getting them sometime next week. I was told the female is molting right now so she is not looking her best. There is also a suspicion that they may be cousins, I really wanted to breed them but I have been reading that if the geese are related they can have birth defects?

 

[Goosebaby]

Thank you for the input. I already committed so I should be getting them sometime next week. I was told the female is molting right now so she is not looking her best. There is also a suspicion that they may be cousins, I really wanted to breed them but I have been reading that if the geese are related they can have birth defects?

Breeding any kind of animals that are related can increase the odds of birth defects by increasing the odds a negative gene they might be carrying will be passed along, so it could be an issue though I can’t say if it will happen. Pure blooded breeds of anything are essentially inbred to some degree already, inbreeding further could increase risk but it doesn’t mean you will see problems.

Birth defects in geese can also be caused by exposure to pesticides or humidity and temperature fluctuations while incubating so inbreeding isn’t always the cause of birth defects.

You could always get a second female of a different breed and only incubate her eggs if you want non inbred goslings.
Or if you want purebred goslings try to figure out where the pair you got originally came from before, meaning if their parents came from a hatchery try to get a female pilgrim from a different hatchery.

 

[Goosebaby]

I would try to get more information about their full history, if they came from hatchery birds in the last few generations and there hasn’t been inbreeding before, mixing cousins I don’t think should be a high risk, if they’re from many generations of backyard bred birds who knows how many times they were interbred through the same family.

 

[KM2H]

Breeding any kind of animals that are related can increase the odds of birth defects by increasing the odds a negative gene they might be carrying will be passed along, so it could be an issue though I can’t say if it will happen. Pure blooded breeds of anything are essentially inbred to some degree already, inbreeding further could increase risk but it doesn’t mean you will see problems.

Birth defects in geese can also be caused by exposure to pesticides or humidity and temperature fluctuations while incubating so inbreeding isn’t always the cause of birth defects.

You could always get a second female of a different breed and only incubate her eggs if you want non inbred goslings.
Or if you want purebred goslings try to figure out where the pair you got originally came from before, meaning if their parents came from a hatchery try to get a female pilgrim from a different hatchery.

Thank you, this is very very helpful