Geese

[Mother Goose1968]

Hi my name is judy. I’m new to all this—we never had chickens let alone geese.
No birds at all as a child so I don’t know what I’m doing. My hd wanted to raise birds...we have two geese we got as goslings about 6 weeks ago—
They’re growing so fast.
I don’t know what to do. We live in the country and
we’ve got a chicken coop (where we keep eight chickens) and within it there is a couple of pens (these are built high up and are small—almost too small—the way the geese are growing) where we keep the geese at night and when it rains...we haven’t a pond yet) When we leave to go out of town or something I don’t know whether I should stay with the geese or go—(they are my babies—I got extremely attached) the chickens will be fine—they can roost but the geese??? They have noone to feed them nor change their water.
Please help!!!
Also I’d like to let the geese roam the coop. My hd built a door that automatically shuts that is on a timer for the chickens to go back inside the coop...it’s beside the entrance door.
The geese can get outside by way of this little door.
...is it safe for them to be by themselves at night in the coop down on the ground are do they roost too like the chickens?

 

[Miss Lydia]

They do not roost and they need a safe secure house just like any other poultry. Geese are big but they have no means of protecting themselves. They do grow fast where are you keeping them now? can your dh or hd not sure what hd is but can he some how add onto the original coop and pen so the geese can have their own quarters? this will be important once they get to breeding age, they can be pretty ornery to other members of the flock during that time. Best to keep them in their own space.

Depending on how long you plan to be gone maybe you can trust a neighbor or family member to come and feed and care for your birds while your gone. They will need fresh water and feed.

Geese [waterfowl] in general need deep buckets of water so they can wash their faces often especially when eating and a kiddy pool would be nice for bathing and breeding once they get to breeding age.

 

[Gray Farms]

Miss Lydia gave you some excellent information. Only thing I would add is that 6 weeks is much to young to be outside at night by themselves unless you have a secure and covered pen.