Geese for protecting pastured ducks

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Very interesting..had not heard that before.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

The local red tails use to perch in our pasture, but not since Buddy (African) and his girls have been here. Between them, the goats and the Great Pyrenees the hawks keep their distance. I can even free range the teenaged EE chicks so far w/o issues.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
YEP I ran a flock of assorted ducks and geese just outside the city limits of Sanford NC (south of Raleigh north of Fort Bragg) Pilgrims were my prime geese (when people know you keep geese they tend to come to you with geese they want to 'rehome")
I know this is hard to beleive but about 50' feet from my coop I had a old dead tree where a pair of Red Tailed Hawks (big hawks) raised a family each year, and they never went for my birds! Sometimes the hawks would take a rodent (attracted by poultry feed) in areas the geese thought was their territory. The ganders would assume battle mode and start marching on the hawk with a great deal of wing flapping and honking. the hawk always took to the air, sometimes leavimg their kill behind. The ganders would do their victory dance. As long as I am telling stories, they once chased a whole herd of cows out of my yard. The geese were confused at first because I was trying to keep the herd waiting for the owner to come get them. One of the cows tried to drink from THEIR POOL so the geese chased them off.
I kept the young ducks and goslings in a netted pen (I wasn't that trusting of the hawks) and a Sharp's Hawk (small about the size of a crow) must have tried for them because I found him tangled in the net.
Do not expect geese to do much against a pair of dogs except to die trying to protect the flock. they may hold off one lone domestic dog but not two working as a pack, same for a pair of foxes raising their young. You may think you are coyote free my hunter friends said we were too but nothing attracts better than a flock of poultry, you probably have coons, nothing short of a big dog will keep them away and opussum will sreal eggs as will the big black snakes.
You should consider your geese as unarmed security guards, good mostly to sound the alarm and scare off the timid. Not Armed police.
~gd

 

[cgmccary]

My property is in a national Forest and we have all the predators including hawks & owls (Red Shouldered, Red Tailed & Cooper's). I have 4 Toulouse geese, a good mutt dog, a Donkey and NiteGuard predator lights about the property. My Toulouse stay out 24/7 and have a barn that stays open. My chickens free range during the day while we are away at work. Most of the Guineas are roosting in the trees so staying out 24/7 also. The geese have some new goslings they are rearing (one of them hatched but all 4 of the Toulouse protect the goslings.

So far, I have not had any losses to any predators. The hawks do not even try.

 

[larkflying]

We've always wanted to get a guard donkey . . . but I'm glad to hear that the geese are also effective! We have so many bald eagles and hawks of all sizes. The eagles landed in a tree by our house, and you could see them thinking about all the yummy birds running around, but between our orchard trees and the geese made them feel like there were easier pickings elsewhere. We did have a tiny hawk try to get one of the pullets, but that was before we let the geese out with the chickens. When we have more fenced areas, I'll be really tempted to try out a donkey but right now the birds are in the orchard, and I'm guessing that donkeys would find apple trees a great snack.

 

[rainplace]

A few days ago a bald eagle came down next to the barn to eat one of my ducks. Everyone was making alarm sounds, the rooster, the geese and the drakes, but nobody did anything to help the poor duck. The geese, 9 of them, ran back to the duck house leaving the ducks to fend for themselves. The ducks in a panic couldn't figure out how to go around the fence back into their yard and instead were trying to go through the fence, which is what saved those particular ducks. The smart duck who ran around the fence to get back into the yard is the one who met the eagle. Luckily, the eagle didn't get its meal as I chased him off and he dropped the duck when he flew up. However, the duck though alive, is pretty tore up.

 

[littlenell1]

Updating this with some sad news. I lost one of my runner ducklings on only the second day out in the pasture. I had 5 runners, plus my american buff and embden gosling. There wer also 4 adult geese in the field. We came down the path next to the field to find the runner ducks parading round, and the two goslings trying to join them through the fence. It was only when I did a head count that we noticed we had lost one of our white runners. Looked everywhere, no feathers- nothing...we were around all the day, and heard nothing, so can only assume it was a bird of prey. Have put them back into the creche run until I can work out how to protect them...

 

[goosemama]

We have a male Chinese and a female Embden. We hatched one of our Embden's eggs in the incubator since she was laying sporadically all over the place and only laid 3 eggs this Spring and didn't seem interested in setting. This goose egg was put in the incubator at the same time as some Delaware & Barred Rock chicken eggs so he hatched when they did and was in the brooder with them. When we tried to separate him from his chick buddies he verbally objected and paced the cage we put him in. So we relented and put him back with his chick buddies and he was fine. Now he's in a henhouse with the little chickens (all 5 weeks old now) and all have time on the lawn to graze everyday. He runs over and loudly complains if we pick up one of the chicks - although he is friendly with us and comes when we call him. At night they all pile on him to sleep in the henhouse and during the day they follow him around - where he goes they go. Don't know if he will protect them against a predator but he is showing all the signs that he is their guardian. Just happened to us by accident.

 

[rainplace]

Quote:

It's an awful thing when these sorts of things happen. We've started putting out "safe houses" in various spots for the birds to run to when they are out of the yard. The good thing about having one of the flock taken in front of the others is it makes
the rest more predator savvy.